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Non-alcoholic beer has become increasingly popular in Germany over the past ten years. But who shouldn’t drink it.
While breweries in Germany celebrate April 23rd, Beer Day – on April 23rd, 1516, the Beer Purity Law was promulgated, like the German brewers federation registered association reported – is International Beer Day on August 4th. For this occasion it has Federal Statistical Office issued a press release stating that non-alcoholic beer production has increased by almost 100 percent. In the following you will find out why alcohol-free is not the same as without alcohol and who should better avoid consumption.
Federal Statistical Office: Germans are drinking more and more non-alcoholic beer
According to the Federal Statistical Office, more and more Germans prefer to drink non-alcoholic beer. While it was 242 million liters in 2012, 474 million liters of non-alcoholic beer were produced in Germany in 2022. Thus, sales have almost doubled in the past ten years with an increase of 96 percent.
Do you prefer non-alcoholic or alcoholic beer? © Spectra/Imago
Whether alcohol-free or not: in any case, you should not drink beer from a beer mug, but rather from a thin glass.
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Stiftung Warentest: How is non-alcoholic beer made?
How Stiftung Warentest reported, there are two ways to make non-alcoholic beer:
Cancellation of the fermentation process: The fermentation process is stopped before the alcohol content of 0.5 percent by volume is exceeded.alcohol withdrawal: After fermentation, the alcohol is removed from the beer.
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That’s why alcohol-free beer is not harmless
Up to a content of 0.5 percent by volume, beer in Germany can call itself “alcohol-free” – even if only one legal wine regulation exists, which says:
Products whose labeling and presentation use the term “dealcoholized” within the meaning of Article 119 paragraph 1 letter a sentence 1 number i of Regulation (EU) No. 1308/2013 may also state “alcohol-free” in the labeling and presentation carry. As soon as the existing alcohol content is at least 0.05 percent by volume, the statement “alcohol-free” must be supplemented by the statement “(
The authorities only tolerate this for beer. It is therefore quite possible that supposedly alcohol-free beer is not really alcohol-free at all. Consequently, pregnant women should be moderate with non-alcoholic beverages, such as Eltern.de reported. In small quantities, non-alcoholic beer and the like are absolutely fine, even during pregnancy. However, dry alcoholics and children should avoid alcohol-free beer entirely, as the taste is similar to that of alcoholic beer and it is easier to be tempted.
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Fun facts about beer
Abroad, Germany is sometimes known for its beer. Even the Roman writer Tacitus called in his work “Germania” Beer as the main drink of the Germans: “Their drink is a juice of barley or wheat, fermented into a kind of wine.” The oldest surviving brewery in the world is the Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan. In the year 725, St. Corbinian founded a Benedictine monastery on the Weihenstephaner Berg in Freising near Munich. On October 17, 1814, the parish of St. Giles/London was flooded with beer because the Meux’s and Companies Horse Shoe Brewery on Tottenham Court Road Barrel containing 610,000 liters of beer burst, triggering a domino effect: more barrels were destroyed and more than 1,470,000 liters of beer poured down the streets of London, tearing down houses and claiming eight lives.
This article was created with the help of machines and carefully reviewed by editor Janine Napirca before publication.