We Need More Good Liars

Wotcha!

This week’s edition started out as a review of Good Liars American IPA and ended as a full-blown interview with Jared Langston, one of the founders.

I enjoyed hearing his insights into what it’s like to be part of a team creating a beer with no prior brewing experience—how perfection was built around “fitting into real life” first, then flavor, and what the future looks like for all of us with a can of Good Liars in hand.

Enjoy—and, as always, enjoy some great drinks this week.

Myles

In this week’s edition:

NAN
New NA Drink News

BEER
Good Liar - American IPA
Interview with Good Liar’s Jared Langston

EXTRA READS
The Sommelier’s New Standard: Sparkling Tea in the No-Low Market
STiR Coffee and Tea Magazine (featuring a few words from yours truly)

Read time: 6 minutes 26 seconds

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COCKTAIL: A launch I missed last month was Pique Life’s Vesper—a non-alcoholic adaptogenic aperitif. (Link)

BEER: Ontario’s Side Launch Brewing Company has collaborated with restaurant chain Beertown Public House to bring locals Everyday IPA. (Link)

WINE: If you enjoy a single-serve sparkling wine, Freixenet have introduced 3-pack minis. (Link)

BEER

ModSub: When I look across the ever-growing landscape of non-alcoholic beer, I find it fascinating to look at the people making it. There are, of course, the breweries—those that have been brewing for decades and are adapting to shifts in consumer demand, as well as those that started from scratch, focusing solely on beer without alcohol. There are celebrities who have jumped into the game for one reason or another. And then there are the folks with no brewing or beverage industry background at all, who simply wanted to make a non-alcoholic beer.

So after hearing gushing reviews about Good Liar’s American IPA out of Columbus, Ohio, I knew I needed to find out why four friends working at the creative agency Dry Department decided to make their own non-alcoholic beer. Co-founder Jared Langston gives me the lowdown on Good Liar.

What does the name Good Liar mean to you, and what do you hope it signals to someone before they even crack the can?

Jared: The name came from being honest about the situation. There’s some other nerdy branding reasons but that’s the primary. Non-alcoholic beer is already asking people to suspend disbelief a little. Everyone’s thinking, yeah but is it actually good? Most brands try to smooth that over with wellness language or brewing mythology and that just felt disingenuous to us.

Good Liar says the quiet part out loud. It acknowledges the skepticism and kind of disarms it. It’s not about tricking anyone. It’s more like saying, “We know how this sounds. Just try it.” If the name gets someone to pause, smirk, or lower their guard even a bit before opening the can, then it’s doing its job.

You all come from creative backgrounds (Dry Dept) rather than brewing. How did that shared mindset shape the brand before the beer itself existed?

Jared: I came at it from behavior first, not product specs. We weren’t asking, “How do you make an NA IPA?” (that came later) We were asking, “When would someone actually want this, and what usually gets in the way?” Coming from creative backgrounds, we’re used to thinking about context, friction and perception.

The brand existed as a feeling before it existed as liquid. It had to make sense in a fridge. At a party. In a grocery store where someone’s not in research mode. That mindset helped us avoid a lot of the clichés early on, because we weren’t trying to impress the category. We were trying to fit into real life.

You’ve been transparent about not being brewers yourselves. What did you look for in a brewing partner, and where were you unwilling to compromise?

Jared: We were very upfront about what we didn’t know, which actually helped (a lot). We weren’t looking for someone to hand us a formula and tell us that’s just how NA beer tastes. We needed a partner who was curious, patient and honest.

Flavor was the obvious non-negotiable, but mindset mattered just as much. If something wasn’t working, we wanted someone who’d say that and keep pushing, not defend it. The moment something felt like settling, we knew it wasn’t right. I didn’t want to hear “it’s pretty good … For NA”. I just wanted a good beer period and I didn’t stop until I found the right team to make it happen.

There’s always a version that’s “good” and one that’s “the one.” What finally convinced you this recipe was worth putting your name on—and was there anything you had to let go of to get there?

Jared: There was a moment where we realized we weren’t explaining it anymore. Early tastings came with caveats. “It’s non-alcoholic, but …” That’s when we knew it wasn’t there yet.

Once it became something you could just hand to someone and let them decide, we knew it was the move. We did have to let go of trying to win every audience. It didn’t need to convert hardcore beer nerds or rewrite the category. It just needed to be something you’d actually reach for again without thinking about it.

NA IPA drinkers can be hard to please. Flavor-wise, what were you trying to avoid just as much as what you were trying to achieve?

Jared: Overcompensation was the enemy. A lot of NA IPAs swing too bitter or too aggressive to prove a point. That was never the goal. We were also trying to avoid anything thin, sweet or oddly chemical, which unfortunately shows up a lot in this space.

We kept coming back to balance and drinkability. Something bright, clean and familiar. Not boring, but not trying to dominate the room either. Just something that feels right in your hand and easy to finish. 

Continued below

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BEER (GOOD LIAR CONT’D)

In a category where line extensions are expected, why was it important for you to launch—and remain—focused on a single beer?

Jared: Because clarity matters more than activity. It’s easy to mistake launching new things for progress. We wanted one beer that actually stood for something. One answer. One thing we could fully stand behind in any setting.

If we couldn’t get one right, adding more would just dilute the point. Staying focused felt like the harder, more honest choice.

From a true business side it made sense from a production and distribution standpoint. We’re never going to come out with 20 SKUs or limited edition runs. We want every flavor to absolutely rip.

How do you balance creative curiosity with restraint—and what would a second Good Liar beer have to prove to exist?

Jared: Creative curiosity is constant. That part’s easy. Restraint is where the discipline comes in. Every new idea has to answer a real question: What moment does this serve? If it’s just a flavor experiment or a marketing beat, it doesn’t make the cut.

A second beer would have to earn its place by making the brand clearer, not busier. It would need to feel inevitable, not optional. We have a second flavor in the works now and the early batches are insanely  good. Can’t wait to release later this year.

Five years from now, how would you like people to describe Good Liar—and what would tell you that you got it right?

Jared: Ideally, people wouldn’t overthink it. They’d just say it’s what they drink. Not an “NA option.” Not a statement. Just part of their routine.

If it’s in fridges, at a bar, at parties, and no one feels the need to explain why it’s there, that’s how we’ll know we got it right. We’re not trying to change the world in one go. Just trying to move it in the right direction before we pass the baton to the next generation.

ModSub’s thoughts: It’s one thing to say all this; it’s quite another to pull it off. But they have. It’s a cracking IPA and a testament to their dedication to not putting anything out that isn’t as close to perfection as an IPA can be. I’d wager you could fool almost any beer drinker nine times out of ten into thinking this was a fully leaded beer—and they wouldn’t have a clue.

It’s not difficult to see Good Liar’s vision for a future where no one bats an eyelid when handed an American IPA. With a beer this good, that future may be arriving sooner than they think.

How Good Liar describes American IPA: Centennial hops bring a clean, smooth bitterness, while Citra and Amarillo add bright citrus and subtle stone fruit aroma. The result is a well-balanced, highly drinkable non-alcoholic IPA that doesn’t try to reinvent beer — it just does it right.

No sweetness overload. No weird aftertaste. Just a familiar IPA profile you can actually finish. Simply put outside of all the marketing language to get you to buy this. It’s an insanely good beer.

EXTRA READS