Germany: Alcohol-free beer sales double in past decade

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Germany's non-alcoholic beer production has enjoyed a boom in the last 10 years, according to a new report. Low-alcohol drinks like Radler are also seeing increased sales.

Germany's Federal Statistical Office, Destatis, published a new report on Tuesday highlighting that drinkers across the country are increasingly turning to alcohol-free varieties for their after-work or weekend choice of beer.

In the last ten years, the production of non-alcoholic beer has more than doubled in Germany. In 2023, that amounted to some 556 million liters (147 million gallons) and €548 million ($593 million) in sales.

The new statistics were published to coincide with International Beer Day, which is August 2.

Destatis also noted that the production of low-alcohol drinks like Radler, a mixture of beer and lemonade, has also increased from 328 million liters in 2013 to 363 million liters in 2023.

"However," the report said, "there is still much more beer with alcohol being produced" in Germany than non-alcoholic.

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If you can find it, Augustiner Hell Alkohholfrei is the best alc free beer.

Nice. Will look for it.

Here in Texas, Karbach makes a Free & Easy NA that comes in both an IPA and Belgian style that are pretty tasty.

I haven’t had that one, but will keep an eye out for it! My vote - so far - goes to Ur Krostitzer Alkoholfrei though - of all the non alcoholic beers I’ve tried in Germany, it has by far the most beer-like taste, doesn’t taste weirdly malty and hasn’t replaced the alcohol with sugar….

Nobody has it in stock, been looking in appr. 20 different markets

Check restaurants and beer gardens, they get priority delivery

Hey, I mean Helles is okay, but there are alc free IPAs from Maisel & Friends or Störtebeker!

Any recs on good NA whiskey?

I like Monday or Kentucky 74 (from Spiritless). I believe both are dealcoholized. Both at 0.5% ABV.

Huh, I never would have thought of NA liquor. Is it as close as NA beer has gotten these days?

Not as close as good NA beers, but good in cocktails. It's hard to get the mouth feel right without alcohol and most brands use capsaicin or something to emulate a burn.

These two are some of the better ones I've tried. I don't like most NA spirits for the reasons above.

alc free beer

*sink water left after washing beer bottles

Says someone who hasn't tasted one produced in last three years. Their taste has improved significantly.

They taste less like water and more like fizzless leftovers someone spat in?

In Germany, there is a wide selection of alcohol free beers. I personally enjoy more alcohol free beer, when I am at home, I crave for a refreshing drink during a week day, when I am by myself or at lunch, don't want a sweet soda, alcohol free beer is just perfect! I still enjoy regular beer in the weekend when I am with friends.

I enjoy beer any day of the week I please, even if I'm alone 😂.

That doesn't sound healthy, thought.

I don't disagree

If its just a habbit, perhaps try an alcohol free one instead sometimes. If you need the buzz the relax, probably try to find something else as an alternative. Daily drinking is no joke, even if its totally normal for some peergroups.

Yeah I do this. I just like the taste of beer. My favorite one changed up their recipe and now it tastes like junk like the rest of them.

Nice to hear and the recipe change sucks. Dont know if you are German. Augustiner released a alcfree helles, which actually tastes good. Most alc free helles taste really bad.

I like the taste of beer, but I don't like getting drunk or even tipsy, and being still single, I am out often and it honestly gets tiring to drink everyday. I don't really like drinking alcohol. I never had alc-free but next time I'll try it.

It has gotten very good, it is more noticeable after a few of them to be honest but it is great.

I like beer and being able to drive so it is great.

I'm with you, I also don't like getting drunk and I don't like how even a little bit of alcohol tires my body, but unfortunately I've found that flavor and alcohol content are directly related: a 5% beer never tastes as rich as a 9% tripel, and a 0.0% beer will never have as much flavor as even a simple 5% lager. I've tasted quite a few and they all taste "empty" to me. I think this is because alcohol is a solvent for a lot of chemical compounds in beer that give flavor.

So what I do instead is pick my moments, and never overindulge to the point where I feel intoxicated.

What does being out often has to do with drinking? I go out by myself every now and then and do just fine with coffee and water.

Love NA beer, doubt I would still be sober today without it. Currently sipping on a Budweiser Zero and watching the Olympics. Love enjoying beer and being sober!

I think I might be the opposite end of the spectrum. I would love for there to be a zero calorie option that was in all other ways unchanged.

Alcohol has a lot of calories, so that would have to be non alcoholic as well.

I didn't say it was possible, just that I want it

Ha, fair enough. But if you want to save calories, grabbing the non alcoholic alternative is actually a decent choice. (And if you want to get drunk on the least calories possible, pure gin/vodka/schnaps/white rum are your best options. Beer is reeeally energy dense.)

Non alcoholic is just soda water.

delicious, delicious beer-flavored soda water

Oat soda

Being an avid oat milk enthusiast, this actually makes me want it even more

In finland we often make what translates to home beer that is made with malts and sugar but only fermented for couple days so it is very low alcohol content

wish they would export more of this to the UK. we do now have a couple of decent very low alcohol beers here now though.

Anyone else having problems accessing the site on Firefox mobile?

I've never had one that tasted like regular beer. And I've tried a bunch. Usually they're way too sweet.

Asahi makes the best one I've ever tried

Alcohol-free Beck's is amazing if you get something that's not been conserved inappropriately

Best I've tried was some apple thing, but it didn't really try to mimic regular beer. Non-alcoholic Asahi, I think I've tried it but don't really remember. I might have to try it again come January.

I personally don't see the point and just drink water if there's no alcohol involved, but I hear that some of the ones that imitate IPAs get away with it better because it gets masked under a stronger flavour.

I like the taste of beer a lot but sometimes can't or don't want to drink alcohol.

It's the opposite in my experience. Without the strong malty flavors and the body alcohol adds, NA IPAs are very often thin and hollow, and taste like herbal tea.

Try Jever Fun

Tried it, didn't taste like normal beer, unfortunately. Same issue, too sweet and too mild of a taste to pass for the real deal.

My dad couldn't tell apart a Guinness and a Guinness zero try that out

Edit: to further clarify it's not like they tasted different but he couldn't tell which one was the NA, he said they tasted exactly the same.

This is pretty much the single one I've had that is legit.

Maybe a lot of people can't tell but most NA still just doesn't compare to the real deal. It's pretty evident to a lot of us. If you're fine with that great but seriously, a lot still are way off. Wish I could try these German ones people are talking about but i haven't seen them in my market.

Hmmm i don’t believe you really tasted it

Lmao what

I’m saying you’re a liar and have never tasted it, probably never heard of it.

Lmao I'm sorry if you really like it, I just didn't think it was very close to regular beer.

It’s OK Pinocchio 😂 I know you’re lying because you said it’s “sweet” 😘

It's too sweet to pass off as regular beer, yeah. I'm sorry if my opinion upsets you, not my intention. I'd love to find a non-alcoholic beer that passes as the real deal. Not sure why you'd think someone would lie about this thing

Most are but Jever Fun is not sweet at all. It's not as bitter as the original Jever but also not sweet. I don't wanna call you a liar too but maybe you remember another brand?

It was sweeter than regular beer when I tried. Haven't tried their regular beer

You lied about trying the specific beer I mentioned. It’s obvious from your first reply. But - that’s ok, I don’t have a horse in this race, so let’s not waste more time on this thread, Münchhausen.

But I've tried it though. What reason would I have to lie about such a thing..?

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I dont get alcool free beer. Basically it has all the cons of a piss beer and none of the pros

I drink it all the time and see it quite the other way round, taste has improved so much in the last ~4-5 years and while maybe not identical, I see it more like oat milk where you get used to a certain taste and then you dont miss cow milk at all. Now I get to drink a cold beer after sports which is just as refreshing, has lots of electrolytes and i dont have to worry about my liver or becoming an alcoholic..

It has almost none of the cons... But yes, none of the pros other than many of them taste pretty darn close to real beer. You should educate yourself on how detrimental alcohol consumption is AND how calorie dense it is. You may change your mind on 'none of the pros' 👍

The only real pro of alcohol is that it’s fun and helps you let loose and relax a bit. At least for most people, beer is an acquired taste but if it didn’t get you drunk it would quickly fall out of favor. And I say this as someone who loves beer and its cousins

My main counterpoint is for those of us who've acquired the taste, the rituals around beer (out at a nice place, away from your home/office, listening to decent tunes and drinking something cold, foamy, and a little bitter) are such that you can get that loose and relaxed feeling without the alcohol.

I'm not the biggest fan of getting drunk anymore, so I find myself grabbing a non-alc beer pretty frequently these days. Sometimes just that, other times once I've already had two normal beers but want another drink.

I could grab a soda, but I don't like how sweet it is most of the time.

Beer tastes great though. Non-alcoholic just tastes different, much sweeter.

id rather just not drink. I prefer liquor over beer but still, if I'm going to drink I'm going to drink.

"alcohol free" is not free of alcohol but can contain up to 0.5% alcohol.

This could be fatal for people having had an alcohol addition because that sets them right back into the circle of drug abuse.

There are beers that are at 0.0% and they are marketed like that for everybody trying to drink no alcohol at all.

Since apple juice can contain up to 0.5% of alcohol as well, somebody who wants to drink no alcohol at all has to be careful and knowledgeable about drinks and food in general.

The last time I read something about this, former alcoholics have different tolerances of trace amounts of alcohol. For some a drink that only tastes like an alcoholic beverage can already be difficult just due to the memories connected to it even if there is no alcohol in it.

This is well-known and even written on the labels. There are special 0,0% beer products that guarantee to be absolutely free.

As a dry alcoholic you normally know such things.

I take offense they are called "alcohol FREE". That's just false advertisement, whatever is in the fineprint.

Read the comments in this post. They are worded like "yeah, I like to have a beer sometimes, but without alcohol, so I chose an "alkoholfrei" beer". When they, in fact, are drinking an alcoholic brewage, still.

Because in many countries 0.5 is considered non-alcoholic and most countries don't differentiate between non-alcoholic and alcohol-free, so it's legally not false advertising.

Also you physically cannot get drunk when drinking 0.5 abv beer which means in terms of drunkeness there's functionally no difference if people drink 0 abv beer or 0.5 abv beer. Recovering alcoholics can have a response to but that can be due to sensory cues making the alcoholic believe they're getting drunk and not the actual ethanol in the drink. Recovering alcoholics (at least to my knowledge) are also recommended to steer clear of alcohol free beer due to the same sensory cues. So who really needs the distinction between non-alcoholic and alcohol-free?

And as a follow-up. If there really is the need for distinction should that distinction exist for food as well? Do we need a disclaimer that ripe bananas can contain 0.2 to 0.4 ABV of alcohol?