29 Aug, 2021 · By Kieran Allen · Comments

Australia's Best Non Alcoholic Beers

29 Aug, 2021 · By Kieran Allen · Comments

The last 2 years has seen a meteoric rise in the popularity of non alcoholic & alcohol free/zero alcohol beer in Australia, so much so it has become the best selling category at most Australian bottle shops. The reason for the meteoric success of the non alcoholic & alcohol free/zero alcohol products has been generally put down to Covid-19 resulting in a greater focus on personal health & fitness.

Non Alcoholic/Alcohol Free Beers

Sobah was one of the first non alcoholic/alcohol free craft brands out of the blocks in Australia. Sobah's core range consists of a Finger Lime Cerveza, Lemon Aspen Pilsner & Pepperberry IPA. They have also produced a number of limited releases which have so far included a Davidson Plum GF Ale, Aniseed Myrtle Stout, Wattleseed Gold & Boab And Wild Ginger Lager.

Heaps Normal's flagship Quiet XPA has been hard to get a hold of since it was first released as Heaps Normal have struggled to keep pace with demand. Coupled with great branding, word of mouth has seen this, up until recently, single beer operation at the top of a lot of people's non alcoholic/alcohol free beer lists. Heaps Normal's first limited release, Isol-Aid Haze, a hazy IPA sold out almost as soon as it went on shelves. They have just released their second core beer, "Another Lager".

Nort entered the market early with their Refreshing Ale in bottles but have since also released a Pacific Ale in bottles as well as a Tropical XPA & All Day IPA in cans and have now released the Refreshing Ale in cans as well.

Upflow began in Melbourne in 2018 as a technical brewing challenge facing brewing and distilling equipment supplier Spark Breweries & Distilleries. Launched in the UK in 2020 Upflow has since launched in Australia as well. Upflow were recently the recipient of a grant from Amazon. Their core range includes a Ultra Pale Lager, Classic Pale Ale, New World IPA & Stout.

Big Drop have had a similar start to Uplfow, launching in the UK and then Australia as well. Their core range consists of a Lager, Pale Ale, Citrus IPA & Milk Stout.

If you want to try a mix of the above brands and beers, our Non Alcoholic Dozen & Non Alcoholic Hamper take the hassle out of trying to find them in a bottle shop, which can be a bit of an issue due to their popularity and the fact that few bottle shops stock all brands.

Beer Wizard Gifts Non Alcoholic Dozen

Craft breweries Brewdog, Bridge Road, Mornington Peninsula, Holgate & Molly Rose have all added a non alcoholic/alcohol free beer to complement their alcoholic line-up and cater to the non drinkers.

Carlton got a bit of a jump on the market releasing Carlton Zero before any of the competition had made it to market. Carlton, Lion & Coles have all since jumped on the non alcoholic/alcohol free bandwagon big time with the release of Great Northern Zero (Carlton), Heineken Zero (Lion), James Squire Zero (Lion), Tinnies Ultra Low Alc Hoppy Ale (Coles) and I'm sure there'll be many more to come.

Unfortunately a number of brands have taken to marketing their non alcoholic/alcohol free beers as "hypotonic", "sports beer", "rehydrating", "promoting muscle recovery" & "electrolyte enhanced".

Non Alcoholic/Alcohol Free Beer Marketing

These claims are based primarily on the long bow that beer contains water, there are minerals in said water and less carbohydrates & calories because there is less malt used in making a beer with low to no alcohol in the finished product. Never mind the sodium that causes dehydration. Like Gatorade/Powerade/all other sports drinks advertising, these claims have little basis in fact and when scientifically examined in due course and found wanting, will likely taint the non alcoholic/alcohol free beer market as a whole.

Unfortunately there hasn't been a consensus around the naming of non alcoholic & alcohol free/zero alcohol beers and as a result there are a wide range of different names used in the market which can be quite confusing. Alcohol Free/Zero Alcohol beers should contain 0 to 0.05% alcohol by volume, be produced without fermentation and will often be treated or have preservatives added to ensure fermentation doesn't occur once packaged. The legislation around the definition of non alcoholic is rather complex as it is covered by state law as well as the Food Safety Australia New Zealand Code (FSANZ). The FSANZ code stipulates non-alcoholic beverages are to “contain no more than 1.15 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV)” whilst Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria state law stipulates non alcoholic beverages are considered alcoholic if they contain more than 0.5 percent ABV. Non Alcoholic beers generally contain 0.5% or less alcohol by volume (so that they can be sold nationally without issues with state law), are produced by some form of fermentation with the alcohol content kept at 0.5% or lower by either halting the fermentation process early, mixing unfermented beer with fermented beer at a set proportion or through removing any excess alcohol by de-alcoholisation. A number of producers have also used Ultra Low Alcohol to describe their Alcohol Free/Non Alcoholic beers which only serves to cause confusion as low alcohol has traditionally been used to describe mid strength beers.

Non Alcoholic/Alcohol Free Ultra Low Alcohol

Have any questions in regards to the above? Have we missed something? Let us know if the comments.

Cheers 🍻

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Australia's Best Non Alcoholic Beers