Top 5 Best Low Alcohol or Alcohol-Free Beers

*AD – the items in this review were gifted to our household for this post. All opinions, as always, are our own.

For a lot of people, the ability to go out and socialise or meet with friends is utterly essential to modern survival. In many cases that can go hand in hand with grabbing a drink or two, and now – more than ever – there’s so much choice that it can be baffling. But, if you’re not the sort to dip into a tipple or two then that widening of variety brings with it an added relief, because the alcohol-free, or low-alcohol, selection has grown as well. Most supermarkets have got at least five or six shelves of specifically alcohol-free versions of drinks and there are also plenty of places online which specialise in them as well.

Thankfully, the days where people pull faces at people drinking alcohol-free versions of drinks seem to be on the decline, with plenty of restaurants and bars stocking them, and there’s a whole variety of reasons to swap out your drink for one without alcohol — from having to drive, a busy day the next day, generally not liking the feeling anymore, and various health reasons. Say you do have a health issue, but enjoyed the taste of beer – it’s the best, if not the only way, for you to still have that.

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For whatever reason you’re choosing to drink low- or zero-alcohol beer, I’ve made a list of my personal top five and made a few notes on their flavour. You can find it below.

Nirvana Brewery – Traditional Pale Ale 0.0%

It’s going to take a really impressive alcohol-free beer to knock the ‘Traditional Pale Ale‘ off of my first place. It was absolutely fantastic, with a light, pale-ale taste around the edges of the mouth and a sweet, carbonated taste which I can’t really fully explain, to follow it up. It’s apparently a caramel taste, but it also tastes slightly malty and a little bit like Sprite/7UP.

Regardless of what it tastes like, I could quite easily drink this all day.

Big Drop Brewing Co – Uptown Craft Lager 0.5%

While BDB’s Uptown Craft Lager is quite watery for a beer, it has a mix of hoppy, malty tastes as well as a citrus spiciness which is reminiscent of small, sour oranges. This is another one that I could quite happily have kept drinking in place of sodas or juice, although – unlike 1st place – it does actually contain alcohol.

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Drop Bear Beer Co – Yuzu Pale Ale 0.4%

I’m a massive fan of citrus fruits, and yuzu is probably my favourite of them. It’s a tart and fragrant citrus which strafes the line between grapefruit, lime and lemon, but despite this, it’s regularly only used in small measure. I was absolutely delighted to find out that somebody (Drop Bear Beer Co) had used it for making a low-alcohol beer.

The yuzu makes DBB’s Yuzu Pale Ale both delicious and crisp, guaranteeing it a high place on this ranking with one, simple sip.

Drop Bear Beer Co – Tropical IPA 0.3%

Another one from Drop Bear Beer Co., and – frankly – the reason they’re up here is because they specialise in low-alcohol beer, which really shows. Anyway, Tropical IPA is another favourite from them. It has a smokey, malty taste which gives way to a nice bitter citrus pang taste. The malty taste is what elevates it from a standard pale ale, and it’s very welcome.

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Erdinger Alkoholfrei Isotonic 0.5%

Erdinger is probably one of my favourite beers, and the low-alcohol version of it still manages to convey the delicious, crisp wheat-beer flavour. For that alone, it’s in. It’s truly one of my favourite beers, and so the Erdinger Alkoholfrei Isotonic version is more than welcome in this list.

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