Without a doubt, the market for non-alcoholic wine and beer is booming. Gen Z, health enthusiasts, and people who simply opt to stay sober have turned these alcohol-free alternatives into cool drinks in their hands at happy hour and weekend gatherings.
But not all zero-alcohol beverages are made the same. The various production techniques eventually make all the difference between 0 percent and 0.5 percent alcohol by volume. Some common ways of making non-alcoholic wines include vacuum distillation, reverse osmosis, and the use of spinning cone columns. These procedures fall under the category of dealcoholization, which means that the product was first made as a regular wine, followed by subsequent removal of alcohol. Yet, completely taking out all the alcohol may also destroy some delicate aroma compounds, leading to a very plain wine. Therefore most producers would maintain up to 0.5 percent alcohol, which is the legal limit to put “alcohol-free” on the label in most countries. This level is similar to those for some other fermented items such as kimchi and sauerkraut that generate a low level of alcohol as a natural byproduct.
On the other hand, non-alcoholic beers do not necessarily face the same destiny, as a wider range of methods beyond dealcoholization is available. For example, in the dilution process, beer is made in its usual way in the beginning, but needs to be highly concentrated, or else the final product will be “flavorless” after water is added. In other approaches, brewers can closely monitor yeast activities, or select certain strains of yeasts, to limit alcoholic conversion going beyond 0.5 percent ABV.
The ultimate way to make a true alcohol-free beer? Skip the fermentation entirely! Go through the normal steps of mashing, lautering and boiling, but in the final stage by not allowing yeasts to come in contact with the wort, you get a beer-like liquid guaranteed to have zero traces of alcohol, because alcohol never existed in the first place. However, some of these products can seem too sweet to most people’s palate.
So after all, most non-alcoholic beverages are not really free of alcohol. But if that 0.5 percent makes a dramatic difference in taste, which one would you choose?
Alice Wong is a certified wine educator based in Hong Kong
