How are non-alcoholic beverages produced?
In the world of adult beverages, non-alcoholic beer and spirits are kind of like a diet dessert; they look like the real thing, feel like the real thing, but (spoiler alert) won’t leave you face-down in a plate of nachos at 2am!
Unlike your typical alcoholic drink, these are for those times when you want to fit in at the bar without waking up the next morning googling ‘how to apologize for karaoke’.
But wait — how exactly does non-alcoholic beer work? Is it some sort of Willy Wonka science?
Non-alcoholic beer is brewed just like regular beer. Yeast meets sugar, and the sugar becomes alcohol through fermentation. So far, so good, right?
To make non-alcoholic beer, brewers essentially create normal beer and then play party pooper by removing the alcohol. There are a couple of ways to do this. One method involves heating the beer to evaporate the alcohol. Yes, the alcohol literally takes a vacation from the beer, but not without some side effects — heating can sometimes mess with the flavour. This is like trying to make a cake by baking it in the microwave.
The other method is ‘vacuum distillation’. No, they don't stick your beer in a Dyson. They create a vacuum inside a distiller, which lowers the boiling point of the alcohol, making it easier to remove without cooking the flavour to death.
Lastly, there’s reverse osmosis, which separates the alcohol from the beer using a super-fine membrane. It’s like beer detox, leaving only the essence of the flavour behind.
When done right, non-alcoholic beer should taste like its boozier counterpart, but without any of the regrettable text messages in the middle of the night.
I have tried a few zero beers and some of them are not that bad.
But what about non-alcoholic spirits? Are they just fancy bottles of flavoured water? Actually, non-alcoholic spirits are much more complicated, and this is where things start sounding like a science experiment worthy of Dr Frankenstein.
Non-alcoholic spirits are made using a variety of distillation processes, much like regular spirits. These drinks aim to replicate the rich, botanical flavours you’d expect from something like gin or whiskey, minus the stuff that gets you dancing on tables.
They’re infused with ingredients like spices, herbs, and fruit to create complexity and depth.
The best brands use techniques like maceration (soaking ingredients in liquid to extract flavour), steam distillation, and even cold extraction, all to create layers of flavour. Think of it as a botanical perfume that you drink.
The goal is to replicate the warmth, bite, and aroma of traditional spirits, so you can still sip a gin and tonic or an Old Fashioned.
To be honest, you can’t fool a gin lover to believe that the non-alcoholic gin is actually gin but they can be used to make good mocktails. Recently, I went to the Dean Hotel and enjoyed a blueberry sour – it didn’t taste of alcohol but to be honest, I was happy enough and got into my car with a smile on my face.