Lead the No and Low Beer Revolution with the No and Low Alcohol Beer Production Course

As brewers, we view beer as a wonderful thing. We dedicate our lives to producing it and improving it, and consuming it fills us with joy. Beer is how we express ourselves and is something we love to share with the world. Sadly, for standard beer there are many people who can’t, don’t or won’t enjoy it because it contains alcohol. Today, thanks to years of hard work, research and experimentation it is possible to make great tasting beer without the alcohol.

There are lots of different names for a beer that contains very little alcohol. Depending on where you live, the same beer can be called zero alcohol, non-alcoholic, alcohol-free, no alcohol and even low alcohol. One thing’s for sure, in many parts of the world it’s becoming more popular. From 2017 to 2022 the global revenue from no and low alcohol beer has grown by $13 billion and people who earn lots of money by occasionally predicting the future accurately, reckon by 2027 it will be more than $43 billion. 

The main reason for this (of course) is the skill and ingenuity of us brewers, with our good friends in marketing making a small but significant contribution. It has never been easier to produce delicious and nutritious no and low alcohol beer and the new continuing professional development course from the IBD will give you the most up to date information needed to do just that.

The No and Low Alcohol Beer Production Course covers the legal definitions of no and low alcohol beer, its nutritional benefits, how to brew it so it contains no or very little alcohol and how to remove or reduce alcohol if it is present.

The origins of no and low alcohol beer flavour and how it can be controlled are also discussed in detail, as is what we must do to ensure that it stays fresh and safe to consume. In short, everything any brewer worth their salt needs to know. In amongst this fine body of knowledge are some interesting and entertaining facts about no and low alcohol beer. Such as:

• No and low alcohol beer can help prevent osteoporosis.
• In some countries non-alcoholic beer makes up more than 30% of all beer consumed.
• How alcohol interacts with salivary proteins in your mouth affects how you perceive the aroma of beer.
• One of the yeasts used to make no and low alcohol beer has been isolated from urine and insect guts and is also used to make soy sauce.
• The groundbreaking and innovative approach to making no and low alcohol beers used by some modern craft breweries is the same as a technique patented by a large Swiss brewery in 1991.
• Some breweries are trialling a preservative made from button mushrooms to prevent the need to pasteurise.
• A patent was filed in 1929 for using the yeast Saccharomycodes ludwigii to produce low alcohol beer. The same yeast is used to develop new no and low alcohol beers today.
• Beers have been produced by fermenting (or rather not fermenting) beer at the same pressure as found on the ocean floor where the Titanic rests. The high pressure stops yeast producing alcohol.

The course has been created in collaboration with leading brewers, brewing consultants, ingredient suppliers and manufacturers of dealcoholisation equipment and represents the most detailed and up to date knowledge available.

Making no and low alcohol beer requires a very different approach to that used to make standard beer and is a new skill that many brewers must master. We are confident that the IBD no and low alcohol beer production course is the perfect place to discover what you need to know to do this.

Written by Stuart Howe, Technical Development Manager at the IBD.