Can Nonalcholic Beer Save Big Brewers?

An unlikely star of the brand-name beer industry is beer that doesn’t give you a buzz.

Beer giants have been contending in recent years with saturation in what are traditionally their biggest markets — the U.S. and Western Europe — as drinkers turn increasingly to craft brews and boozier spirits. With options for growth limited to buying craft breweries or creating new craft-like brews, big-name beer makers are looking to corner the market on drinks that have little or no alcohol.

“We have seen an upside from nonalcoholic,” Heineken CEO Jean-François van Boxmeer told The Huffington Post. “That’s been a source of growth for our business.”

Non- and low-alcoholic beers have been around for decades, but they’re often thought of as being the less tasty and edgy cousins of the boozy stuff. But as beer companies look to stave off decline, they hope to capitalize on a growing interest in the less buzzy varieties by launching new non- and low-alcoholic beers to woo customers searching for that beer taste after working out, during a professional event or as an alternative to soda.

Still, Roston said it can be a perfect drink when he wants the taste of beer but he’s feeling sick or needs to keep a clear head. A 1 p.m. work lunch, for example, has been a time when a non-boozy beer “really did hit the spot,” he said.

People like Roston are beer companies’ best hope for growth of the non- or low-alcoholic beer industry, according to Malandrakis. Still, he cautions against pinning too-high hopes on nonalcoholic beer as a savior.

“Nonalcoholic beer will never become major, and it will never be enough to stem the tides of the receding beer category,” he said.

The Huffington Post