How is non-alcoholic beer made? Non-alcoholic beer is brewed with the same four basic components as alcoholic beer: water, grain, hops, and yeast. Hops provide many beers with their well-known bitter flavor and delicious scent. Fermentation is the process through which yeast transforms sugar from grains into alcohol.
Breweries typically add spices and other ingredients to their non-alcoholic beer recipe, but these four components are the basis for it all.
Non-alcoholic beer is a relatively new product on the market, but demand is growing quickly. Brewers all around the world are producing incredible craft, non-alcoholic beers that taste identical to the original.
Alcohol concentration is the primary distinction between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beers. This article examines the typical methods and procedures employed by brewers to create beers that adhere to the generally acknowledged standard for “non-alcoholic” or “alcohol-free” beer in America, which is less than 0.5% ABV (alcohol by volume).
What Is Non-Alcoholic Beer?
Non-alcoholic beers are exactly what their name implies: they go through the same brewing process as regular brews but don’t include more than 0.5% alcohol by volume. They are sometimes referred to as “near beers,” “little ales,” “small beers,” and—possibly—most cruelly—”pretend beers” in addition to being non-alcoholic drinks.
The forefathers of contemporary alcohol-free beer originated in medieval Europe. These beverages, which contained just enough alcohol to kill bacteria, were created for working-class consumption on a daily basis as a safer alternative to often polluted water. Beer was seen as a more wholesome alternative to water and was frequently included in a worker’s daily pay.
Beer was once a caloric beverage that served both workers and farmers who were thirsty and in need of an energy boost, even though it was only weakly produced from barley.
Prohibition, which occurred in the US in 1919, was the major catalyst for developing non-alcoholic beers. Alcoholic beverages that contained more than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) were prohibited from being produced, imported, transported, and sold during this period of outraged morality and the Temperance Movement.
Breweries had to make “near beer,” which had an ABV of just 0.5% and was extremely pale and flavorless, to get around the restriction. The bland pale lagers that those breweries that were fortunate and large enough to survive to make today could be considered the legacy of Prohibition, even though it ended years later.
Brewing alcohol-free beer frequently takes more time than making ordinary beer, according to Clinton Schultz. It takes a lot of work to set up and clean the brewery to ensure that there is no alcoholic saccharomyces yeast floating around.
Since the common techniques for making non-alcoholic beer make it difficult to obtain absolute zero, a trace amount is allowed. However, there is also true alcohol-free beer, which has a 0.0% ABV. Because water is added to alcohol-free malt and hop syrups, certain alcohol-free beer varieties have a soda-like taste.
Here is a video from Bloomberg Quicktake discussing the rise of non-alcoholic beer and how the masses welcomed it.
Alcohol-free beer is well received, especially by those who are trying to live healthier lifestyles. Therefore, it should be no surprise that most individuals now favor non-alcoholic beverages on social and professional occasions.
The 4 Main Techniques To Make Non-Alcoholic Beers
A non-alcoholic beer’s ability to taste like beer depends on the preparation techniques used. A quality N/A beer is a worthy alternative to a standard beer. Without the hangover, it tastes, smells, and has the same depth.
The brewing process for nearly all non-alcoholic beers begins similarly to alcoholic beer. However, a few variations typically appear in the latter stages. The four main techniques used to make non-alcoholic beers are dealcoholization, controlled fermentation, simulated fermentation, and dilution.
1. Dealcoholization
Dealcoholization is the removal of alcohol from a liquid that already has alcohol in it. The most typical method is to pressurize the liquid while adding water or steam and heating it. Alcohol is released as vapor into a condenser, where it is collected and expelled. The non-alcoholic beer is then sold as the residual liquid.
The dealcoholization process was used by many of the first companies to make N/A beer. Following Prohibition, businesses sold American-style beer to locations where alcohol was prohibited using the same strategy.
Steam Distillation
Steam distillation, which involves heating the beer, is used to remove alcohol after fermentation. Because beer has a lower boiling point than water, it is simpler to get the alcohol out of beer. However, some fermentation-derived flavors crucial to the flavor of beer may also be lost during steam distillation.
Reverse Osmosis
More cutting-edge machinery is used in reverse osmosis, which this time uses tremendous pressure to push the beer through a membrane.
Beer is forced through a membrane under high pressure, leaving all the bigger molecules behind. The smaller water and alcohol molecules pass through the membrane, but the larger molecules—the flavor and calories—remain on the other side.
The result is a mixture of beer and alcohol on one end and water and beer on the other. Prior to being directed to the beer, the high-tech pressure apparatus distills the water to separate it from the alcohol.
Water Vapor and Gas Stripping
Brewers dealcoholize beer using the fact that water and alcohol are very soluble in one another. In order to remove the flavor compounds from the distilled alcohol and re-add them to the dealcoholized beer, manufacturers can also use high-tech machinery like a spinning cone column system.
This method of dealcoholizing beer gently warms the beer under a vacuum using high-tech equipment before passing water vapor or gas-like nitrogen through it. The environment is created, so the beer’s alcohol is carried away by gas or water vapor.
Similar to steam distillation, some flavors are eliminated along with the alcohol in this process. These may be separated from the alcohol by the producers and then re-added to the dealcoholized beer.
2. Controlled Fermentation
The most typical process for making non-alcoholic beers is controlled fermentation. It’s also known as “arrested fermentation” at times.
It entails fermenting the beer in a manner similar to that used in traditionally alcoholic brews, but stopping the fermentation process before it normally produces alcohol. By making sure the wort doesn’t get any hotter than 60°F, this is accomplished. This indicates that during this phase, the yeast does not create any alcohol.
Non-alcoholic or low-alcohol beer is the end result.
Special Yeast Strains
Using particular yeast strains is another technique to restrict fermentation. As demand for low- and non-alcoholic beer has increased, yeast companies have been working hard to investigate and produce particular yeast strains for N/A beer production.
Specific yeast strains can be utilized to make beers with little or no alcohol. Only simple sugars from the wort, such as glucose, sucrose, and fructose, are fermented by this yeast strain; maltose is not (most of the sugars are derived from malt). Since yeast cannot create alcohol above 0.5%, beer is classified as non-alcoholic by this definition.
Different yeast strains will create various tastes as well as extra alcohol. These strains may enhance flavor in ways that are more difficult to do with the other techniques, such as by increasing smells.
The drawback is that more sugars withstand fermentation, which might result in a sweet beer if a large amount of sugar is left. The large levels of lactic acid that some yeast strains also produce give the beer a sour flavor. While some beer styles benefit from this, others may find it an unfavorable flavor.
Low Sugar Grains
By using this technique, the wort’s fermentable sugar content is decreased. When there is less sugar present, much less alcohol is produced. Because they have fewer extractable sugars than barley or wheat, some brewers may opt to use rice or maize instead.
Interrupting or Manipulating Fermentation
Only under ideal conditions, including the right temperature, can fermentation occur. Therefore, by modifying the yeast’s environment, brewers can slow down or stop fermentation.
For instance, warming or cooling the wort during fermentation will cause it to proceed more slowly or cease altogether.
Additionally, fermentation can be slowed or stopped by fermenting in a pressurized atmosphere and changing the wort’s acidity. Depending on the ingredients used, non-alcoholic beer made with restricted fermentation can be a sweet beer. It may also have a “worty” or incomplete flavor.
3. Simulated Fermentation
Beer’s fermentation results in more than simply alcohol and fizz. Additionally, it enhances the flavors and scent. In the end, fermentation is what distinguishes a beer from sweet wort.
This does not imply that all non-alcoholic “beers” available have undergone fermentation. To manufacture a beverage that looks and tastes like beer, some producers completely forgo fermentation in favor of other production changes and recipe alterations. Brewers may choose to completely forgo the fermentation of carbohydrates in particular circumstances.
The importance of the fermentation process to beer is well-known. However, several available products on store shelves don’t give fermentation the slightest thought. Instead, they create a few fictitious elements that give the beer an authentic flavor.
The fermentation step is skipped during brewing when using the simulated fermentation method, and additives and enzymes are added to create an identical effect.
4. Dilution
Another technique is dilution, in which brewers make a concentrated beer by using a lot of malts and hops to brew it traditionally, then dilute it with water until the alcohol content is 0.5 or below.
The amount of water added will vary depending on the original brew’s alcohol content but is normally 10% or less. This indicates that if your beer has an ABV of 5%, then diluting it with 10% water will drop its ABV to 4%.
This process can be carried out either before or after fermentation.
New demands encourage the development of new technologies and innovations that can be used in the brewing process of non-alcoholic beer. The industry has witnessed a significant increase in the variety and quality of non-alcoholic beers available in the past three years. You can watch this video to witness a visualized process of brewing non-alcoholic beer.
Which Non-Alcoholic Beers Are Best?
The non-alcoholic beer business is constantly expanding, especially in Germany, where breweries are using cutting-edge techniques to create premium products. In actuality, the majority of sizable breweries offer alcohol-free beverages.
Non-alcoholic beer production and consumption have sharply increased in both America and the rest of the world. The non-alcoholic beer business was already worth more than $9.5 billion by 2020. According to Global Market Insights, the market will generate more than $26 billion by 2026.
Today’s non-alcoholic brewing retains the same flavor profiles as craft alcoholic beers, such as fruity, juicy, malty, nutty, herbal, and so on. Everything from session IPAs that are simple to drink to robust stouts with non-alcoholic roots can be found. There is undoubtedly a non-alcoholic beer that can meet your requirements if you’re concerned about other aspects, such as calories.
Here are some of the best non-alcoholic beers you can get on the market:
Heineken 0.0
In order to create a wonderful alcohol-free beer, Heineken’s non-alcoholic beer mixes a mildly malty body with its unique yeast’s light, fruity scents. Natural ingredients are used in its preparation, including tart lemon juice and lemon taste.
Master brewers started from scratch and spent years learning, brewing, and testing before they finally created a recipe renowned for its exquisitely balanced blend of light, malty body, and invigorating fruity scents. Reduced natural sugar content and superior brewed malt give the product its final shape.
Lagunitas IPNA
The Lagunitas non-alcoholic IPA has a 0.5% ABV and 28.32% IBU. The Lagunitas brewing team developed this new beverage, which is alcohol-free but tastes like an IPA craft beer, using their knowledge of hops and obsession with flavor.
Guinness 0.0
For Guinness 0.0, a few odd components are utilized in addition to water, barley, and hops. One is the vaguely described “natural flavorings,” and another is fructose, a naturally occurring sugar.
Last but not least is nitrogen. This causes the beer to agitate during opening and pouring, creating Guinness’s well-known surge and settling effect, along with the plastic “widget” you can hear rattling about the empty can.
Clausthaler Dry Hopped
Clausthaler Dry Hopped is a full-bodied, hoppy beer with notes of malty caramel. The first beverage of its sort is made using German engineering, the greatest non-alcoholic brewing technique currently in use worldwide, and Cascade Hops imported from the USA.
This uncommon combination comes from a distinct citrus flavor and an amber beer with a lot of character. Compared to Clausthaler Unfiltered, Clausthaler Dry Hopped has a distinctive malty flavor and a deeper golden hue.
BECK’S Blue
You can still get the complete BECK’S flavor with BECK’S Blue without the alcoholic component. This non-alcoholic beer from a macro brewery tastes just like the original. It has a grainy malt profile with some sweetness, the recognizable smell of a BECK’S bottle, and even a green hop flavor.
The method for manufacturing non-alcoholic beers is essentially the same: malted barley is mashed in hot water to extract the sugars, then it is boiled with hops, where the sugars are fermented with yeast to produce alcohol.
The use of non-alcoholic beers has increased significantly recently, which is good news for the beer sector. This could be the result of various factors, such as food, health, and places where drinking alcohol is illegal.
How Is Non-Alcoholic Beer Made FAQs
Is 0 alcohol beer healthy?
While there may be some benefits to drinking low- or alcohol-free beer over a standard pint, moderation is still advised. They contain a lot of carbohydrates, much like conventional beer, and more sugar compared to alcoholic ones. These components can cause weight gain and other health problems.
Are non-alcoholic beers really alcohol-free?
Non-alcoholic beers are exactly what their name implies: they go through the same brewing process as regular brews but don’t include alcohol. They are sometimes referred to as “near beers,” “little ales,” “small beers,” and—possibly—most cruelly—”pretend beers” in addition to being non-alcoholic drinks.
Is non-alcoholic beer actually beer?
Alcohol concentration is the primary distinction between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beers. Non-alcoholic beer is brewed with the same four basic components as alcoholic beer: water, grain, hops, and yeast. Breweries typically add spices and other ingredients to their non-alcoholic beer recipe, but these four components are the basis for it all.
How is non-alcoholic beer different?
The brewing process for nearly all non-alcoholic beers begins similarly to alcoholic beer. However, a few variations typically appear in the latter stages. The four main techniques used to make non-alcoholic beers are dealcoholization, controlled fermentation, simulated fermentation, and dilution.
What’s the point of non-alcoholic beer?
Non-alcoholic beers are consumed by a wide range of people for a number of reasons, including:
– Addiction Recovery
– Pregnancy
– Allergies
– Medical Conditions
– Prescription Medication
– Fitness or Weight Loss Goals
– Academic or Professional Goals
– Health Cleanses
What are the disadvantages of non-alcoholic beer?
Usually, ordinary beer is converted into non-alcoholic beer by taking the alcohol out. Even though it has a lot less alcohol, it still can contain trace amounts, making it not suitable for expectant mothers and those in alcoholism treatment. Additionally, it typically has a higher sugar content than conventional beer.