THE NEW BREW CREW

First came hard cider. Then hard seltzer. Now Big Beer is betting on a new wave of ultralight "wellness" brews. Gadget play: Even NFL legend TROY AIKMAN is getting in on the game.

- JOSHUA M. BERNSTEIN

COVID HAS PERFECTED my routine for drinking over Zoom. I place my laptop in a sunny nook of my Brooklyn apartment, foliage filling the background, and angle the camera just downward enough so that no one sees up my nostrils when I sip.

One day last winter, my routine was the same, except (and this is kind of a big except) that I was talking to legendary former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman. The ESPN broadcaster was wearing a black T-shirt at home in Highland Park, Texas, and curious about my beer. I was drinking his beer, Eight. Aikman helped develop the beer and named it after his old jersey number. Eight is a light (4 percent ABV) lager and contains just 90 calories and 2.6 grams of carbs per 12-ounce serving.

Most light lagers are invariably bland, delivering scant calories at the cost of taste. They're the fat-free cheeses of the beer world. But I'm online with an open mind and mouth. I take a sip, finding a complex, caramel-tinged malt character. "It's clean and crisp," Aikman says after I sip, and "there's a slight hint of citrus at the end." I also note an appealing bitter snap, leading to Aikman's favorite thing about his lager, the "fast finish with no aftertaste," he says. I typically find celebrity-driven alcohol brands to focus more on marketing than memorable flavor. Eight might be the rare product to negate that narrative.

Even pre-pandemic, wellness-minded beers were starting to find footing in the market. The past few years further magnified health concerns, and sales of nonalcoholic and some ultra-low-calorie beers have continued to climb. There are plenty of wellness beers out there now, but Aikman is vying for the chance to contend. His move: Eight has a smidge fewer calories than many of the other players in the field, but way more flavor.