What’s new with non-alcoholic beer?

The first time I took non-alcoholic beer seriously was during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. When the German team wasn’t training or out on the slopes, they were drinking non-alc beer. One brewery even shipped in 3500 litres of the stuff to the Olympic village. My logic then was that if non-alcoholic beer is good enough for the beer-proud Germans, surely it’s good enough for the rest of us. 

Fast-forward to the mid-2020s and that has proven to be true. While those classic dealcoholised German brews are still going strong, these days we’re drinking everything from crafty pale ales to alcohol-free Guinness that tastes like real Guinness.

Yes, non-alcoholic beers today are genuinely delicious, increasingly common and (whisper it) pretty darn cool. And, fortunately for us beer lovers (and the growing number of non-alc drinkers in general), the scene isn’t really showing any sign of slowing down, so let’s check in with the state of non-alc beer.

Non-alcoholic beer in Australia is any beer with less than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV). It’s not alcoholic, of course, but it still has to have the same basic ingredients of beer – namely hops, malt, yeast and water. There are two main ways to make non-alcoholic beer:

1. Make beer, take alcohol out

2. Make beer and don’t produce alcohol to start with

For the first way, brewers use heat to boil the alcohol away. But, if you do that in a vacuum, it lowers the boiling point (because of science) and tends to reduce any negative impact on flavour. For the second way, brewers use a strain of yeast that just stops fermenting at 0.5% ABV. Both have their pros and cons and those techniques are always advancing, gifting us non-alcoholic beers with more flavour.

Yep – non-alcoholic beer is big business and it’s only getting bigger. Research shows that the global market for non-alc drinks in general is still growing and beer is set to be the biggest of the bunch, ballooning to a ridiculous $35 billion USD – that’s almost $55 billion in Aussie terms. 

There are a lot of potential reasons for the big boom – a focus on health, cultural shifts, an increase in quality non-alc options. Something like 70% of all non-alcoholic drinks consumed in Australia are beer (or cider), so it’s fair to say our love for them is strong, even if the drinks aren’t.

One of the really great things about the rise of non-alcoholic beers is that, in recent years, everyone’s started having a go. There was a time not too long ago when it was slim pickings with just a few classic Euro examples (Holsten, Erdinger, Weihenstephaner) and good old Coopers Birell. Not anymore.

Now you’ve got all the big names making low-alc versions of their staples (like Carlton Zero and Heineken Zero), craft breweries getting flavoursome with it (Pirate Life and Gage Roads are just two examples) and – most excitingly – dedicated non-alcoholic beer makers like Heaps Normal making nothing but the good (alcohol-free) stuff. And we’ve already mentioned that zero-percent Guinness.

Happily, as our taste for alcohol-free beer grows, so too does the appetite for inventiveness. It’s just like what happened with the beer scene in general – at some point we all started getting interested in different flavours and styles and, eventually, breweries started catering to that need. It wasn’t that long ago that hazy pale ales and NEIPAs weren’t even a thing. And now? Well, they’re everywhere.

So, what’s next? Here are some hot trends in non-alcoholic beer that are starting to bubble up:

• Fun, flavoursome styles: With its zero-alc stout, Guinness is the biggest example of a non-alcoholic dark beer, but it’s not the only brewery playing outside of lager land – and we reckon more are set to follow. We’re already seeing a smattering of new alcohol-free IPAs, hazy pales and pacific ales, so surely sours, porters and pilsners are on the way.
   

• Alcohol-free favourites: We mentioned it already but the scene has really started to bulge with zero-alc versions of classic beers. Guinness, Heineken and Carlton are leading the way. Who will be next?

Admit it – non-alc beer is great. With improvements in the techniques to produce it, a growing number of breweries taking it seriously and a beer-drinking public (hey, that’s us) increasing its standards, there’s no reason to be dismissive of alcohol-free beer. 

These days, there’s a style, flavour and brand for everyone, and, as the trend grows, so will our choices. Whatever your reasons for picking up a non-alc beer, we reckon it’s a safe bet in 2025 and beyond.