Hops & Passionfruit: Our Sober October Brew
October felt like the right time to make something a little different.
So we did.
Meet Hops & Passionfruit — our new seasonal kombucha, brewed for October and inspired by something we genuinely enjoy: the slightly bitter, aromatic character of a good beer, just taken in a completely different direction.
This one is a bit of a fusion. Hops from Europe meet passionfruit from Asia in our Abu Dhabi brewery. The hops bring those floral, citrusy, pleasantly bitter notes that beer drinkers will immediately recognize. Then passionfruit comes in and softens the edges with acidity, fruitiness and a little tropical exoticness.
The result sits somewhere between kombucha, a hoppy alcohol-free brew and some of the more experimental craft beers you find around the Western world.
It’s not trying to taste exactly like beer. And it’s definitely not trying to be sweet.
It’s crisp, aromatic, a little bitter, a little tropical and quite grown-up.
If you normally enjoy an IPA, pale ale or anything with a noticeable hop character, this might be the YALA for you. And if you find hops a little too bitter on their own, the passionfruit makes the whole thing much friendlier — without turning it into a tropical juice.
50 Shades of Hops
There is also a story behind the final bottle.
When we started developing Hops & Passionfruit, we experimented. A lot.
Different hops. Different quantities. Different levels of bitterness and aroma. Some subtle. Some definitely not subtle.
And because we don't particularly like wasting good experiments, we're putting them on tap at the YALA bar.
We’re calling it 50 Shades of Hops.
Our experimental kegs, featuring different strengths and expressions of hops, will be available at the bar over the coming weeks until they're gone. Think of it as a chance to taste a little bit of the development process that eventually became Hops & Passionfruit.
Some you might love. Some might make you understand exactly why we kept experimenting. That's part of the fun.
Made for Sober October
And yes, the timing is intentional.
Sober October doesn't have to mean a month of sparkling water with lemon.
There is a whole world of interesting flavors that doesn't depend on alcohol. Bitter, dry, fermented, aromatic, complex — all the things that make a drink feel interesting can exist without the booze.
That's exactly the territory we wanted to explore with this seasonal brew.
Hops & Passionfruit is available throughout October as our autumn seasonal special.
And if you want to go deeper into the hops rabbit hole, come by the YALA bar and try 50 Shades of Hops while the experimental kegs last.
Happy Sober October. 🍻