Do you ever wonder how alcohol-free beer is made? To achieve alcohol-free, or 0.0, beer, one can do two things; control fermentation so that no alcohol is produced, or remove the alcohol from traditional beer, known as de-alcoholisation. In this article, we explain how non-alcoholic beer is made.
The Blue Dolphin Store has a wide range of non-alcoholic beers of all types: lager, gluten-free, ale, IPA, Radlers. If you doubt which one to choose, we recommend our article on the best non-alcoholic beers.
Methods for making non-alcoholic beer
All the beer you’ll find at The Blue Dolphin Store is brewed in a similar way to alcoholic beer, using the same ingredients: water, malt, hops, and yeast. It is a different method to the non-alcoholic wine making process, but just as laborious to achieve spectacular results without a drop of alcohol. These are the main methods for making non-alcoholic beer:
Controlled fermentation
One of the techniques for making non-alcoholic beer is controlled fermentation. It involves controlling the temperature and the time that the yeast comes into contact with the sugars to prevent alcohol from being generated during fermentation, by adding yeast to the sugars in large tanks, but in smaller quantities than in alcoholic beer. The aim is to generate the characteristic foam and aromas of beer without producing alcohol. In non-alcoholic brewing, the entire fermentation process is carried out until before carbonation, and then the mixture is heated to remove the alcohol.
Simulated fermentation
In some situations, brewers want to avoid the fermentation of sugars altogether. With the simulated fermentation method, they skip the fermentation process when brewing and add ingredients and enzymes to simulate the same effect. It is mainly used to ensure that there is not a drop of alcohol in the beer.
Reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis is a de-alcoholization method that consists of pushing beer through a semi-permeable membrane at high pressure. The water is then separated from the alcohol by distillation and channeled back into the beer using special de-alcoholizing equipment.
Boiling
One of the most common, old-school ways, of dealcoholizing beer is the boiling method. It consist of adding water or steam to the liquid and boiling it under pressure. Then, the alcohol is released as vapor into a condenser, where it is collected and expelled. The non-alcoholic craft beers that we have in do not use this method, because during boiling, flavor and aroma are lost.
Enjoy other delicious non-alcoholic drinks on our website. If you are interested, we have the best non-alcoholic wines. Non-alcoholic wines are another of our star non-alcoholic drinks.
