[ beer feature ]
DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT THE BEER WITH NO ALCOHOL?
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Award-winning beer writer Neil Miller steps out of his hop-fuelled Pale Ale comfort zone to examine the growing number of beers that have zero or negligible alcohol content. The aim is to find out what they taste like, who drinks them, and why.
Neil Miller is an awardwinning beer writer. To contact Neil regarding beer features or samples, please email him at beerlytweeting@gmail.com
New Ways Brewing Co.’s Manuka Stout
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NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER is totally a thing these days – and many in the industry expect it to become even more of a thing in the future. For proof of this theory, Heineken recently launched Heineken 0.0 which, as the name suggests, contains no alcohol at all. Well, technically it has less than 0.05% ABV as the alcohol has, to quote the brewer, “been gently removed”. A global juggernaut such as Heineken does not launch a new brand expecting to lose money or market share. They would have been encouraged by figures from research group Canadean, showing consumption of zero alcohol beer in Europe was consistently growing over 5% annually over a period of five years. This non-alcoholic trend is occurring in New Zealand as well. According to Statistics New Zealand, between 2000 and 2016 the amount of beer consumed here that was under 1.15% ABV (Stats do not specifically measure non-alcoholic beers) rose by nearly 50%. That number has likely increased since the tightening of drink driving limits, and Kiwis’ increased focus on health and wellbeing. So, this begs the obvious question as to why people choose to drink beer which is, after all, fundamentally an alcoholic beverage with no alcohol in it. There are a range of answers. I first became aware of zero alcohol beers when my female friends started becoming pregnant. I should stress that I had nothing to do with the pregnancies. Many of them craved the taste and sociability
FMCG BUSINESS: THE SHOUT - OCTOBER 2018
of a beer, but wanted no alcohol. As a result, I was introduced to Clausthaler Classic, a German brew regarded as Europe’s most popular non-alcoholic beer. I was initially sceptical but a gentleman never refuses an offer of a beer from a pregnant woman if he has any sense. It is fair to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the graininess of the beer, followed by a gentle bitterness. It would fool many drinkers in a blind taste test. The ultimate compliment was from the mothers who continued to buy Clausthaler long after their little ones had started school. Some people choose to drink non-alcoholic beer for health and lifestyle reasons. Zero alcohol beers have less calories and less sugar than most beers which often helps with a dietary plan, or health issues such as diabetes. Heineken 0.0 for example is 69 calories per bottle. By contrast, a standard Heineken is virtually double that at 139 calories. Other people like talking and relaxing over rounds of beer, but wish to remain in total control. In some cases, people cannot or should not drink beer for medical reasons and non-alcoholic beer provides them with a safe option. Heineken summed it up with the phrase: “Those moments you want to enjoy the taste of great beer, but having alcohol isn’t appropriate”. The tightening of the drink-driving limits in New Zealand has certainly boosted sales of midstrength, light and non-alcoholic beers as people have become more cautious about what and how much they drink before getting behind the wheel. This was foreseen by German giant Bitburger, which developed a car-friendly brew called ‘Drive’ early on. It is 0.0% alcohol, which contrasts with Clausthaler and Heineken who concede their products could be up to 0.5% alcohol, though the actual result is generally much lower.