Non-Alcoholic beer is growing rapidly across the US. At the moment there are over 120 breweries producing their own non-alcoholic beer, either solely non-alcoholic breweries or breweries with one or more NA versions alongside their standard offerings. There are two categories of producing NA beer; ways that produce less than 0.5% alcohol during the brewing process or the removal of alcohol from a full-strength beer after production. The good thing is that today, both methods and variations of them have produced excellent tasting NA beers.

Brewing Without Creating Alcohol:

Many of the more recent, and rapidly growing, brands in the NA beer sector proudly state they brew in a way that doesn’t create alcohol so the removal process doesn’t impact the taste. The goal of the process is simple, create flavor and body similar to beer without producing alcohol. There are a couple ways to do this:

• Arrested or No Fermentation – The goal of this process is to either not ferment the beer or to stop the fermentation before the creation of a significant (>0.5%) alcohol content. Both follow a traditional brewing process, with a standard grain bill and mash the grain to create a “wort”. Then the process either carbonates the wort without yeast or stops the fermentation process early by killing the yeast to avoid the production of alcohol. The resulting product has a good body but can be on the sweeter side due to the sugars remaining that were not fermented.[1]

• Alternative yeasts – Recently, yeast producers have started making yeast that ferment the beer without creating alcohol. Some of these strains do create a more specific flavor profile, sometimes best suited for certain types of beers. Bravus has always used what they refer to as proprietary yeasts to avoid alcohol creation (The Friend Request Podcast has an excellent episode with the founder of Bravus). Sierra Nevada and Surly Brewing both recently launched NA beers that use yeasts to avoid alcohol creation. Gruvi, who use multiple techniques for different brews, used NA yeasts for their Citra Wheat in the past.[2]

• Manipulating the grain bill and temperatures – To create beer, hot water is added to crushed grains in what is called a mash. The resulting liquid is referred to as wort. If done at standard temperatures, this wort is full of flavor, body, and fermentable sugars that become alcohol during fermentation. Recent brewing techniques have used reduced grain amounts, which create fewer fermentable sugars. Additionally, brewers have started adding higher temperatures to the mash and for shorter times, this extracts body and flavor but fewer fermentable sugars. It allows the use of more grains than a pure low grain bill and thus creates a fuller-body non-alcoholic beer if done right.

Some Notable Brands Who Brew Without Creating Alcohol: Athletic Brewing, GO Brewing, Bravus Brewing, Sierra Nevada, Surly (Many Others)

Alcohol Removal:

“This beer is brewed to full strength and then the alcohol is gently removed to create this beer that tastes like a beer but without the alcohol” – this, or some variation, is found on a lot of mainstream and new NA beer cans or websites including Sam Adams, Barrel Brothers, Untitled Art, and more. The reason is that somewhat recent innovations in alcohol removal have allowed breweries to take their alcoholic beer recipes and remove the alcohol, creating an NA version of the same beer. Barrel Brothers has a lineup of NA that are all the same as their alcoholic versions. Small breweries in Minnesota also have alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions of the same beers, enables by a hub-spoke model of contract dealcoholization in the region that allows small brands to do small batch NA beers locally.

Originally, removing alcohol from beer involved boiling it for multiple hours to boil off the alcohol. This usually resulted in a bit of a burnt and bland taste that characterized a lot of the original NA Beers. However, more recent innovations in vacuum distillation and membrane filtration that also capture the essences normally lost in the process, have resulted in many newer mainstream brands with award-winning beers. It also has created a contract non-alcoholic brewing industry where brands can brew, dealcoholize, and package branded beers; many of the new and excellent beers on the market are contract brewed by these techniques.

Additionally, some brewers use the alcohol by-product as their base for hard seltzers, which takes one product and turns it into two. The advantage to removing alcohol through either of these methods is that it can create a fuller-body beer, the disadvantage is the extra process and extra capital costs required. By using the by-product for hard seltzer, an additional income stream is created which helps justify the investment and the reduced taxes helps cover some of the extra process as well.

Vacuum Distillation/Separation – This process involves creating vacuum conditions (minimal pressure) in the beer to allow for a lower temperature distillation of the alcohol so that the removal process doesn’t impact the flavor as much. Multiple of these processes also have methods to capture the essences, like aromatic hops, since they sometimes are removed before the alcohol, and then put them back into the finished product. Major equipment producers in the industry include Bev Zero who has one of their GoLo machines at Barrel Brothers. Another is ABV Technology in Minnesota who make the Equalizer and have several hub breweries across the US where they produce their own NA beer and contract for other nearby smaller craft breweries.

Reverse Osmosis/Membrane Filtration – In many drinking water systems, reverse osmosis is used, where the water is pushed through a membrane with fine pores and only pure water comes out. About 50-60 percent remains behind. A similar process is used through beer where fully fermented beer goes through a membrane, and only alcohol and some water go through, while the flavors, most colors, and body remain behind. Then demineralized water is added back to the beer to reach the original volume.[1] Many contract breweries use some form of this and multiple excellent award-winning brands as well. The ProBrew Alchemator and GEA AromaPlus Membrane Dealcoholization unit are two examples of equipment used in the industry.

Example Breweries who remove alcohol: Sam Adams, Barrel Brothers, Bauhaus Brew Labs, Untitled Art (Octopi Brewing), and Two Roots (before they shut down).

Summary:

The past 5 years were a period of massive innovation in the US non-alcoholic beer market. While the market lags Europe and the UK in market share, the techniques are starting to catch up. Each of the above techniques have multiple recognizable brands using them and producing excellent tasting beer.

[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jib.368

[1] https://ultralowbrewing.com/our-guides/

[2] https://www.getgruvi.com/blogs/posts/how-is-non-alcoholic-beer-made