Breweries You’d Never Expect Are Quietly Going Alcohol-Free

Non-alcoholic and low-ABV beer used to be a niche made by specialists. It is not anymore. I went through Untappd data across 1,275 non-alcoholic and low-ABV beers, meaning 3.5% ABV or under, and found that 1,185 of them, 93 percent, come from ordinary breweries adding an NA or low-ABV option to a regular lineup, not from dedicated non-alcoholic producers. Real, recognizable independent breweries are doing this under their own name, not as a side project: Untitled Art, Revolution Brewing, Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Zero Gravity, Wren House, Three Taverns, Live Oak, 8th Wonder, Altstadt and Wild East, among others.

That is the whole story here. This is not a niche trend anymore, it is mainstream enough that everyday breweries are treating a lower-ABV beer as a normal part of the lineup, the same way they would a flagship IPA or a seasonal stout.

The number that matters

Of the 1,275 beers at 3.5% ABV or under that I found across the full Untappd dataset I checked (22,750 beers total), only 90 of them, 7 percent, came from a brewery whose entire business is non-alcoholic drinks, brands like Athletic Brewing that built their name specifically on the category. The other 1,185, 93 percent, came from breweries that also make regular, full-strength beer and simply added a lighter or alcohol-free option alongside it.

That is the surprising part. The specialists get most of the media attention, but they are a small minority of who is actually making this style of beer today.

What styles breweries are actually making

Shandy and radler style beers were the single biggest category at 143 entries, followed by non-alcoholic lager (100), non-alcoholic IPA (79), non-alcoholic shandy/radler specifically (65), and non-alcoholic versions of other beer styles (55). This is not one narrow style getting all the attention, breweries are extending the idea across lagers, IPAs, radlers and beyond.

Breweries actually doing this well

I picked out a handful of the clearest examples, all real, established products with real Untappd ratings behind them, not one-off releases that quietly disappeared.

Untitled Art’s FLVR! NA Mango Dragonfruit Sour is a good place to start since I already reviewed it in full, a genuinely fruity, sub-0.5% sour that holds its own against alcoholic versions of the style. Revolution Brewing’s Grapefruit Radler and Lawson’s Finest Beach Party show the same pattern at two very different breweries known for hoppier, stronger beers keeping something lighter in year-round rotation. I wrote up full, standalone reviews of all nine of these (aside from Untitled Art, already covered), with real tasting notes, ratings and where to find alternatives if you cannot track the original down near you.

Why this is happening now

Search demand for “non alcoholic beer” in the US has roughly doubled over the past five years, from somewhere around 35,000 monthly searches to somewhere around 63,700 today. I am keeping that as a range rather than a single precise number, since the underlying data has an unusual spike in one recent month that has not yet been cross-checked against a second source. The direction of the trend, a real and sustained increase, is solid either way.

That kind of sustained demand growth is exactly the kind of signal that gets a brewery to keep a lower-ABV beer on the permanent lineup instead of running it once as a seasonal experiment. Customers are actually asking for it, at the taproom and at retail, and breweries that ignore that are leaving repeat business on the table.

“We’ve always been a fan of session beers. When we first opened, double IPAs and imperial stouts were popular styles, so we saw an opportunity to go the other direction with many of our core beers. There’s certainly more to beer than alcohol, and it’s nice to enjoy something you can sip on for an afternoon or evening without losing your composure. It’s also nice to offer something that fills the void between NA beer and mid or higher ABV offerings, because that’s the perfect sweet spot for many beer drinkers. We always figured lower ABV craft beer would increase in popularity, and it’s nice to see that’s come to fruition.”

How widespread this actually is

Breweries are not the only ones moving in this direction. Of the 1,275 rows in the dataset, 104 turned out to be ciders, kombucha and flavored malt beverages that got swept in by the ABV filter but are not beer at all, proof that the broader “low and no alcohol” movement is bigger than just beer. I have kept those out of every “beers to try” section above, they are a different category entirely, but their presence in the data says the same shift is happening across the drinks aisle, not just on the craft beer shelf.

Bigger names are part of this too, even if they did not make my featured list above since their PR process is slower than a small independent brewery’s. Samuel Adams, Tree House, Deschutes, Brooklyn Brewery, Golden Road and Karbach all have real, rated NA or low-ABV releases in the dataset. When breweries at that scale are doing it too, it stops looking like a trend and starts looking like a permanent category.

Want to try one of the specialists too?

Athletic Brewing is the biggest name among the dedicated non-alcoholic producers in the dataset, and Upside Dawn is a good starting point if you want to compare a specialist brand against the everyday breweries featured above.

FAQs

What counts as a low-ABV or non-alcoholic beer in this data?

Any beer at 3.5% ABV or under, covering everything from true non-alcoholic beer (0.5% or less) up through session-strength lagers, radlers and IPAs.

Are dedicated non-alcoholic brands like Athletic Brewing still relevant?

Yes, they remain some of the highest-rated and best-known names in the category, they are just no longer the only ones making this style of beer. They account for about 7 percent of the beers in this dataset.

Where does this data come from?

A review of 22,750 beers on Untappd, filtered down to 1,275 beers at 3.5% ABV or under, with each entry checked against the brewery’s actual business type.