Alcohol-free craft beer

Non-alcoholic beer is also known as malt beer in the Netherlands. For a long time, there was a sort of taboo surrounding the consumption of non-alcoholic beer, as the taste often left a lot to be desired.

With the arrival of Radlers, non-alcoholic beers have really taken off. In the Netherlands, a beer is considered alcohol-free if it contains less than 0.1 per cent alcohol. There are beers with 0.0% and beers with a very low alcohol content; in our online shop, you’ll only find beers with less than 0.5% alcohol – also known as the international standard for alcohol-free. This is mainly down to the brewing process. The growing popularity of non-alcoholic beer is also reflected in trends such as Dry January and Stoptober.

The quality of the brewing process also determines the quality of the beer; there are now a large number of craft brewers who have mastered the art of alcohol-free brewing and thus offer delicious, alcohol-free alternatives. Alcohol-free beer is now just as flavourful as its alcoholic counterpart. As there is no alcohol in the beer, it also contains far fewer calories. In short, it is a flavourful and healthier alternative. In our online shop, you will find a wide selection of high-quality alcohol-free speciality beers.

There are three brewing methods that can be used to make non-alcoholic beer:

GIST

The first method most closely resembles the standard brewing process for regular beers. The type of yeast used determines how much alcohol is produced during fermentation. For low-alcohol or alcohol-free beers, yeast is used that produces little or no alcohol.

Distillation

The beer is brewed in the usual way, but afterwards, through high-pressure distillation, alcohol can be extracted from the beer at temperatures as low as 30 degrees. Unfortunately, this also results in some of the flavour being lost, which does not always benefit the beer.

Diaphragm filter

After the standard brewing process, the beer is passed through a special membrane filter, which removes the alcohol. This is a slow and costly process and, just as with distillation, flavour compounds are lost in the process.