derisively for commercially produced beers which are thought to taste too weak.
Non-alcoholic beer
Arab world
The Middle East accounts for almost a third of worldwide sales of nonalcoholic and alcohol-free beer.
Malaysia
The market for nonalcoholic beer in
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...
has been slow in comparison to other Muslim-majority countries, and as of 2015, the Malaysian government has not approved any nonalcoholic beers as
halal
''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with '' haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification k ...
.
Iran
In 2008, the sale of non-alcoholic beers in Iran continued its high performance with double-digit growth rates in both value and volume and is expected to more than double its total volume sales between 2008 and 2013.
India
Non alcoholic beer sales in India are relatively low.
North America
North America is seeing a rise in non-alcoholic beer consumption. Former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Mike Pence are known to drink non-alcoholic beer.
Europe
Spain is the main consumer and producer of low-alcohol beer in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
.
United Kingdom
As of March 2020, sales of alcohol-free beer are up by 30% since 2016, with younger generations shunning alcoholic beverages.
Craft non-alcoholic beer
With the global non-alcoholic beer market expected to double by 2024, there has been an increase in breweries producing the product. As more people lean towards non-alcoholic beverages for health reasons, social reasons, or just because they want to enjoy the taste of beer without the effects of alcohol, companies are producing beers that cater to these audiences.
History
Craft non-alcoholic beer began to take off in early 2018, as beer companies slowed down on trying to put as high of an ABV% in their brews as possible, and started producing more sessionable beers. Some beers that are still classified as "alcoholic" can have an ABV of as low as 2.4%, and the companies producing these are still seeing sales.
With an ever-growing health conscious market segment, breweries began to produce craft non-alcoholic beers with as little as 10 calories per can, so that those who crave beer can fulfil their cravings without breaking their health resolution.
Legal drinking age in the US
Beers that are labeled "non-alcoholic" still contain a very small amount of alcohol. Thus, some US states require the purchaser to be of a legal drinking age. Exceptions include:
*In
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, the law does not prohibit minors from consuming or buying non-alcoholic beer, but the law does specify that a beverage containing more than one half of one percent alcohol by volume is an alcoholic beverage and thus will follow the same restrictions as regular beer.
*In
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...
, non-alcoholic beer (under 0.5% ABV) does not fit in the category that the state defines as an alcoholic beverage and can be purchased by those under the legal drinking age.
*In
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, the law does not regulate non-alcoholic beer (less than 0.5% ABV), and it can be purchased without any age restriction.
*In
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
, the law governs only beverages of at least 0.5% ABV.
*In
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
, beverages with under 0.5% ABV are not governed by the Illinois Liquor Control Act and can be purchased and consumed by minors.
*In the
District of Columbia
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle (Washington, D.C.), Logan Circle, Jefferson Memoria ...
, the District's alcohol laws apply to all beverages and food products that have an alcohol by volume equal or greater than .5 percent. Beverages below .5 percent are not covered by the laws that ABRA regulates; therefore, a beverage with an ABV lower than .5 percent may purchased by a person under the age of 21. The laws and regulations that ABRA administers does not reference products carrying the label of "non-alcoholic beverage."
*In
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...
, "...non-alcoholic beer and wine (containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume) are not considered alcoholic beverages. Legally, non-alcoholic beer and wine are no different than coffee, tea, or soft drinks."
*In
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, Hawaii State Liquor Law §281-101.5(b) states "No minor shall consume or purchase liquor and no minor shall consume or have liquor in the minor’s possession..." In the "Liquor Laws of Hawaii" under §281-1 "Definitions", Liquor is defined as "…containing one-half of one per cent or more of alcohol by volume…"
Production process
According to the Birmingham Beverage Company, the brewing process of traditional brews consists of eight basic steps, nine for brewing non-alcoholic brews.
#Malting – Barley is prepared by soaking it in water and allowing the grain to germinate or "sprout". This allows the tough
starch
Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human die ...
molecules to be softened and begin conversion to sugars. Next, the sprouts are dried in a kiln; the temperature at which the sprouts are dried will affect the flavor of the finished brew.
#Milling – Next the malted grain is ground to a
cornmeal
Cornmeal is a meal (coarse flour) or a cell membrane ground from dried corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', ...
-like consistency, which allows the sugars and remaining starches to be more easily released when mixed with water.
#Mashing – The finely-ground malted grain is mixed with water and pulverized. By pulverizing the slurry, most of the remaining starches are converted to sugars due to enzymes present in the malt, and the sugars then dissolve into the water. The mix is gradually heated to in what is called a mash tun. The slurry is then filtered to remove the majority of particulates. This filtered sugary liquid is called "
wort
Wort () is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. Wort contains the sugars, the most important being maltose and maltotriose, that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol. Wort als ...
".
#Brewing – The wort is brought to a boil for roughly 1–2 hours. During this time, other grains that will contribute flavor, color, and aroma to the brew are added. Boiling allows several chemical reactions to occur and reduces the water content in the wort, condensing it.
#Cooling – The wort is filtered to remove the majority of the grains and hops and then immediately cooled to allow the yeast to survive and grow in the next step.
#Fermenting – The cooled wort is saturated with air, and yeast is added in the fermentation tank. Different strains of yeast will create different styles of beer. This step takes around ten days.
#Maturation – The freshly fermented uncarbonated beer is placed into a conditioning tank and, in a similar process to wine making, is allowed to age. If this step is rushed the beer will have an off flavor (
acetaldehyde
Acetaldehyde (IUPAC systematic name ethanal) is an organic chemical compound with the formula CH3 CHO, sometimes abbreviated by chemists as MeCHO (Me = methyl). It is a colorless liquid or gas, boiling near room temperature. It is one of the ...
) that beer experts sometimes refer to as "green beer" because of its resemblance to green apples. During this process of aging, the majority of the residual particulates will settle to the bottom of the tank.
* Between the seventh and eighth steps, the brew can be converted to non-alcoholic beer.
#Finishing – Finally, the brewer is ready to finish the beer. The beer is filtered one last time; it is then carbonated and moved into a storage tank for either bottling or kegging.
Low- and non-alcohol beer starts out as regular alcoholic beer, which is then processed to remove the alcohol.
Older processes simply heat the beer to evaporate most of the alcohol. Since alcohol is more volatile than water, as the beer is heated alcohol boils off first. The alcohol is allowed to escape and the remaining liquid becomes the product, essentially the opposite of the process used to make
distilled beverages
Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard l ...
. Most modern breweries utilize vacuum evaporation to reduce the boiling temperature and maintain flavor. In essence, the beer is placed under a light vacuum to facilitate the alcohol molecules going into the gaseous phase. If a sufficient vacuum is applied, it is not necessary to "cook" the beer at a temperature that destroys the flavor. Some heat must nevertheless be supplied to counter the heat lost to
enthalpy of vaporization
The enthalpy of vaporization (symbol ), also known as the (latent) heat of vaporization or heat of evaporation, is the amount of energy (enthalpy) that must be added to a liquid substance to transform a quantity of that substance into a gas. T ...
.
A more modern alternative process uses
reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions, unwanted molecules and larger particles from drinking water. In reverse osmosis, an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic ...
to avoid heating the product at all. Under pressure, the beer is passed through a polymeric filter with pores small enough that only alcohol and water (and a few volatile acids) can pass through. A syrupy mixture of complex carbohydrates and most of the flavor compounds are retained by the filter. Alcohol is distilled out of the filtered alcohol-water mix using conventional distillation methods. Adding the water and remaining acids back into the syrup left behind on the filter completes the process.
Sometimes beer is simply diluted with water to give the desired alcohol level.
Once the alcohol is removed, one proceeds with the normal finishing process in which the beer is carbonated and bottled.
Newer techniques for making 0.5% non-alcoholic beer would include using special low-sugar grains, yeast which converts less sugar to alcohol or removing sugar from the wort pre-fermentation. These, in addition to limited fermentation, whereby the fermentation process is stopped early, enable craft brewers to produce a 0.5% beer without the expense of having to dealcoholize a beer.
Branding
Many low-alcohol beer brands incorporate the colour blue into the packaging design, including Becks Blue, Heineken 0.0%, Ožujsko Cool and Erdinger Alkoholfrei.
See also
*
Alcohol by volume
Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol ( ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) ...
*
Beer
Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
*
Kvass
Kvass is a fermented cereal-based low alcoholic beverage with a slightly cloudy appearance, light-brown colour and sweet-sour taste. It may be flavoured with berries, fruits, herbs or honey.
Kvass stems from the northeastern part of Europe, ...
*
Malzbier
*
Malta (soft drink)
Malta is a lightly carbonated, non-alcoholic malt beverage, brewed from barley, hops, and water; corn and caramel color may also be added.
Distribution
Most Malta is brewed in the Caribbean and can be purchased in areas with substantial Caribb ...
*
Small beer
Small beer (also known as small ale or table beer) is a lager or ale that contains a lower amount of alcohol by volume than most others, usually between 0.5% and 2.8%. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in Medieval Eu ...
References
{{Beer styles
Non-alcoholic drinks
Prohibition
Types of beer