secrets

Joe Thomson stands surveying his shiny brewery from the elevated glass fronted taproom.

At one end of Firebrand Brewing Company’s factory stand four towering 9,000 litre vessels, a recent purchase to help meet growing demand for non-alcoholic beer.

“We weren’t sure what to expect when we launched our first non-alcoholic beer, Shorebreak, in 2022, but it is now our biggest selling canned beer by a long way,” he says.

Firebrand, which sits in an industrial estate not far from the wilds of Bodmin Moor in Launceston, Cornwall, reflects a much wider trend.

Mintel estimates that retail sales value of low and no-alcohol beer in the UK grew by 28.7% and volume sales by 18.8% over 2021-23.

The keen appetite for a healthier, non-alcoholic alternative to traditional beer is fuelling innovation as brands explore ways to mimic the taste of traditional beer.

Alcohol gives beer a sweet, warming, full-bodied taste, as well as affecting how other flavour compounds evaporate, resulting in its distinctive flavour. So, removing it presents a challenge.

“With alcohol free beer you are breaking the rules. You have to find creative ways to brew a tasty balanced beer,” says Mr Thomson.

One of the most widely used approaches to brewing non-alcoholic beer is arrested fermentation, which either removes the yeast or stops the yeast from becoming active.

Firebrand does that by adding less malted barley – the main source of sugar which ferments into alcohol.

“In a normal mash we might add 400kg of barley whereas in our non-alcoholic beer there is more like 25kg. The challenge is how you still achieve that flavour. It’s about manipulating unfermented sugars and ingredients as well as temperatures to give the sensation of beer,” explains Mr Thomas.

Another UK-based brewer, Impossibrew, which specialises in non-alcoholic beers, uses a different means of arrested fermentation. “We brew it in such a way that we can cryogenically stop the fermentation process,” says founder, Mark Wong.

“By suddenly putting it in a very cold state, parts of the process are halted and parts of the process are activated to make sure the flavour is retained,” says Mr Wong.

Impossibrew also adds its “proprietary social blend”, a mix of nootropic herbs designed to imitate the feeling of relaxation induced by