Each year more Americans participate in Dry January—a pledge to ditch alcohol during the first month of the year. For many, Dry January is a New Year resolution to drink less, while for others it’s a way to detox from excessive drinking over the holidays. Whatever your reason for giving up alcohol, you don’t have to give up flavor when you give up beer.
Not long ago there were only a couple of non-alcoholic (NA) beer brands on the market, none of which offered much in the way of flavor and variety. As a result, NA beer was shunned by most beer drinkers. Today, top brands and craft breweries have jumped on the non-alcoholic bandwagon, producing tasty NA lagers, India pale ales (IPA) and stouts. As a result, NA beers have gained popularity, especially in Europe.
In the U.S., health and wellness movements are influencing young people and health-conscious adults to cut down on their carb and alcohol intake, which is good news for breweries producing NA beer.
Yet, NA beers continue to struggle under the stigma of lacking flavor, and for a good reason.
Alcohol and Flavor
NA beer begins its life as a fully fermented beer, and then its alcohol content is stripped by heating and other methods such as vacuum distillation, membrane filtration and reverse osmosis. Unfortunately, alcohol is a flavoring agent that works by enhancing the aroma and solvent properties of beer, which helps beer extract complex flavors from the raw ingredients.
Without alcohol, NA beers are more sweet and syrupy than regular beer. Today’s top NA producers counteract the sugariness by adding bittering spices and plenty of hops.
8 Non-Alcoholic beers
Beer experts regularly research, test and rate non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beers. The following eight beers have made the lists of best NA beers published by Liquor.com, The Growler, VinePair, Esquire and Town & Country.
1. Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA
Rated #1 by several NA beer panels, Run Wild gives you the full brew experience with an approachable herbal bitterness and citrus flavor that balances its complex malt body. This beer is brewed with a blend of five Northwest hops and premium organic malts from the U.S. and Germany. Connecticut-based Athletic Brewing, which brews only NA beer, caters to athletic people and young professionals who want to drink in social gatherings without getting buzzed or drunk.
2. Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn
Another winner from Athletic Brewing, Upside Dawn is classic craft golden ale—refreshing, clean, balanced and light-bodied, with an aroma that offers subtle floral and earthy tones. Upside Dawn is brewed with premium organic malts from U.S. and Germany and a combination of English and traditional American hops.
3. BrewDog Nanny State
Made with a brigade of eight specialty malts and five North American hops, Nanny State is the hoppiest NA beer on the market. A pale ale that is more ruby in color than the classic pale ale, this beer delivers hop-forward malty and plummy flavors and the aroma of pine and citrus along with an unexpected punch of bitterness on the palate.
4. Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier (Wheat Beer)
Germany’s Weihenstephaner dubs itself the world’s oldest continuously operating brewery, started by Benedictine monks nearly 1,000 years ago in 1040. The brewery makes NA versions of its classic brews: Wheat Beer and Original Helles. The former tastes like a premium wheat beer: tangy, fresh and full-bodied with hints of cloves and honey as well as a fine yeasty spirit. Its flavor is achieved by a method in which the top fermentation is not interrupted, giving the beer time to mature before the alcohol is carefully removed.
5. Brooklyn Brewery Special Effects
Dry hopped with American mosaic, citra and amarillo hops, Special Effects is an amber lager that delivers the hop aromas and crisp citrus of the best IPAs without the alcohol. Instead of removing the alcohol after fermentation, Brooklyn uses a lazy yeast and a malt bill that doesn’t produce much alcohol. This beer offers a bread-like sweetness and taste of caramelized orange, followed by a caramel malt flavor that complements the modest bitterness at the end of each sip.
6. Clausthaler Dry Hopped
Clausthaler Dry Hopped is the world’s first non-alcoholic dry-hopped beer. This full-bodied, amber-colored beer with hints of malty caramel and a citrusy sweet aroma is the result of a unique combination of German craftsmanship and cascade hops imported from the U.S. The flavor profile includes sweet bread, caramel and grain with a hoppy finish.
7. Heineken 0.0
With Heineken 0.0, the popular Dutch brand joined the global NA beer game. Diehard fans of classic Heineken will not mistake 0.0 for the original, but blind taste tests have shown that many drinkers cannot tell the difference. This beer is not the same as 5% Heineken with its alcohol removed; it’s a whole new beer created from scratch by the brewery’s master brewers, fermented with the brand’s A-yeast, with its alcohol removed through a gentle vacuum distillation process
8. Hellraiser Dark Amber
This hop-forward, medium-bodied amber by Missouri’s WellBeing Brewing has the perfect balance of floral aroma and spicy hops to delight the palate of craft beer enthusiasts. Hellraiser is brewed in St. Louis using German technology to gently remove the alcohol.
Drinking non-alcoholic beer on New Year’s Eve has many benefits, among them the lack of a hangover on New Year’s Day. When you choose NA beer over regular beer, you also bypass the danger of driving home while intoxicated.
If the lackluster performance of the original NA beers turned you off, the achievements of this new generation of NA beers can encourage you to skip alcohol during Dry January and beyond. Each of the eight New Year’s Eve-worthy NA beers in our list is worth a shot. Try them!