Happy New Year to all the readers of the 5pm Dining blog!

We hope you had a great break and are rested, relaxed and ready to tackle 2017.

Here at the blog, we intend to stay on the straight and reasonably narrow for at least the next couple of weeks.

However, we know that some of you will be going a step further and attempting to do Veganuary or Dry January.

Or, if you are utterly mad, both at the same time.

This scribbler won’t be joining you but we were still tickled by today’s announcement from Innis & Gunn brewers.

Citrus pale ale

They have produced a beer called Innis & None. It is an alcohol-free beer which is described as ‘a delicious citrus pale ale with big hop bitterness, balanced with a touch of sweetness and the added goodness of ginseng and vitamin C’.

Pale ale malt and the hop varieties Columbus, Tomahawk, Zeus, Magnum, Hercules and Apollo all go into the brew.

Quoted in The Scotsman, Dougal Sharp, the founder of Innis & Gunn, said: ‘Great beer does not necessarily have to contain alcohol… Taking the alcohol content down to zero is part of our belief that beer is for everyone, even those who don’t or can’t consume alcohol.’

To be honest, this scribbler always thought that alcohol was fundamentally a part of great beer but, especially after the last fortnight, we can certainly see the appeal of a refreshing booze-free beer.

It is available in 330ml cans from the brewer’s online shop as well as at the brewery’s three beer kitchens in Edinburgh, Dundee and St Andrews.

New Glasgow bar

In other Innis & Gunn news, we understand that the company will open its fourth beer kitchen on Glasgow’s Ashton Lane later this year.

An April opening has been mooted.

Slainte!