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Nonalcoholic beer had a bad rap but is staging an exciting comeback. Sales have skyrocketed in the United States, growing almost 70 percent from 2016 to 2021, with annual sales totaling $670 million in 2021. Though still a tiny fraction of the beer market, nonalcoholic beer accounts for 85 percent of the alcohol-alternative sector, according to NIQ, a consumer-data provider.
The rising demand was led by the "sober curious" movement that motivated people to cut down on alcohol intake and by technological advancements that made nonalcoholic beer better able to mimic the sensory experience of alcoholic beer. So how did nonalcoholic beer go from having the reputation of tasting skunky and metallic to being full-bodied, nuanced, and, well, tasting good?
The History of Nonalcoholic Beer
The tradition of making nonalcoholic beer in the United States goes back to 1920, when Congress passed the Volstead Act, banning alcoholic beverages with more than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). To bypass the law, Pabst and Anheuser-Busch pivoted to making low-alcohol beers; this method didn’t make beer alcohol-free, but the residual alcohol was lower than 0.5 percent ABV in the final product, which became known as “near beer.” Most of those near beers were riffs on mass-market lager, notes Joshua Bernstein, a Brooklyn-based beer journalist and author of The Complete Beer Course. “The lack of options beyond lager contributed to the delayed takeoff of nonalcoholic beer,” he adds.
The takeaway is that people want moderation in their consumption.
—Jon Berg, VP of Beverage Alcohol Thought Leadership at NIQ
Starting in the 2010s, the demand for nonalcoholic beer began to rise. Notably, 82 percent of nonalcoholic-beer buyers also purchase alcoholic beverages, says Jon Berg, VP of Beverage Alcohol Thought Leadership at NIQ. “The takeaway is that people want moderation in their consumption.” The rise of the craft-beer movement in the early aughts also helped turbocharge the nonalcoholic beer resurgence, leading breweries to diversify the styles of very low-alcohol and completely nonalcoholic beer to mirror current trends in the craft-beer industry. You can now find nonalcoholic versions of popular styles in the craft-brew scene, from hoppy and fruity IPAs and chocolaty stouts to crisp Italian pilsners and funky sour ales.
The Art of Making Nonalcoholic Beer
To remove alcohol or prevent it from being created, brewers can use physical or biological methods, both of which have merits and drawbacks. The oldest physical method involves brewing beer as normal and then heating it to 173 degrees, the temperature at which ethanol boils off. It reduces the alcohol content to less than 0.5 percent but often results in a flavorless, metallic, and “skunky” beer, known as “heat-struck” in the industry. Today, this has largely been replaced by more advanced physical methods, such as vacuum distillation. “By putting beer through a vacuum, the boiling point of alcohol drops to around 60 degrees, which prevents heat-striking,” says Dana Garves, founder of Oregon BrewLab, a company that provides chemical analyses to the fermentation industry. While some of the flavor compounds may be boiled off with the alcohol under vacuum, they can be captured and added back to the finished brew. Similar to boiling, vacuum distillation can’t remove all alcohol from beer, leaving it with 0.5 percent ABV or below.
Another method of physical alcohol removal is membrane filtration, in which a filtering system separates alcohol from the beer. While this process reduces the alcohol content to less than 0.5 percent, it cannot produce truly alcohol-free beer.
Biological methods involve the strategic use of yeast, a crucial ingredient that converts sugars in grains into alcohol. One method is called arrested fermentation, during which brewers can stop the fermentation by removing the yeast when the alcohol level is still less than 0.5 percent. A disadvantage of arrested fermentation is that a large amount of sugar remains in the finished beer, giving it an overly sweet taste. Alternatively, brewers can use special yeast strains that aren’t capable of converting sugars into alcohol.
Each technique has known shortcomings in body and flavor, and we learned that most craft breweries utilize two or more techniques to achieve the closest possible experience to drinking a full-strength beer. However, nonalcoholic beers can be excellent. To determine which ones to highlight here, we consulted beer writers, industry experts, and brewers, as well as sales data from IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm. We identified the top five styles of nonalcoholic beer and have provided summaries of each. We also selected 18 beers, including large manufacturers and small brewers from the United States and elsewhere. Beer preferences are personal, so we’ve given nods to our favorites in each style but have otherwise opted not to rank them. Read more about each style, sorted from lager to stout, followed by detailed descriptions of each beer we’ve tried.
The Top Five Styles of Nonalcoholic Beer
Lager: The most popular beer category in the United States and the largest category represented in our tasting, this easy-drinking beer is crisp, light, and refreshing. Our tasters found nonalcoholic lager a mixed bag. Many of our tasters found that Heineken 0.0 tasted nearly identical to its alcoholic counterpart and O’Doul’s fared well among our panelists too, proving that it’s a classic for a reason.
Ale: Ale is a large category that encompasses several styles. Its fermentation method, which gives some ales a cloudy appearance and thicker mouthfeel, differs from the one used to make lager. We tasted the most popular styles—golden (or blonde), amber, sour, and pale ales—and they received mixed reviews. The Upside Dawn Golden Ale from Athletic Brewing Co. garnered the most positive feedback. Our tasters described it as having “real character” and the “piney-ness that we associate with ales.” Another big standout was the Omission Good to Go Golden, which was “full-bodied” and “fruity.”
Wheat: Wheat beer technically belongs in the ale category as its appearance is similarly cloudy, but it has become so popular that we gave it a category of its own. Wheat beers are hard to replicate in nonalcoholic form, partly because dealcoholization takes away some of the heavy body. Our tasters enjoyed “bright, citrusy” Drink’In the Sun by Mikkeller. Heavenly Body Golden Wheat was also a stunner; tasters noted a “wheaty” and “slightly sweet flavor and thick body to match.”
India Pale Ale (IPA): IPA tends to have strong hoppy flavors with notes of pine. We liked West Coast–style IPA, which is known for its bold bitterness, and the fruitier, hazy New England IPA. The West Coast IPA from Untitled Art was impressively “fizzy” and “bright” with “a fair bit of hoppiness.” Representing the East Coast style, Samuel Adams Just the Haze tasted of “fruity hop[s]” and won high praise.
Stout: Full-bodied and rich, stout typically features notes of coffee and caramel. Our tasters were impressed with the nonalcoholic Guinness. Flavorwise, it hits all the “coffee,” “licorice,” “rye,” and “bread” notes of its alcoholic counterpart. The All Out by Athletic Brewing Co. offers a little funkier and fruity twist to a classic dark beer but was also well received.
- Sample each beer plain, chilled
