When Heineken first introduced its truly alcohol free 0.0 brand widely in the U.S. in 2019, I do recall being dimly aware at the time that it felt like a pretty significant sea change event. It helps, of course, that the beer is a quality product in and of itself–it’s very light, crisp, delicately grainy and blessedly free of the overly sweet, “worty” flavors that still dominate all too many non-alcoholic beer styles. It’s a good product, and one that is almost always in my fridge, a go-to for when I’m looking for inoffensive lager without the alcohol. I know I’m not the only one who thinks it’s actually superior to the original Heineken! But in retrospect, the true quantum leap that moment really represented was the jump to “0.0”, which is to say an alcohol level so low that it can genuinely be called “effectively none.” Functionally, this just represented a refinement of the same techniques that had been used to make non-alcoholic beer for decades at that point. But symbolically, it represented NA beer becoming that much more accessible, establishing a new bar that other brands would eventually strive to replicate.
But I’m probably getting ahead of myself. If you’re not aware–and many aren’t, because NA beer is still very, very niche to the overall beer market–most traditional non-alcoholic beers do indeed contain a small portion of ethanol in them. Legally, this level must be less than .5% ABV, meaning that there’s no practical danger of intoxication when drinking these beers–you’d feel bloated from excessive consumption of liquids before you ever felt some kind of alcoholic buzz. This ethanol is merely what is left over following the traditional methods for removing alcohol from fully fermented beer (such as boiling), or a small amount created via arrested fermentation, which is the method of fermenting the brew without generating significant amounts of alcohol in the first place.
When I talk about “traditional” NA beers, these are what I’m referring to–beers with .5% or less ABV, but still some measurable level of ethanol. This has been the standard from the first days of pioneers such as Clausthaler and O’Douls, to the modern era when a new influx of higher-quality NA craft beer styles has helped the segment vastly improve both its quality and its perception. Today, the NA beer market is the most vibrant and exciting it’s ever been, with a product that is being consumed not just by teetotalers, but instead by average drinkers of regular beer, wine and spirits. NA beer has managed to become not just a beverage of abstinence, but a beverage of moderation.
An ever-widening selection of craft non-alcoholic beer.
At the same time, though, the arrival of beers such as Heineken 0.0–and ones that have followed in the U.S. such as Budweiser Zero, Hoplark, Stella Artois Liberte 0.0, Suntory All-Free, Guinness 0.0, Bitburger Drive and others–still represent a significant evolution for the segment. On one hand, they potentially open up the NA beer world more fully to new demographics of consumers who are seeking beverage options that are truly alcohol free. And at the same time, one could argue they simply carry out the ethos of a “non-alcoholic” beer in a more genuine and complete way. The downside? Making 0.0 beers isn’t exactly easy, and the extra complexity in production may prevent many smaller craft breweries from being able to follow suit.
The Significance of 0.0
We should note that for many consumers, any perceived difference between .5% ABV beer and truly alcohol-free 0.0 beer would be seen as inconsequential hair-splitting. This is especially true for anyone who already chooses to drink alcohol on a regular basis, and the distinction may also seem inconsequential when you consider the fact that most of us do consume trace amounts of alcohol in other forms in our daily lives without even knowing it. In fact, there may be more alcohol present in fruit juices such as orange or grape juice, or in a ripe banana, certain vinegars or fermented bread dough, than there are in traditional non-alcoholic beers under .5% ABV. Even those who choose not to drink often end up consuming alcohol in these ways.
But at the same time, there are consumers out there who really, truly want a 0.0 option for reasons both symbolic and practical. Someone who has struggled with alcohol dependency might feel more comfortable with a 0.0 beer, assuming of course that they want to consume anything beer-adjacent at all. Likewise, there’s a practical niche as well, given that for certain medical conditions such as cirrhosis, the liver can’t really tolerate even .5% ABV beer. For someone in that situation, 0.0 beer is one area they’re still able to partake, an option that might be of great symbolic importance.
Likewise, these 0.0 beers arguably fit in better alongside the evolving modern conception of sobriety that has become more popular among millennials and members of Gen Z, as exemplified by the flourishing interest in mocktails and alcohol-free spirits that has accompanied the growth of NA beer. Unlike traditional NA beer, the alcohol-free spirits world has been “0.0” from the beginning, because zero-alcohol distillations such as Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Spirits have never involved fermentation–they revolve around the ability of distillation to infuse flavors without alcohol. Someone who enters the world of zero-proof spirits might expect their alcohol-free beers to live up to the same standard. Indeed, one could see why a casual observer might expect the entire NA beer market to eventually end up as 0.0 brands, in order to court the widest possible markets.
Of course, this is less practical in reality than it is in theory, especially once we consider the challenges faced by smaller craft beer brands in particular. The elephant in the room when it comes to the 0.0 beer discussion is that it takes a brewery with significant resources to pull it off–these beers are generally created with advanced (i.e. expensive) techniques such as vacuum distillation, intense reverse osmosis filtration, or water vapor gas stripping. That’s all well and good for the likes of Heineken or AB InBev, but the required equipment may lay outside the realm of practicality for the small craft brewery around the corner. If they want to produce an NA beer brand, chances are good that they’ll be settling for something meeting the “less than .5% ABV” legal definition.
Complicating things further is the lack of industry consensus on best practices when it comes to craft breweries making NA beer in the first place, especially when it comes to quality control methods for issues such as shelf life. Many smaller breweries have had their struggles creating shelf-stable NA products, because they lack the resources to invest in gold standard methods such as full pasteurization. This has led to many relying on various “proprietary techniques” to render beer shelf stable, with each brewery carefully guarding its methods, possibly out of some sense of self preservation/deflection of potential criticism. Note to consumers: It’s probably a good idea to target the freshest NA beer possible, to avoid potential quality control problems.
In Spain, drinkers have embraced 0.0 beers in a big way.
Still, I have a feeling that the relevance and consumer preference for 0.0 beers will probably only continue to increase in the coming years. Visiting Spain recently, it was particularly enlightening to see the prevalence and popularity of 0.0 beers in a market that ranks among the most thirsty for NA beer in the world–an estimated 13% or more of all the beer sold in Spain is now non-alcoholic beer, which is a stark contrast to a U.S. market that has been on a long, slow march toward 1%, even as we proclaim each and every year to be “the year of NA beer.” In Spain, meanwhile, ordering a non-alcoholic beer has long been an absolutely normalized part of daily life, and those brands now tend to be 0.0 selections such as Estrella Galicia 0.0, Moritz 0.0 and Ambar 0.0, in addition to prominent 0.0 beers from outside the country that are also on the shelves. It’s a fine selection for the sober-curious Spanish drinker.
At the end of the day, there’s not a really concrete reason why I specifically need 0.0 beer as a consumer, rather than traditional “less than .5% ABV” beer. I continue to drink regular, full-strength beer (and wine, and spirits, etc.) on a daily basis, after all. And yet I still appreciate 0.0 beer’s ascendance, and the impressive technical evolution on the beer production side that helped bring it into existence, just as surely as the same technology aided in making NA beer something you’d actually want to drink in 2023, rather than an inevitably watery disappointment. For drinkers who want to moderate their consumption without having to sacrifice flavor, the future remains bright. And with 0.0 beer, even those who don’t want to drink any alcohol at all are free to come along for the ride.
Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.