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Non-alcoholic beer is having a bit of a moment, and weโre here for it.
Gone are the days when your wise choice to cut back on alcohol is โrewardedโ with one or two flavorless options, thanks to an industry that is investing more into inclusivity.
Of course, not everyone has infused the same amount of love and care into their NA offerings, so to help you slosh through the growing range of NA options out there, weโve put together a list of the best NA beers in our book.
Athletic Brewing Free Wave
Description
Crisp, flavorful, and unapologetically hoppy, we simply could not find a tastier NA beer than the Athletic Brewing Free Wave Hazy IPA
Compromising very little on flavor while keeping the price reasonable, Heineken 0.0 is an easy win if you already enjoy the taste of this classic lager.
Best For: As with the entire ABC catalog, the Free Wave (and the Run Wild IPA) is perfect for the IPA-head who wants to transition from alcoholic beer to NA with imperceptible, if any, loss in taste or quality.
Itโs no secret around here that Athletic Brewing Companyโthe first brand of any kind to receive an A+ review from usโis our non-alcoholic brewer of choice.
And we use โnon-alcoholic brewerโ intentionally because, where the idea of NA beer is tokenized by big brewers into one or two often underwhelming selections, non-alcoholic (craft) beer is all Athletic Brewing Company doesโwell, that and sparkling water.
In our interview for the review, ABC Founder Bill Shufelt informed us that the Run Wild IPA and Free Wave Hazy IPA are their #1 and #2 sellers, respectively, but we prefer the hazy for its perfectly balanced pairing of hoppy bitterness and bold, citrusy notes.
Like most non-alcoholic beers, the dual benefit of Free Wave and other Athletic Brewing Company brews is a whittled-down calorie count due to the lack of alcohol, but ABC stands out with organic vienna malt and no cheap grains/fillers.
We could dither on all day about ABCโs ingredient quality, brewing process, etc.โand trust us, we didโbut at the end of the day, you just need to try the Free Wave to see what we mean.
If IPAs arenโt your thing (said while peering judgmentally at you over horn-rimmed glasses), donโt worry, because ABC has lagers, golden ales, stouts, pales, and more.
Best for: Folks who like refreshing, fruity, less hoppy beers, and/or those who prefer a totally alcohol-free (versus NA) beer.
Set apart from NA beersโwhich can contain less than 0.5% alcoholโCeria Brewingโs completely alcohol-free brews mirror the โcraftinessโ of Athletic Brewing with a 0.00% ABV Belgian Witbier they call Grainwave and a 0.00% IPA dubbed Indiewave.
Of course, weโd like to see their selection grow beyond these two offerings, but itโs very clear upon tasting that โbeer doctorโ Keith Villa, the man at the helm of Ceria who also created Blue Moon, knows what heโs doing (seriouslyโhe has a PhD in brewing sciences).
Indeed, the explosive tapestry of citrus that plays across the tongue immediately after that first sip of Ceria Grainwave feels like a spiritual successor to Blue Moon, but with deeper and more nuanced flavors to explore.
Ceria Grainwave makes the orange peel and coriander pop so potently, but in a way that doesnโt drown out the malty, slightly tart base that defines all good Belgian witbiersโand with no added sugar, by the way.
We havenโt tried the Indiewave IPA yet, but Grainwave has certainly earned our vote as a delicious wheat beer fit for some serious summer-evening-on-the-porch vibes.
Best for: Hardcore IPA lovers moving to the NA side of things and hoping to hang on to that hoppy goodness.
Despite our favorite selection from our favorite NA beer brand (Athletic Brewing) being an IPA, we still have to give the actual title for best NA IPA to the Lagunitas IPNA. That was a lot of acronyms.
For those not in the know, Lagunitas is a California-based brewing company that has been cranking out cult favorites in the IPA game for decades now, including such ironically named, albeit alcohol-containing gems as Lagunitas Sucks, Super Cluster, Little Sumpinโ Sumpinโ, and more.
But fear not, NA crowd, because Lagunitas has mustered up two seriously tasty NA selections, of which the IPNA is our favorite.
Lagunitas describes this bold IPA as โmassively dry-hopped and delicious,โ and as self-proclaimed beer doctors (yeah, weโre stealing that, Ceria), we heartily concur.
The IPNA is extremely clean, hitting you with very little else in terms of citrusy or other notesโitโs just an explosion of hops, and Lagunitas is undeniably one of the best in the biz when it comes to hoppy creations.
Lagunitas uses the same ingredients used in their other IPAs for the IPNA, and if youโve tried their other brews, youโll notice the lack of dropoff in taste or quality.
If you do ever dabble in the alcoholic side of hoppy brews, weโll point you to the Little Sumpinโ Sumpinโ for starters, but this is the best NA IPA in our book.
Best for: If youโre at all into dark beers, and youโre looking to cut back on the alcohol and/or calories, your liquid dessert awaits.
Known to one of our writersโ kids as โDaddyโs nighttime drinkโ both for the label and his preferred hour of consumption, Athletic Brewing Companyโs All Out Extra Dark beer is just plain delicious.
Founder Bill and company have taken a more relaxed approach to categorizing this dark beer, though they say itโs a โstout-inspired brew,โ to which our palates agree.
Close your eyes, take a sip, and youโll find all the dark coffee, chocolatey, nutty goodness you expect from a stout, alcohol or otherwise.
Best for: Non-craft-beer folks who simply want a cold, crisp NA beer that doesnโt taste like water.
We know we low-key shaded big brewers at the beginning of this article, and we still stand by our claims when it comes to their unconvincing investment in NA beers, but Heineken 0.0 earns exempt status with its surprisingly tasty, totally non-watery flavor.
As we suspected, Heineken removes the alcohol after the fact instead of reinventing the brewing process like some of the above NA brands do, but on taste alone, Heineken 0.0 is definitely our favorite alcohol-free beer from a major brewer.
The fact that they kept it to 0.0% alcohol and less than 70 calories is certainly a win as well.
As for how the taste relates to standard Heineken, the base is there (they use a special form of A-yeast in both kinds), as is the subtle fruitiness, but it seems a little maltier.
Perhaps our only legitimate nitpick here is the fact that the Heineken 0.0 label is way too similar to their standard lager (true story, one of our writers accidentally went NA for a night).
Big brewer bias aside, Heineken 0.0 is a fine choice for anyone who likes a refreshing, uniquely flavorful brew.
Best for: Anyone who enjoys a fruity, slightly hoppy, NA beverage that can help you wind down for a chill evening.
On a nutritional level, HOP WTR exceeds every choice on this list with their use of nootropics and adaptogens to mimic the calming effects of a beer in a healthy way, but we have to keep them at โhonorable mentionโ status because their drinks are much more on the sparkling water side of the spectrum.
If youโre specifically looking to replace the flavor of beer, the closest thing HOP WTR offers is their Classic flavor (nothing in the way of the few hops that are there), but this isnโt really the application HOP WTR is shooting for.
Rather, their hopped-up sparkling waters create their own niche that rests between sparkling water and beer, functionally replacing the latter while drinking like the former.
HOP WTR offers Classic, Lime, Blood Orange (our favorite), Mango, and other flavors of subtly flavored and hopped beverages, all of which are easy to have several of.
And you can actually feel the L-theanine and ashwagandhaโadaptogens that fight stress and moreโgently calming you down after an active day at work or what have you.
Best for: When only an NA stout will do, and itโs dinner time, Guinness 0.0 is an excellent addition to the table (note: our Guinness-loving managing editor forced us to include this).
We realize choosing a beer as basic as Guinness for our favorite NA nitro might provide meme fuel for beer snobs, but weโve got two major reasons for singling Guinness 0.0 out:
Itโs vegan, thanks to the isinglass-free brewing process.
Darn it if it doesnโt pair well with pretty much every food.
What is it about Guinness? Stews, steak, bread, chocolate, desserts, all the good stuffโGuinness 0.0 pairs just as effectively with these foods as does its boozier progenitor.
Itโs brewed using the same natural ingredients as regular Guinness, but the alcohol is removed with a cold filtration process, which prevents excess heat from messing up the flavor/composition.
Weโre still prioritizing ground-up NA brewing, of course, but if youโre going to sap out the alcohol after the fact, this is among the best ways to do so.
All this being said, if youโre a Guinness expert especially, the fullness of the flavor definitely seems to have dropped off a bit. Everythingโs there (roasty/coffee notes, etc.), but noticeably muted.
One common and generally preferred method (Guiness 0.0 uses this method) involves cold filtration, whereby a membrane is used to filter out the alcohol at low (usually under 60 deg Fahrenheit) temperatures.
A less desirable, but common method includes adding steam or water to the beer, boiling it under pressure, and allowing the alcohol to evaporate into a condenser.
Is there any alcohol in NA beer?
Possibly.
Any beer officially designated as non-alcoholic must contain less than 0.5% alcohol, and most NA beers contain more than 0.0% alcohol while remaining under this limit.
This article contains more information on the alcohol content of NA beer, as well as the main alcohol removal methods brewers use.
Does NA beer have fewer calories and carbs than regular beer?
NA beer often contains fewer calories than regular beer, thanks to the removal of alcohol (which contains calories in itself), but there is no guarantee that an NA beer will have fewer carbs, considering NA brewers can still go as crazy as they want with the hops.
An important note: some lower-quality NA beers can even have more calories/carbs than regular beer because of added sugar.
You donโt want the calories or the cheap taste in that case, friend!
Which non-alcoholic beer tastes the most like beer?
This is of course highly subjective, but as for our list of favorites, most of Athletic Brewingโs Beers as well as the Lagunitas IPNA were extremelyโpretty much indistinguishablyโclose in taste to their alcoholic counterparts.
Is it worth drinking non-alcoholic beer?
If the alternative means drinking an alcoholic beer, yes. If you use the lack of alcohol as an excuse to drink ten NA beers (and/or replace water), then certainly not. Alcohol or not, responsible use is always the answer.
That said, beer is actually more nutritious than you might think (alcoholic or otherwise). This article explains many of the potential health benefits of NA beer, including inflammation control, sleep improvements, and more.
Does non-alcoholic beer give you a hangover?
It would be extremely difficult to have an alcohol-induced hangover with NA beer, considering youโd have to drink 20-30 NA beers to equal a single lager in many cases.
However, if you drink too much of anything containing carbs, you absolutely can experience adverse, sometimes hangover-like effects (fatigue, sluggishness, etc.).
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