Temperance Review: Wild East Brewing Co.’s Dark Mild Ale at 3.5% ABV

A Brooklyn bartender poured this for me as a ‘trust me’ order on a slow weeknight, and it turned out to be exactly the kind of unfussy beer that’s hard to find in that neighborhood. At 3.5% ABV, Wild East Brewing Co.’s Temperance is one of a growing number of low-ABV and non-alcoholic beers that ordinary breweries are now keeping on their regular lineup, not just rolling out as a one-off. I went digging into that shift across more than 22,000 beers I tracked down (full breakdown here), and Wild East Brewing Co. was one of the names that stood out.

At a Glance

What it actually tastes like

Temperance is smooth malt character with a light roast edge, full of flavor for the ABV without ever tipping into heavy. At 3.5% ABV, it is built to be sessionable first, which is exactly the point, this is not a beer trying to disguise how light it is.

It works well with fish and chips, a meat pie, or a long conversation at the bar.

Why this matters more than it looks like

Wild East built its name on barrel-aged sours and hoppy releases, so keeping a 3.5% dark mild in rotation is a genuine lineup choice aimed at people who want to stay a while, not just a one-off collab. That is the real story behind Temperance, not that it exists, but that a brewery built on stronger, bigger beers is treating a 3.5% release as a permanent part of the lineup rather than a seasonal experiment.

Across the data I pulled, this pattern kept showing up. Roughly 93 percent of the low-ABV and non-alcoholic beers I found in that research came from breweries whose main business is not non-alcoholic drinks, not from dedicated NA specialists like Athletic Brewing. Wild East Brewing Co. is one of the clearer examples of that shift, an established name in NY keeping a 3.5% beer in year-round rotation next to its bigger, stronger releases.

How it compares to the rest of the category

I’d put Temperance at 3.84 out of 5, which puts it solidly in the middle of the pack for dark mild ale releases I looked at releases I’ve tried. It is not trying to be the most complex beer on the shelf, and it does not need to be. The goal with a release like this is consistency at a lower strength, and on that measure it delivers exactly what it promises every time.

My verdict

If you already know Wild East Brewing Co. for their bigger, hoppier or stronger releases, Temperance is worth a detour the next time you are near Brooklyn, NY. It is not trying to compete with those beers on intensity, it is solving a different problem: something you can drink through a whole afternoon without slowing down. That is a harder needle to thread than it sounds, plenty of light beers taste like nothing at all, and this one does not.

The bigger picture is what makes Temperance worth writing about at all. A brewery does not keep a 3.5% beer on its core, year-round lineup unless customers are actually asking for it and coming back. That is a real signal about where drinking habits are heading, not a marketing angle dreamed up in a boardroom.

Cannot find it near you? Try these instead

Temperance has limited distribution outside its home region. If you cannot track it down, these are real, currently available beers in a similar style worth trying:

FAQs

Where is Wild East Brewing Co.’s Temperance brewed?

Temperance is brewed by Wild East Brewing Co. in Brooklyn, NY.

What is the ABV of Temperance?

Temperance is 3.5% ABV, classified as dark mild ale.

Is Temperance available nationwide?

No. Like most regional craft releases, Temperance has limited distribution outside NY and nearby states. Check Wild East Brewing Co.’s own site or a beer-finder app before making a special trip.