When it comes to beer (and alcohol consumption overall), there has been a shift in recent years. In the past decade or so, the amount of people opting to abstain from alcohol has grown exponentially. The sheer breadth of "mocktails" on restaurant menus and supermarket shelves — along with a surge of cookbooks — clearly reflects this trend. While there a slew of reasons why someone might opt not to drink, that is not something that ever needs to be divulged. (Julia Bainbridge's 2020 stupendous book "Good Drinks: Alcohol-Free Recipes for When You're Not Drinking For Whatever Reason" sums up this ethos pretty well.) As menus and shelves fill with mocktails and non-alcoholic beverages galore, perhaps the requisite liquor consumption at a party, champagne at a celebration or beer at a casual gathering shouldn't be so readily assumed.
Generally, many people are increasingly interested in being "sober-curious" or "sober-adjacent," often experimenting with low- or non-alcoholic beers in attempts of bettering their overall health, minimizing their alcohol intake, or the like. No matter the impetus, though, the influx is undeniable.
Seven Fifty states that "according to leading drinks market analysis firm IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, the low-alcohol category increased by almost 20% last year in the U.S. alone, with the no-alcohol market experiencing nearly twice as much growth."
Furthermore, NPR notes that there's now a trade association devoted to non-alcoholic beer, spirits and other drinks. The Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association is less than a year old, but it already has more than 50 members, including 17 brewers that either feature non-alcoholic beer or focus on it exclusively. The increase of interest in non-alcoholic beer is evidently wide-ranging, from consumers to purveyors.
As Everyday Health notes, "according to the World Health Organization (WHO), alcohol is 'a toxic and psychoactive substance' that 'contributes to 3 million deaths each year globally and is responsible for more than 5 percent of the global burden of disease." In a conversation with Hello Gloria, though, Julia Bainbridge noted "I think things like Dry January lower the barrier to entry into these conversations about our relationships to alcohol. I'm all for it, but I'm also not about demonizing alcohol."
In 2018, Julia Momose was profiled by Michelin, speaking about a "manifesto" she came up with to note her "spirit-free" ideology, stating: "I would like to petition that we cease referring to the non-alcoholic drinks we serve as 'mocktails' and assign a name more befitting the care and the skill that goes into the beverage ... I do not want to serve, nor do I want to be served, a mockup of a beverage or an attempt at a cocktail. I want a proper drink!" Michelin notes that "virgin" or "zero-proof" insinuate some manner of lacking or being "less than" in some capacity. Furthermore, refraining from using alcohol then imparts a need for strong, more robust flavors and unique ingredients (or example, Momose's recipe that Michelin shared consists of 13 ingredients).
Vinepair captures this shift, stating "Low and no-alcohol beers may be drops in the proverbial bucket of total U.S. beer sales, but as more options come to market — the volume of NA beer is expected to increase close to 11% in 2022, according to Global Market Insights — it's impossible to ignore its growing prominence in boutique beer shops and health-oriented craft beer drinking communities." As noted in Food & Wine, there's also been an increase of "nonalcoholic distilled spirits" or non-alcoholic aperitifs within only the past five years or so and these are interesting elements that can further diversify non-alcoholic beverages, making them all the more compelling. Some examples are Ghia, Seedlip, Riverine and Livener.
History
Beer Cartel notes that non-alcoholic beer can be traced to medieval Europe, when "these brews were made for everyday consumption by the working classes as a safer substitute for often polluted water, with just enough alcohol present to kill bacteria." Circa prohibition in US in the early 1900s, this continued, with certain companies and breweries producing beers that were "very pale, not so flavorful, and just ... 0.5% ABV." This allowed the companies to get around the parameters of prohibition. It wasn't until the past decade (or less), though, that non-alcoholic beer became a desired product which was enjoyed as a standalone beverage, not a less-than substitution.
How is it produced?
Seven Fifty gets into the nitty gritty of the production, acknowledging that "alongside a growing range of proprietary technologies, beverage manufacturers employ two primary methods for alcohol removal: reverse osmosis and vacuum distillation." Non-alcoholic beer, specifically, is "often obtained by reverse osmosis," but companies like Athletic Brewing Co. instead focus on "a proprietary process that, rather than removing the alcohol from a full-strength beer, prevents the fermentation process from generating ethanol in the first place."
This type of approach has extended to other breweries and companies who are looking to go beyond the standard approaches of reverse osmosis and vacuum distillation, such as the BrewVo system, which according to Seven Fifty, "blends lower-ABV brewing with revolutionary logistics solutions. The patented brewing process produces fully fermented, six-times dense beer stripped of its CO2 and most of its alcohol content." While there is a clear distinction between "beer brewed and then alcohol removed" versus "beer brewed without alcohol ever appearing," many companies are delving into the varying approaches to determine what might produce the best non-alcoholic beer.
Everyday Health notes that, traditionally, "beer is made by fermenting grains, which means that microorganisms, usually yeast, break down the sugar in grains to alcohol and other by-products." Conversely, when making non-alcoholic beer, "some old-fashioned brands make nonalcoholic beer by preventing fermentation, which also happens to prevent flavor development. Others brands cook the beer post-fermentation to burn off the alcohol. Unfortunately, neither of these legacy methods produces great-tasting beers. To compensate, manufacturers sometimes add sugar or high fructose corn syrup, which leads to a cloyingly sweet beer."
Pop Sci notes that one noteworthy shift was when Guinness began producing a non-alcoholic beer (or stout) in 2020, noting that the company uses a "cold filtering" process in order to treat standard Guinness and ensure that the alcoholic itself is "distilled off." Just like a nondairy cheese or milk, there will undoubtedly be aspects absent in the alternative version, but by most accounts — beer and non-alcoholic beer taste pretty darn similar. Some do note a slight different in viscosity, or even noting that there might be a stronger "maltiness," but overall, non-alcoholic beer does indeed taste like it 'should.'
The new Gatorade?
One other incredibly interesting aspect of non-alcoholic beer is one of the primary communities that often extols its virtues: athletes. Specifically in Europe, "some athletes ... have been known to consume non-alcoholic beer during hard training, claiming it aids recovery," also noted by Beer Cartel.
Believe it or not, in a study conducted by a Munich university on 270 male runners in their 40s, it was found that "those drinking nonalcoholic beer had fewer illnesses than those drinking a placebo beverage," as well as less upper respiratory tract infections, soreness and inflammation. This is possibly being traced to the presence of polyphonelmls, but additional research is being done to pinpoint precisely what about non-alcoholic beer is providing to be a salve for athletes.
This story from 2018 echoes the same method, noting that while this certainly seems to be a veritable practice, there is a "hydration dilemma" arising from the fact that consuming non-alcoholic beer after vigorous physical activity doesn't adequately provide hydration the way that drinking water might. This has resulted in a type of Gatorade-meets-non-alcoholic-beer type concept for a potential athlete-recovery beverage. It'll be interesting to see if/when such a product is developed.
In addition to all of these benefits, there are also many who swear by the sustainability of non-alcoholic beers, noting its low carbon foot print. Furthermore, some of the more forward-thinking brewing methods for non-alcoholic beers are also generally less harmful on the environment, especially systems like BrewVo, which actually results in an 86% reduction of packaging within shipping, according to Leaf Score.
Final takeaways
It should also be noted that most of the products are indeed low-alcohol, simply because producing anything "no-alcohol" is immensely challenging and nearly impossible without advanced technology. For example, Everyday Health notes that "A study published in August of 2016 in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology found measurable alcohol in bananas, apple juice, and bread."
In conversation with Liquor, Golden Road Brewing general manager Dan Hamill said "with little to no innovation within the nonalcoholic beer category over the past few decades, this poses an exciting opportunity for brewers ... how can we bring full flavor to a historically bland product?" Furthermore, the amount of non-alcoholic beer being produced and purchased is still relatively infinitesimal: only 1% of the entire beer "space" is comprised of non-alcoholic beer.
For Bon Appetit, Alex Delany describes his experience with one of the beers from the aforementioned Athletic Brewing Company: the Upside Dawn Golden Ale, noting that "it has a pleasant hoppy bitterness, layered with notes of lemon peel, fresh cut grass, and black tea. The yeast strain is light and bready, like a fresh baguette, and the body of the beer is soft and creamy up front with a crisp, clean finish that brings the can immediately back to your lips. I didn't have to think twice: That sense of something missing wasn't there." At least according to Delany, there is certainly nothing lacking in today's top non-alcoholic beers.
This year alone, a host of outlets — from food and beverage publications to general outlets — have published lists or rankings of the increasingly diverse and unique non-alcoholic beer offerings. These lists even differentiate between n/a beers, noting wheat, craft, German, lager, IPA and stout options. With such varied offerings being introduced within only the past few years, it'll be amazing to see what is to come in the near future.
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