Brewing Up Choice: Non Alcoholic Beers Go Bold

While creative beer styles are nothing new to the craft scene, the next generation of brewers are making sure N/A follows suit.

For decades, when the non-alcoholic beer market was dominated by the likes of O’Doul’s and Sharps, light lagers were seen as the category’s sole style option, despite being a pale (pun intended) imitation of their alcoholic counterparts. But as the craft era of N/A has continued to take hold, that has quickly changed. A new breed of craft breweries building off the innovative spirit of the overall craft category are taking N/A beers to exciting new heights by experimenting with unique styles, fruits, and bolder flavors to deliver choices to a segment of the market that previously had few. Today's N/A beers boast a kaleidoscope of flavor profiles, from tart sours and juicy fruit beers to even double-hopped IPAs, proving that creative expressions of everyone’s favorite malt beverage can exist in a non-alcoholic form. Today we look at three unique craft beer styles that have only recently become viable options for N/A.

Fruity Explorations, Without The Ethanol

Fruit beers, a popular choice in the full-alcohol craft beer world, have found their way into the N/A scene, becoming as common there as they have in the overall craft category. Breweries are incorporating a variety of fruits like raspberries, blueberries, and mangos, adding a refreshing and vibrant dimension to the traditionally malty brew. These options take the appeal of N/A to a broader audience, including those who might find the taste of beer too bitter on its own. Here are just a few examples of fruit-infused non-alcoholic near beers on the market that would be worth a sampling:

Bravus Brewing Raspberry Gose - for our money, a fruit beer HOFer.

Go Brewing Jab Jab Grapefruit IPA - a side of fresh fruit with your hoppy IPA.

Golden Road Mango Cart N/A - an N/A take on a delicious original.

DrinkSip Watermelon Refresher Wheat - summer picnics, look out.

Sours Get Serious (and Sober)

Sours, known for their refreshingly tart and funky flavor profiles, are also no longer off-limits for N/A beers. By utilizing specific yeast strains and fermentation techniques, brewers are creating sophisticated sour N/A beers that tantalize the taste buds. These options cater to adventurous drinkers who appreciate a complex, tart and layered experience, without the alcohol. While there is certainly overlap between fruit beers and sours, we’ll focus our attention here on those specifically made to the sour style. Some serious sours worth trying out include the following:

Athletic Brewing Soul Sour - one of several sours made by the King of N/A Craft Beers.

Bravus Shandy Sour - they had us at ‘Shandy’.

Busty Lush Tropical Weisse - a hybrid fruit/sour that is delicious in either category.

Woodland Farms Ruby Sour - great sour option from the popular northeast N/A brewery.

Pushing the Hop Limits

For hopheads who crave the bold bitterness of IPAs, the NA market is no longer a wasteland of thinner, lighter options. Enjoying full-bodied, hoppy brews without the alcohol was once thought to be an impossibility, but recently some innovative N/A-only brewers are tearing down those walls. As regular IPAs have become increasingly common in the non-alcoholic world, a few brewers have decided to take that a step further with a double-hop IPA offering, once thought to be the most reliable way to wake up the following morning with a hangover. While there are many extra-hoppy IPAs in the non-alcoholic space, here’s two that have bravely gone for a double-hop label:

Atmos Brewing Kora Double Hop IPA - made from stream water in the mountains of Idaho.

Go Brewing Not Just Another Story Double IPA - another standout from this Chicagoland brewer.

These advancements and creativity in taste and style are fueled by ongoing research and development in brewing technology, which continues to help boost the N/A movement.  Techniques like vacuum distillation allow brewers to gently remove alcohol after fermentation,  preserving the delicate flavors and aromas of the hops and malt. Others are experimenting with non-fermenting sugars and yeasts to create a wider range of alcohol-free flavor profiles. While both techniques can make a terrific non-alcoholic beer, they each allow breweries to focus on the craft of the beverage itself, lending itself to an eruption of varieties available to the market. The end result is a non-alcoholic beer space that is now a long ways away from that lonely O’Doul’s on the bottom shelf.