The best non-alcoholic beers in 2023 - great alcohol-free lagers taste tested
Max taste, zero hangover, with these best alcohol-free beers.
The craft beer scene in the UK is going through a tricky patch right now but, as this best alcohol-free beers list proves, there's still a lot of love in the AF beer market.
You just have to take a look at our best craft beer list to see that everyone is into trendy ale at the moment - but good beer doesn't always mean a high abv.
UPDATE:We have overhauled our best alcohol-free beers guide for 2023, taking out a number of beers that are no longer available and test testing a whole host of new ones. All of the AF beers in this list have been tried and tested, and all of them are well worth investigating.
There’s some complexity on the definition and branding of alcohol free and low alcohol beers, so you’ll find a mix of the two here. The important thing is that everything below has a maximum abv (alcohol by volume) of 0.5%.
Although some are 0.0%, they tend to have less flavour and the difference in alcohol is negligible. For some context, a ripe banana or even a slice of bread can contain 0.5% so you’re not going to get drunk, no matter how much you drink.
There are beers here from some big names but alcohol-free and low alcohol beer is getting so popular there are even breweries dedicated to making the stuff without that potent element. We’ve included some of them here.
One benefit to these beers is the lack of alcohol, and therefore tax, makes them a lot cheaper than normal brews. Many are also low in calories.
So whether you’re pregnant, driving, wanting to keep alcohol for the weekend or any other reason, let’s get drinking. Long gone are the days when the choice was limited to just a few big lager brands.
Upvote your favourite booze-free beer, and add any you think deserve a place in this hall of fame using the box at the bottom.
Additional reporting/tasting: Marc Chacksfield
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Best alcohol-free beers
In the low and no world, Mash Gang draws the same level of hype as many full strength beers.
Look out for one-off collaborations with various well known breweries, but Chug is an exceptional core range option. An easy drinking Extra Pale Ale is hopped with Galaxy, Citra, El Dorado, Amarillo, Vic Secret and has an inspired touch of chili to jazz things up.
2. Sheep In Wolve’s Clothing - Easy Rinder - 0.5%
Wheat beers that aren’t from the big name breweries like Erdinger are few and far between but this won gold in the European Beer Challenge 2022.
It’s not as thick and hazy as a traditional Hefeweizen but this makes it easy drinking and it’s got a zingy fresh profile thanks to orange peel and mandarin oil.
Launched alongside a Mexican Lager, Fierce’s first alcohol free beers are very impressive but Fierce Hazy is the stand out here.
This beer is juicy and refreshing with plenty of body thanks to the addition of both wheat and oats in the mash. Packed full of citrus and stone fruit flavours, it’s a belter and developed with the help of Mash Gang.
Added to our list of the best non-alcohol beers by popular demand, his UK-based brand (although it brews its beer in Germany) has been applauded for its quality taste. It's certainly a brand to watch.
Lucky Saint has a richer, maltier flavour than even a lot of alcoholic lagers and just the right amount of bitterness. It’s really one where you won’t notice the lack of booze.
53 calories per 330ml bottle
Looking for an alcohol free fridge filler? Well Magic Rock’s Freeride should be on your list.
This Pale Ale has been brewed in collaboration with Strava and contains three types of Ctira hops: Cyro, T-90 and Lupulin. It’s light and well-rounded with an unsurprisingly dominant aroma and flavour of citrus fruits making it great for almost any occasion.
After having to recall the first batch, Guinness 0.0 is back and we can safely say it’s one of the best AF beers we’ve ever tasted. Arriving in 440ml with the infamous nitro widget to give it that quintessential thick and creamy head.
Brewed using a new cold filtration process, Guinness really has made this taste just like the real deal only without the alcohol. We bet in a blind taste test, many people wouldn’t be able to pick out which was 0.0.
Wiper & True’s first alcohol free beer being a lager is a bold move as you can’t hide behind mountains of juicy hops.
That doesn’t matter though, as this German style Helles is outstanding with an inviting soft, bready flavour and mellow bitterness. Wiper is using a first for an independent brewery where the beer is brewed to 5% then de-alcoholised with reverse osmosis.
One of the newest AF lagers on this list and we're impressed with its taste. There are two different beers available: Days Lager and Days Pale Ale. We've tried them both and it's the Days Lager that gets our vote (the IPA has more of a wheat-like taste, if that's your thing). There's a crispness to the drink that's cut with citrus.
Lervig are craft beer producers that are based in Stavanger, Norway - they bought the brewery in their town when it was mass producing 'not great' beer - and its No Worries is an AF beer with real punch. It is lightly hopped which means that it is a refreshing pale ale with something of a floral note throughout.
We’ve not seen an alcohol free Black IPA before but it’s one of Good Karma’s core beers at the moment.
The AF only brewery has played a blinder here with a solid roasted malt backbone paired with the unbreakable combination of Citra and Mosaic hops. The result is flavoursome and refreshing.
If you fancy something fruity then North is on hand with its first alcohol free Pale Ale with added peach puree. Full on aromas and flavours of peach dominate in this beer but a decent hit of Idaho 7 and Bru 1 in the whirlpool and dry hop stages of the brew bring underlying notes of tropical fruit, pine and more.
If you’re a big fan of Northern Monk’s flagship Hazy Pale Ale then this Holy version is the obvious choice for if or when you need it to be alcohol free.
Initially a one-off brew, it’s now readily available including in Morissons supermarkets and offers up delightfully fresh and zesty notes along with lashings of juicy stone fruit thanks to a combination of Citra, El Dorado and Simcoe hops.
A refreshing wheat beer which still has the zing of an ale with alcohol in it. It's packed with vitamins too, with both B12 and folic acid making an appearance and we really liked the sweetness of the beer. If you aren't a fan then adding a slice of lime really cuts through this.
This Hazy Pale ale by Firebrand Brewing Co is billed as the "first truly Cornish alcohol-free craft beer" and it's one that passed our taste test with flying colours. There's a real richness to the flavour here, giving the beer a mouth feel normally missing from the AF category. Dry hopped with Simcoe, Citra and Cascade varieties, Shorebreak has a tropical fruit flavour and a decent amount of body. This is impressive as it's also lactose free, so suitable for vegans.
The best-selling craft alcohol-free beer in the USA has reached the UK and there are a whole host of AF beer varieties to choose from - including witbier, golden ale and a dark ale, too. Our pick, though, is the (very) sessionable Run Wild IPA. It's got a slightly bitter taste with enough hops there to give the beer that all-important mouth feel. Each can is only 65 calories and there's no more than 0.5% alcohol in the beer.
This pale ale from Ilkley Brewery Co does a decent job of masking the fact that there's little to no alcohol in the bottle. Styled on its Mary Jane Pale Ale, there are tropical fruit notes and a refreshing lingering taste. If you fancy something a little different, Ilkley also does a Nowt Mary version, which is an AF milk stout.
Based in Munich and one of the oldest Bavarian breweries, Franziskaner has been offering alcohol free offerings for around five years now. Its Alkoholfrei option offers up a slight fluffiness on the head, a tang of banana on the taste and wheaty notes throughout. It's one of the creamiest beers on this list.
Jupiler is Belgian's number one beer so we were excited to see an AF version of the popular lager. Flavour wise, it starts off sweet and ends a touch bitter but it is effortlessly drinkable. There isn't much carbonation in this one and we would have liked to have tasted the hops more, but if you are after a crisp-tasting lager then this one does the trick.
You’ll know this US brewery for its popular lager, and likely many other beers too. Special Effects recently made its debut in the UK and is well worth a try.
It has a solid malt base but is, unusually for a low alcohol beer, dry hopped giving it an aroma more common to an IPA. This makes is a nice middle ground, so will appeal to most drinkers and pairs with a wide range of food.
Brooklyn says it has developed a fermentation method that limits the amount of alcohol produced. Special Effects comes out at 0.4%.
96 calories per 330ml bottle
If you want a punchy IPA that's got all of the mouth feel of a craft ale with a higher ABV, then Lazer Crush is what you need. There are tropical notes with mango and peach hitting hardest. This isn't a sweet drink, though, as there's enough grapefruit on board to balance with bitterness. If you are looking for a bit more alcohol (but still in the low ABV range) then the 2.8% Nanobot, a super-session IPA, is also a favourite of ours.
With the Infinite Session Pils no longer being brewed, our next choice is this IPA from Infinite Session. There's a real citrus punch here, thanks to the Amarillo & Citra hops used.
You get a decent mouth feel as well, which is normally missing when the alcohol has been taken out.
As it says on the can, this is infinitely sessionable and the brewery also has a pale ale and helles in its repertoire.
36 calories per 300ml can
Ghost Ship is a good example of an alcohol free version of a flagship beer. It is great if you want something more on the traditional ale side of the beer spectrum.
This is a light and citrusy pale ale that will disappear in a flash. It really doesn’t taste far off the regular 4.5% version, partly thanks to some reverse osmosis kit which avoids the high temperatures often used to remove the alcohol, with flavour being a casualty.
The beer is available in 500ml bottles, and now in cans too.
105 calories per 500ml bottle
Some breweries solely make alcohol free beers, and Big Drop leads the way.
Accompanying the attractive artwork on the label is a great range of beers including a sour. But this is the best stout in the low alcohol category as it stands. It’s on the sweet side thanks to the addition of lactose but also has a nice roasted malt and chocolate character.
Seek out the range and watch out for some collaboration brews.
91 calories per 330ml bottle
While To Øl - Under The Radar was our favourite non-alcoholic To Øl beer, it's out of stock right now - but this is an amazing replacement. It's a hoppy pale ale with a real mouth feel that we weren't expecting because of the lack of alcohol. Add to it lemony notes and what you have is a brilliant-tasting beer.
0.40% ABV
Zero Five (formerly Big Easy is an easy drinking beer. It's American style pale ale with lots of juicy aroma and flavour, including peach and apricot, making it great for a BBQ.
Big Easy is brewed at a low alcohol content to avoid having to use any processes to remove the alcohol. Thornbridge wanted to get this beer right so much that four batches (60,000 bottles) were thrown away before it was good enough.
61 calories per 330ml bottle
This is an alcohol-free version of a Bavarian classic. Nothing new, but certainly worthy of this list.
In true German style, this is a wheat beer that is unfiltered and full of flavour yet less than 0.5%. Unlike some alcohol-free beer it doesn’t suffer from being thin and you get that classic big banana hit with some clove spice. The calorie count is low for a wheat beer too.
115 calories per 500ml bottle
You’d hope a brewery dedicated to brewing alcohol-free beer would have something good on the menu, and we love this IPA.
Named Classic IPA, it’s straw coloured and goes big on a piney resinous profile with a background of bitter grapefruit, both in aroma and flavour.
It will be a marmite type beer but we couldn’t not mention that Nirvana also makes a ‘Buchabeer’ by blending Japanese Green tea Kombucha with cane sugar and pale ale.
33 calories per 330ml bottle
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