Beer

By Bert Mattson

Alcohol need not apply?

Non-alcoholic beer arose in the U.S. out of Prohibition — alcohol was limited, by law, to .5 percent by volume. With the repeal of Prohibition, that remained as the upper limit of any beer classified as non-alcoholic.

Basically, to eliminate the alcohol, beer was boiled until the alcohol evaporated. This took a toll on the flavor of the product. Legend has it that folks acquired a taste for the ultimately insipid brew and, from that preference, the market for bland macro beers blossomed.

While that’s probably a simplification, the truth is that non-alcoholic beer is not exactly known for its flavor. Some brewers turned to vacuum distilling to lower alcohol while preserving flavors. This involves heating it in a powerful vacuum to lower the boiling point.

More recently, brewers employ reverse osmosis — the beer is essentially strained. It’s pushed through a filter so fine that only water and alcohol can pass. Once through the filter, the alcohol is distilled from the mixture, which is then added back to the remaining ingredients.

Once the alcohol is removed, the beer is flat. Most alcoholic beer is carbonated in fermentation — as yeast converts sugars, carbon dioxide is the bubbly byproduct. Non-alcoholic beer must be mechanically carbonated — the same process applied to a syrupy solution to make pop. Carbonation plays a variety of roles, from lifting the aromatics to affect flavor to adding carbonic acidity and influencing mouth feel.

So these non-alcoholic beers are historically ... different. But, as with everything else beer-related, craft brewers have brought a new level of attention to these brews.

Growth in this segment is not insignificant — a Nielsen study revealed about a fifth of beer consumers are interested in nonalcoholic variants. The challenge is to manifest styles that look, taste and smell like their alcoholic counterparts. To that end, brewers have been examining the styles, ingredients and processes appropriate to achieving flavor that fanatics have become accustomed to while adapting to health and wellness trends.

Merged major players Dogfish Head and Boston Beer (Sam Adams) have yielded two offerings — proof of the trend — riding the wave of fruited and hazy beers. Lemon Quest, a wheat beer from Dogfish Head, has the added advantage of being under a hundred calories. Samuel Adams’ Just the Haze sticks to the popular profile of Juicy IPA.

Closer to home, Fulton Brewing enters the fray with Non-Blonde, on the coattails of the Minnesota institution’s stable of American Blonde Ale iterations.

Wooden Hill Brewing, in Edina, tends to be “can’t miss” for my tastes. The food is very good also. I felt I sacrificed nothing with Spacer, NA Pils. Was I jealous of the beers my wife was enjoying? Perhaps, but it’s about as good as it gets as the designated driver on a day trip.

There was almost no movement in this segment for 25 years, until a few seasons ago. It seems, with the confluence of health and popular craft beer profiles, alcohol may, finally, need not apply.

Bert Mattson is a chef and writer based in St. Paul. He is the manager of the iconic Mickey’s Diner. bertsbackburner.com