How is non-alcoholic beer produced?

Drinking non-alcoholic beer during fun meetings with friends and partners is becoming more and more popular. Especially at a time when the state issues regulations related to alcohol concentration when participating in traffic. So how is non-alcoholic beer produced?

It all starts with fermentation

Alcoholic beverages are produced using bacteria, usually yeast, which convert sugars into ethanol (alcohol) during fermentation.

In addition to the production of ethanol, fermentation also leads to the production of other molecules, which contribute to the flavor of the product.

Non-alcoholic beer is gradually becoming a popular drink on the drinking table. (Illustration photo: Shutterstock).

Therefore, the fermentation process is an indispensable part of creating the flavor of beer and wine and we cannot lack it to make low-alcohol or non-alcoholic drinks.

Therefore, the production of non-alcoholic wines and beers begins with fermentation, after which the beer is removed using various techniques.

The two most common methods for producing beer and non-alcoholic wine are filtration and distillation . Both of these systems use advanced and expensive technology, so they are usually only used by large manufacturers.

The first method is membrane filtration or "reverse osmosis" technique , where beer and wine are pumped under pressure through filters with pores so small that they separate compounds based on molecular size.

Relatively small molecules, such as water and ethanol will pass through, but others will not.

Water is continuously added to the mixture of "aromatic" compounds to become beer or wine. This process continues until all the ethanol is removed.

Another process is distillation , in which compounds are separated based on their boiling point. However, temperature will change the flavor of beer and wine, leading to the product no longer being the same as the original.

To minimize the impact on flavor, the distillation process used to create alcohol-free products is done under very low pressure and in a vacuum environment.

While the increase in production of low- and no-alcohol beers reflects consumer preferences, it is also partly due to the wide variety of craft beers available today.

Craft breweries produce low-alcohol beer without the need for expensive equipment. They achieved this by manipulating fermentation using two main methods.

In the first method, brewers intentionally reduce the amount of sugar available to the yeast; the less sugar used, the less ethanol the yeast will produce.

There are several ways to achieve this, including increasing or decreasing the temperature during mashing (extracting simple sugars from barley grains). The brewer can stop the fermentation process, before too much sugar is converted into alcohol.

The second method is to use different types of yeast. There are thousands of species of yeast and some produce very little ethanol. These yeasts are becoming popular in the production of low alcohol beers.

They still deliver the expected aromatic compounds, but with a very low alcohol concentration (less than 0.5%).

Although most yeast strains are commercially available, some brewers keep secret the exact strain they use to produce low-alcohol beer.

Several companies specialize in developing new yeast strains for the brewing market. In addition to using naturally occurring strains, they also use hybridized strains.

Different taste

It's difficult to make a low- or no-alcohol beer or wine that tastes exactly like high-alcohol beers because ethanol contributes to the flavor of alcoholic beverages.

The removal of ethanol and water also results in the removal of small molecules and volatile compounds (chemicals that evaporate under normal atmospheric conditions), although manufacturers make every effort to put them back into the final product.

Likewise, changing brewing conditions or using unique yeast strains for low-alcohol beers also results in flavors that differ from those obtained through the conventional process.

Therefore, non-alcoholic beers often have different flavors, even causing an unfamiliar feeling for regular alcohol users.