Non-alc 101: Non-alcoholic beer, near beer & nonnies
Non-alcoholic beer is the type of non-alcoholic drink you’re most likely to encounter in the wild. While non-alc spirit alternatives and wines (actual wines, not just sparkling apple juice in fancy bottles) are fairly new, non-alc beers have been around for what feels like forever. In this post, I’ll cover some of the history of non-alcoholic beer, how it’s made, and what the landscape of NA beers looks like these days.
One of the first non-alcoholic beers in the world was Clausthaler, made by a German brewery (my people!).
Non-alc beer, also often called “near beer” or more recently “nonnies” (aww!) is generally made like regular beer: Mash together water, hops, yeast, and grains, then let the yeast eat the sugars and turn them into alcohol (that’s the fermentation part). Usually the fermentation stops when the alcohol content is so high that the yeast dies off. For standard beers like lagers, that’s around 5% ABV, i.e. 5% alcohol. Okay, but how do we make this actually non-alcoholic, i.e. less than 0.5% ABV? Of course, one option would be to just heat up the whole thing until the alcohol evaporates. However, that would also destroy a lot of the flavors of the beer - not exactly what we want (mmhhh yum, boiled beer!). That’s why most non-alcoholic beers are made using much more gentler methods. In very simple terms, they either:
Stop the fermentation early before the yeast makes alcohol.
Gently remove the alcohol in a vacuum environment which lowers the evaporation point of alcohol significantly.
Now, what does the landscape of non-alc beers look like these days? One word: Vast.
Many of the big players are still in the game - you’ll usually find one of Clausthaler, Heineken 0.0, O’Douls at your friendly neighborhood bar. Most large beer brands have NA versions of their beers now, see Budweiser, Guinness, Sam Adams, Brooklyn Brewery, and even PBR. They’re all… decent. (See my post on Radlers to learn how to make mediocre non-alc beers taste good!)
Beyond the established beer brands, Athletic Brewing is one of the biggest non-alc brands, and probably the company that really pushed NA beers into the mainstream. They were the first US based fully non-alc beer company that set the bar significantly higher than previously seen by developing their own brewing methods that moved us away from sweet malty or bland beers and for the first time made near beers feel just like the real deal. Your friendly neighborhood bar will likely offer either one of the mainstream players, or Athletic. If you’re new to non-alc beers and don’t know where to start, you can’t really go wrong with a pack of Athletic Run Wild IPA from your local grocery store.
Aside from Athletic, dozens of smaller NA breweries are happily cranking out tons of different styles of beers, from classic American lagers like AL’s, super hoppy IPAs and rich stouts like Bravus, juicy IPAs and other intense creative flavors like Untitled Arts, to whatever chocolate-coffee-donut-sauvignon-cherry-cake-bellini madness it is that the lads at Mash Gang are experimenting with.
Non-alc beers are one of the areas of non-alc where I’ve seen the most improvement and creativity in a very short period of time. I’m really hoping to see more than just the mainstream brands or Athletic at bars in the near future - there are so many excellent options out there now.
