How to Choose a Non-Alcoholic Beer That Tastes Like Beer
Choose by style: which non-alcoholic beers come closest for wheat, pilsner, IPA and stout drinkers, what 0.0% means, and where hop water fits.
Choose a non-alcoholic beer the way you’d choose any beer: by style. A wheat beer drinker and an IPA drinker want different things, and the best alcohol-free version of each comes from a different brewery. Then decide whether you need a stated 0.0% or are happy with under 0.5%, and start from the beer you already like.
Start from what you already drink
Six starting points, one for each kind of beer drinker. Each links to the beer on our shelf:
Wheat beer
Weihenstephaner or Erdinger: full-bodied Bavarian wheat, the style that loses least without alcohol.
Pilsner or lager
Bitburger Drive or Estrella Galicia 0,0: crisp European lagers, both labeled 0.0%.
IPA
Athletic Run Wild for a bitter, piney IPA; Free Wave or BrewDog Hazy AF for a softer hazy one.
Stout or porter
Athletic All Out: roast, coffee and dark chocolate, which carry well without alcohol.
Light and easy
Athletic Upside Dawn or Athletic Lite: mild golden beers with little bitterness.
Not a beer fan
Hitachino Nest Yuzu Ginger or a lemon radler: citrus and spice first, beer second.
What makes beer taste like beer
Four things carry the flavor, and alcohol-free brewers have to keep all four without the alcohol that usually rounds them out:
Hops
Bitterness and aroma, from citrus and pine to floral and herbal. Hops survive alcohol-free brewing well, which is why IPAs are some of the best non-alcoholic beers.
Malt
Body, color and a bready sweetness. Without alcohol a beer can taste thin, so brewers lean on malt to fill it out.
Yeast
The banana and clove of a wheat beer, the fruit of an ale. In a wheat beer the yeast does so much of the work that the alcohol is barely missed.
Carbonation
Lifts the aroma and sharpens bitterness. Alcohol-free beer tastes best cold and poured into a glass, where you can smell it.
Alcohol adds body and warmth. How a brewer makes up for it decides most of what’s in the glass.
Two ways to make it
Some non-alcoholic beer is brewed as full-strength beer and then has the alcohol taken out. Some is brewed so that little or no alcohol forms in the first place:
Bitburger, Erdinger and Weihenstephaner remove the alcohol from beer they brewed; Athletic Brewing brews to under 0.5% from the start. Neither route makes better beer on its own. Every product page on our shelf shows which one a beer took, under Process.
0.0% or under 0.5%?
| Labeled 0.0% | Labeled under 0.5% | |
|---|---|---|
| What it means | No measurable alcohol | A trace, the US limit for “non-alcoholic” |
| Typical styles | European lagers and pilsners | Most American craft styles: IPAs, stouts, wheat and golden ales |
| On our shelf | Bitburger Drive, Estrella Galicia 0,0, Curious No. 0, Stiegl Zitrone | Every Athletic Brewing beer, Weihenstephaner, Erdinger, BrewDog, Hitachino Nest |
Under 0.5% is too little to feel. If you need a true zero, for a breathalyzer interlock or a workplace test, read whether non-alcoholic beer shows up on a breathalyzer and choose a 0.0%.
Lighter than beer, too
Without alcohol, which carries 7 calories a gram, non-alcoholic beer is lighter than the beer it copies. Calories per 12 oz (355 mL), from each label:
Regular beer figure from USDA FoodData Central. The darker and fuller the beer, the more calories it keeps from the malt.
Five to start with
One for each kind of beer drinker. The numbers aren’t a ranking.
- 01Wheat beer drinkersWeihenstephaner Non-Alcoholic
- 02Pilsner and lager drinkersBitburger Drive
- 03IPA drinkersAthletic Brewing Run Wild IPA
- 04Stout and porter drinkersAthletic Brewing All Out Extra Dark
- 05For people who don't love beerHitachino Nest Yuzu Ginger
Weihenstephaner Non-Alcoholic
- <0.5%
- Dealcoholized
- Germany
From the Bavarian brewery founded in 1040, dealcoholized to under 0.5%. Pour it into a tall glass for the foam.
Bitburger Drive
- 0.0%
- Dealcoholized
- Germany
Crisp and lightly bitter, with golden malt. Serve it very cold.
Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA
- <0.5%
- Never Alcoholized
- United States
A West Coast-leaning IPA with Northwest hops and a firm bitterness, at 65 calories a can.
Athletic Brewing All Out Extra Dark
- <0.5%
- Never Alcoholized
- United States
Editor’s Choice Our pick for the dark-beer drinker.
A dark, roasty beer under 0.5%. What it can’t fully copy is the creaminess of a nitro stout.
Hitachino Nest Yuzu Ginger
- <0.5%
- Dealcoholized
- Japan
Editor’s Choice This is the beer we pour for people who love craft beer.
Bright citrus and a little ginger heat from the Kiuchi brewery in Japan. A good bridge if beer has never been your drink.
Can’t choose?
Not quite beer: hop water and radlers
Searching for a non-alcoholic drink with a flavor reminiscent of beer? Two drinks sit next to it:
Hop water
Sparkling water steeped with hops. There’s no malt, so no body or sweetness and usually no calories: it smells like an IPA and drinks like seltzer.
Radler
Beer mixed with lemon soda, a German classic. Stiegl Zitrone is 0.0%; Athletic Ripe Pursuit is under 0.5%.
If it’s beer itself you miss, start with the style you drank: browse our non-alcoholic beer shelf by style and alcohol level, or read our guide to Athletic Brewing.
Common questions
Does non-alcoholic beer taste like beer?
The good ones come close. Hops survive alcohol-free brewing well, so IPAs and hoppy pale ales are some of the most convincing, and wheat beers keep their yeast character. Light lagers are hardest, because there's little else to hide the missing alcohol. Most taste a little lighter in body than the beer they copy.
Which non-alcoholic beer tastes most like beer?
It depends on the beer you drink. Wheat beer drinkers usually find Bavarian wheat beers such as Weihenstephaner or Erdinger closest; IPA drinkers, a hoppy IPA such as Athletic Run Wild; pilsner drinkers, a 0.0% German pilsner such as Bitburger Drive. Try two or three of your style.
What's the difference between 0.0% and non-alcoholic beer?
In the US, non-alcoholic means under 0.5% alcohol, so a beer can carry a small trace. A beer labeled 0.0% has no measurable alcohol. Both are too little to feel; choose 0.0% if you need a true zero, such as for an interlock device or a workplace test.
What is hop water?
Sparkling water steeped with hops. It has the aroma of an IPA but no malt, so there's no body or sweetness and usually no calories. It's a different drink from non-alcoholic beer: closer to a flavored seltzer that smells like beer.
