Food for Thought

Non-Alcoholic Beer Is Alcoholic

In spite of the name, non-alcoholic beer does contain some alcohol (up to 0.5 percent) as a result of the way that it's produced.

Just like real beer, non-alcoholic beer is brewed using malted grain and hops. However, at the end of the brewing process, measures are taken to reduce the alcohol content of the mixture.

Commonly, beer is gently heated under reduced pressure. Because ethanol (alcohol) has a lower boiling point than water, more ethanol evaporates than water, resulting in a lower alcohol content for the final product. However, the process of heating the mixture adversely affects the taste of the beer.

Alternatively, alcohol can be filtered from the brewed liquid by forcing it through a membrane at high pressure. Anheuser-Busch brews O’Doul’s using this method. Although heat is not applied in this process, filtered beers such as O’Doul’s don't have any flavor advantage over other non-alcoholic beers like Kaliber, Clausthaler or Buckler, which are produced using evaporation techniques.