Non-Alcoholic Beer Poll

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Have you or are you interested in brewing a non-alcoholic beer?

  • I have or I want to

    Votes: 90 51.7%
  • I have no interest

    Votes: 84 48.3%

  • Total voters
    174

TxBrew

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I keep seeing news articles about how popular NA beer is becoming. Might be in markets or people I don't interact with, though I only interact with my goats and chickens, so not the best judge.

So what is your take on NA beer. Have you brewed it? Do you want to brew it?

Do you see it trending?
 
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Gave up drinking alcohol late 2011. Would love to get back to some form of brewing as I enjoyed the process. Several breweries are doing a great job of creating low (<.05) to zero alcohol. As I understand it you can heat the finished product gently to remove the alcohol, some capture the flavors and put that back into the beer. Others brew a beer through various methods that keep the production of alcohol very low to begin with.

I've tried Clausthaler - The hopped version is excellent, Original version good.
Bravus Brewing - Mostly excellent
Athletic Brewing - Mostly excellent, hard to buy as they sell out quick
Wellbeing - only tried one variety and it was ok, not great
Surreal - Ok, only can drink it while eating something that helps bring the flavors forward, otherwise muted to my tastebuds
Partake (Canadian) - OK, but kind of watery.
Heineken 0,0 - Ok, not great
Various German brands - Mostly ok but again not great
Various American offerings from the big brewers are mostly bad

So I'd love to learn how to brew one of the beers that limits the alcohol upfront in the process and produce a nice hoppy homemade beer. Finding info about how to actually do this proved to be difficult so I gave up and mostly buy Clausthaler because it is easy to find (Trader Joes) and reasonably cheap compared to The Bravus or Athletic brands that I like but have to mail order.

For all the people who hate it, just don't brew it or drink it and enjoy what you want.
 
I just don’t get the point. What’s the point of unnecessary calories with no buzz?
Maybe that’s just me. But I don’t love the taste enough to say I’d rather have it over a coke...
 
I'm cutting back on alcohol and at first I thought, why not just drink water? But after more consideration, I may try a N/A or very low ABV brew. The basic brewing radio podcast has done a few 2% ABV brews, I may try that first.
 
Gave up drinking alcohol late 2011. Would love to get back to some form of brewing as I enjoyed the process. Several breweries are doing a great job of creating low (<.05) to zero alcohol. As I understand it you can heat the finished product gently to remove the alcohol, some capture the flavors and put that back into the beer. Others brew a beer through various methods that keep the production of alcohol very low to begin with.

I've tried Clausthaler - The hopped version is excellent, Original version good.
Bravus Brewing - Mostly excellent
Athletic Brewing - Mostly excellent, hard to buy as they sell out quick
Wellbeing - only tried one variety and it was ok, not great
Surreal - Ok, only can drink it while eating something that helps bring the flavors forward, otherwise muted to my tastebuds
Partake (Canadian) - OK, but kind of watery.
Heineken 0,0 - Ok, not great
Various German brands - Mostly ok but again not great
Various American offerings from the big brewers are mostly bad

So I'd love to learn how to brew one of the beers that limits the alcohol upfront in the process and produce a nice hoppy homemade beer. Finding info about how to actually do this proved to be difficult so I gave up and mostly buy Clausthaler because it is easy to find (Trader Joes) and reasonably cheap compared to The Bravus or Athletic brands that I like but have to mail order.

For all the people who hate it, just don't brew it or drink it and enjoy what you want.


There is an increasing number of people who are reducing or giving up alcohol totally. My wife is among them. Personally I prefer a regular brew. I have tasted several NA beers (mostly German), and found most of them either too sweet or too watery, There are a few out there that do come close, so I don't mind drinking NA on occasion with my wife. Thanks for sharing your feedback on some beer brands I hadn't heard of here in Germany. Will check if they are available here. In any case, it would be nice to know how to brew a good NA beer myself.
 
My best friend and brewing buddy had to give up alcohol a few years back. I think he still misses the brewing projects we used to have together. I recently bought some Lagunta's sparkling hop water as a way to test the waters and he loved it. I feel he would enjoy it if I had a couple NA brews for him vs having only Diet Coke, milk, juice, etc.
 
The few places I shop have little to no selections of NA beer and hug selections of national and micro brands.
 
I've had to cut back on my alcohol intake, but I still crave some hoppy, malty goodness. O'Douls Amber and Clausthaler Dry Hopped are my favorite N/A beers so far, and Paulaner's N/A Radler is very tasty. St. Pauli is OK, Heineken Zero is bland (what did I expect? lol). Kaliber is decent.

I found that Wellbeing's wheat & amber were both somewhat sour. They claim to use the vacuum distillation method. This article (https://gizmodo.com/the-science-of-non-alcoholic-beer-509674407) suggests that the sourness is a by-product of forced carbonation.

I wonder if there's a way to chemically remove ethanol from beer, so that the other flavors are not lost? I know there's been research into direct ethanol fuel cells, but not clear if anyone has applied this to beverages. I've done a few quick searches but haven't come up with much.

I did find this: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2016.01.012 about a microbial reactor... probably not fit for human consumption though! Ha.
 
My wife and I have mostly quite drinking so my brew gear is sitting neglected. I still prefer the taste of regular beer to any NA product I have found but would love to be able to brew a great NA beer. Vacuum distillations seems to be the best method, but likely not achievable for the home brewer. I think this is something that will continue to get more popular.
 
My brother is alcoholic, gave up drinking entirely (much respect and credit goes to him). But he drinks NA beer. I'd love to be able to brew a great-tasting NA beer he could have.....

But I don't even know where to start....it must be incredibly difficult. I've tried a few NA beers from the majors, none worth a hoot IMO. I keep thinking that if it were easy to brew a great-tasting NA beer, they'd do it, and if anyone COULD do it, they would have done it.
 
i said i have, but it wasn't on purpose....my sake attempts always came out around 1% alcohol.....never could get the koji to convert....
 
I keep seeing news articles about how popular NA beer is becoming. Might be in markets or people I don't interact with, though I only interact with my goats and chickens, so not the best judge.

So what is your take on NA beer. Have you brewed it? Do you want to brew it?

Do you see it trending?
If I am going to brew beer, it will be real beer. None of this almost beer.
Just sayin’.
 
I've been wanting to try but I'm not at all optimistic I can do it. So I always end up doing a regular beer I can be almost sure I'll be happy with. Maybe one day a magical yeast will be discovered. Hope so!
 
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this is my no alcoholic malt beverage of choice!
 
Lagunitas Hop Water is great if you're looking for an alternative. zero carbs, zero alcohol. Theres also a thc/cbd version out soon if you live in one of those states.
 
Seriously? I got into this to make "beer," not 'malt flavored sparkling beverage.' If I wanted that, I would just drink Bud with all the masses of mouth-breathing, monosyllabic gasbags out there.
 
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Several years ago I brewed a low abv blonde ale. After fermenting I racked off a gallon, froze it and poured off the alcohol from the top. Don't have a clue as to the final abv, but must have been pretty low. You could definitely tell the difference side by side, but it was still pretty good.
 
I just don’t get the point. What’s the point of unnecessary calories with no buzz?
Maybe that’s just me. But I don’t love the taste enough to say I’d rather have it over a coke...

I LOVE beer. Love it, love it, love it. But I sometimes want to have one and still drive and pick up my grandkids or head out with friends and drive.

I don't have a sweet tooth at all, and won't drink soda or things like sweetened ice tea. I won't drink anything with sugar in it or fake sugar, so that leaves out lemonade, etc.

I drink beer, coffee, water and an occasional glass of wine. I would love to have a low alcohol great tasting beer in a style I like (like IPA or pale ale), but I've never found one yet.
 
I would love to have access to even a pretty decent non-alcoholic beer, but they just aren't to be found so far. There are a couple that aren't horrid, but nothing I'd describe as actually good or decent. They've been good enough to mix into a proper beer to bring down the abv while still maintaining a nice taste. The problem with all of the ones I've tried so far has been that they're too sweet, they just can't get rid of the sweetness. I don't know if adding more hops would solve it (doubt it, otherwise someone would have done it already). Even Brewdog, one of my favorite brewers, failed with the Nanny State, which just tastes like hopwater, not beer.

I have on the other hand found several nice lower alcohol content options in the 2.5-2.8% range recently, a couple of which (IPAs) have become staples in my fridge. I'd like to try my hand at brewing a hefty IPA at that range sometime. Need new fermentation vessels...
 
Seriously? I got into this to make "beer," not 'malt flavored sparkling beverage.' If I wanted that, I would just drink Bud with all the masses of mouth-breathing, monosyllabic gasbags out there.
Not even if it actually tasted good, unlike Bud?
 
I don't actually care about a buzz most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a little overindulgence once in a while, but I mostly drink to enjoy the taste and flavor. I'm not specifically looking for NA, but lower alcohol but good flavor.

Second bonus for lower calorie, can enjoy more of them.
 
I brewed it once for a friend's wife who was having troupe producing breast milk. She had been suggested to try a malt tea and wasn't looking forward to it. It was successful, but I wouldn't do it again unless there was a similar specific purpose.
 
I remember I read some few years ago that someone was breeding a yeast that did not make the alcohol or it was so low as to be non alcoholic?
If I could do a regular grain bill and have it 1-2 % I would give it a try. Try anything once.
As others have said, I like the euphoric, as well as the taste, and alcool does present to the overall impression of a beer.
NA beer isn't really beer, its carbonated malt beverage to my mind.
 
I LOVE beer. Love it, love it, love it. But I sometimes want to have one and still drive and pick up my grandkids or head out with friends and drive.

I don't have a sweet tooth at all, and won't drink soda or things like sweetened ice tea. I won't drink anything with sugar in it or fake sugar, so that leaves out lemonade, etc.

I drink beer, coffee, water and an occasional glass of wine. I would love to have a low alcohol great tasting beer in a style I like (like IPA or pale ale), but I've never found one yet.

^this, this, this. Minus the grandkids and lack of sweet tooth.
 
I remember I read some few years ago that someone was breeding a yeast that did not make the alcohol or it was so low as to be non alcoholic?
If I could do a regular grain bill and have it 1-2 % I would give it a try. Try anything once.
As others have said, I like the euphoric, as well as the taste, and alcool does present to the overall impression of a beer.
NA beer isn't really beer, its carbonated malt beverage to my mind.
I don't know that you need a specialty yeast with a low alcohol tolerance (1-2%) or else you would have a malty-sweet drink.

The art would be in a balanced grain bill of fermentable and non-fermentable sugars with an estimated low abv without tasting too thin or too sweet.
 
I found it necessary to give up alcohol, but still love a hoppy beer. I find a few of the offerings in the stores acceptable ( Bravus, Becks NA, heineken 0.0, a few more). They are tough to find.
On a recent trip to Iceland, I sampled some of their low alcohol beers. Gull was not bad, and it was available in every grocery store and gas station.
I would like to dust off the brewing equipment and try brewing a good beer under 2 percent.
 
I've often brewed ordinary bitters at 3% to 3.5%, that's about as low as I want to go.

I have on the other hand found several nice lower alcohol content options in the 2.5-2.8% range recently, a couple of which (IPAs) have become staples in my fridge. I'd like to try my hand at brewing a hefty IPA at that range sometime. Need new fermentation vessels...

As a homebrewer, the 2% to 3% range is probably the best bet for a low ABV brew. Spending time to do more research and test batches for this has been on my list, but there are too many other things higher on the list. Years ago I brewed a 3.5% Mild for an event and I was surprised how nice it was to drink a pint after work or after working in the yard. I recently brewed a ~2.9% Porter but it got there due to a very high mash temp. Since it had more calories and carbs than the same beer fermented to 5%, it defeated half the purpose for me.

I purchased a mix 6-pack of NA beers from the local Total Wine. I could not find dates on any of the cans, so they may have been very old, but I was surprised how bad most of them were.
 
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