38 | New Scientist | 8 January 2022
overall, it needs to go way up much higher
than it is at the moment,” says Anderson.
The most effective way to achieve that is
a societal shift. “I think what you need is a
social norm change... to make it more socially
acceptable for drinkers to have alcohol-free
beer,” says Anderson. Bringing about such a
shift is easier said than done, especially when
nolo beer isn’t widely available in the form that
many people drink beer: in a big glass in a bar
straight from the tap. “For some heavy-beer-
drinking men, I think there is a social stigma
that they would look wimpish if they picked up
the alcohol-free,” says Anderson. “If you could
keep it on draft it would be brilliant.”
There may be lessons to be learned from
places where nolo drinks have taken off,
including Germany, Poland and Spain, which
are all in the global top 10 of beer-swilling
countries on a per capita basis. The Social
Market Foundation says that about 14 per
cent of all beers consumed in Spain are now
alcohol-free. But appearances can be deceptive
and local circumstances matter. Spain’s success
has been attributed to a preference for ice-cold
lager, which nolo beers mimic well but which
may not translate to colder climates. In Poland,
meanwhile, 5 per cent of the beer market is
nolo, and sales grew by 60 per cent in 2019.
But this isn’t actually an indicator of health-
conscious switching, because nolo beers are
replacing sales of carbonated soft drinks,
rather than full-strength beer.Image problem
We may have more to learn from the US.
The country is the second-biggest market for
nolo after Germany and demand is forecast
to grow about 10 per cent a year until 2024
despite some strong cultural barriers.
“Low-alcohol beer in the US suffers from an
image problem,” says Colleen Myles at Texas
State University. This is, in part, a hangover from
prohibition when “near beer” (less than 0.5 per
cent ABV) was legal but horrible. It was mostly
made by incomplete fermentation (see “Getting
to zero”, page 37), which, unsurprisingly, tends
to generate beer that tastes more like raw malt
and hops. One prohibition-era critic described
near beer as a “wishy-washy, thin, ill-tasting,
discouraging sort of slop”.
But US cultural resistance is weakening as
the beers get more interesting and consumersembrace healthier and less-fattening lifestyles.
Avoidance of drink-driving is also a factor
helping the nolo market in the US, says Myles.
Ultimately, says Anderson, nolo beers might
be just a drop in the barrel of what is needed to
reduce the harms of alcohol. A more effective
intervention might be to persuade drinks
companies to marginally reduce the amount
of alcohol in their standard drinks, in much
the same way that the food industry has
gradually dialled down added salt and sugar.
If you reduce alcohol levels in beer by
about a tenth, from say 5 per cent to 4.5 per
cent, most drinkers won’t notice, he says. “And
what the evidence shows is that people don’t
compensate, they don’t drink more pints, so
obviously they’re going to drink less alcohol.
That’s where you get the real benefit.”
I would happily switch from 5 per cent to
4.5 per cent, but I am also captivated by thepossibilities of nolo drinks. According to
Hallett, a mistake that newcomers make is to
expect the beers to be identical to their alcohol-
soaked favourites, when in fact they are a
different experience. “For me, it’s a comparison
against other non-alcoholic drinks that I could
drink but are not that exciting,” he says.
Removing alcohol affects the taste and
mouthfeel of a drink, but perhaps less than
you might imagine. Last year, researchers at
the University of Valladolid in Spain assembled
a panel of professional wine and beer tasters
to compare six full-strength and 10 nolo beers
on a set of sensory attributes: fizziness, body,
sweetness, bitterness, astringency, flavour
persistence, odour and taste. The only
significant differences they reported were
in sweetness and bitterness, with nolo
products consistently sweeter and less bitter.
On the other hand, some regular beers
rely on alcohol to mask a multitude of sins in
flavour and aroma. Nolo beers have nowhere
to hide, and so open up a new sensory world.
I think we can all raise a glass to that. ❚Graham Lawton is a staff writer
at New Scientist and author of
This Book Could Save Your Life.
You can follow him @grahamlawtonIGOR^ ALE
CS
ANDE
R/GET
TY
IMAGES“ About 14 per cent
of all beers consumed
in Spain are now
alcohol-free”
Some alcohol-free
beers are marketed
as isotonic sports
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