WE'RE ALL grown up enough these days to know it's perfectly fine to drink low-alcohol beer. When a mate comes to your bbq with a six-pack of light beer because he wants to drive home, you don't question his manhood, or call him a poofter.

And in days gone by you probably wouldn't question his taste because so many 'lite' beers were as bad as each other - light on alcohol and light on taste. That's because taking out alcohol also takes out some of the 'mouth feel' of beer, making it seem insipid and watery. But modern techniques seem to get better results and brewers are also getting more clever at balancing hop and malt flavours in low-alcohol beers.

Even so, it was with some trepidation I cracked open a new offering from Stoke, the brilliantly labelled 2 Stoke. For you modern people who own only battery powered tools, two-stroke describes the fuel used for lawnmowers, chainsaws and the like. So I like the witty reference to real men's tools on a light beer.

This 2 Stoke has a muted, almost soft, gold colour. There's a good hop aroma too - it smells like a real beer. But it's the taste that makes it. This beer relaxes on to your tongue like it was lying down on a deckchair - and it stays there. The malt element is strong with a baked biscuit-ness and there's a shade of honey sweetness that compensates for the loss of the alcohol. The hop bitterness then comes through to create a really long finish that just hangs around. This summer, if you're looking for a light beer with a bit of oomph, this one from the McCashin family in Stoke (Nelson) is head and shoulders above popular and ubiquitous foreign brands. It's perfect for an afternoon barbecue when you need to stay sober - you could quite happily drink a six-pack without fear of reprisal. And it's got enough thirst-quenching flavour to be a suitable apres-lawn mowing reviver.

Read More: Michael Donaldson - Beer: Sunday Star Times (27 Nov.)