The best and worst non-alcoholic lagers in New Zealand

We picked up a range of non-alcoholic lagers available at New World, Pak’nSave and Woolworths supermarkets, and taste tested them for flavour, similarity to a standard lager, and whether our tasters would buy them in store.

The tasting

Volunteers from the Consumer office gathered on a Friday afternoon to let loose a little earlier than usual. With 10 tasters, we served 10 samples of non-alcoholic lager chilled and poured slowly down the edge of a glass. The taste test was conducted blind, meaning our tasters didn’t know which sample of beer was which.

The tasters ranked the beers on two criteria, with each criterion scored out of 5. The criteria were:

• taste and aroma, with a score of 5 indicating excellent and 1 indicating terrible

• how similar each beer tasted to a regular lager, with a score of 5 indicating it was identical to a regular lager, and a 1 indicating it was nothing alike.

Scores were added together to give a final score out of a possible 10 points. Tasters also indicated whether they would buy the beer themselves, but their responses are not reflected in the final scores.

Prices listed in the results are rounded, based on the prices we paid in store and includes any specials.

Results

Best: Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%

Score: 7.5/10

The winner of our taste test was Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%. It scored 7.5/10, and our tasters thought this beer tasted the most like regular lager. With its “full body taste” and “deep” colour, this top-scoring beer for taste also tied as the most expensive, alongside Heineken, at $0.76 per 100ml.

Tasters’ comments

“Smacked in the face with yeasty aroma.”

“Slightly astringent/bitter aftertaste, which is a good thing.”

“Good smell, like you would expect of a lager.”

2nd: Heineken 0.0%

Score: 6.8/10

A recurring adjective used to describe this beer was “watery”. Despite this, it came second with a score of 6.8/10. Eight of our tasters said they would buy it, and according to them, this beer was the second closest to tasting like a regular, alcoholic lager. This beer was also the most expensive, equal with Peroni, coming in at $0.76 per 100ml.

Tasters’ comments

“Quite impressed for a non-alcoholic. Not a fan of the smell, a bit toilet-y.”

“More flavoursome than expected.”

“I could be fooled into thinking it’s real.”

3rd: Speight’s Summit Alcohol Free Lager

Score: 6.3/10

Much like our runner-up beer, tasters described this brew as “watery” and “thin”. This could explain why, despite a reasonably favourable score of 6.3/10, only five of our tasters said they would buy it. One taster guessed the identity of this beer correctly, the only correct guess in this taste test. When it came to price, this beer landed middle of the road at $0.61 per 100ml.

Tasters’ comments

“Smells a bit like stale beer.”

“This is smooth!”

“Pretty close to a flavoursome alcoholic lager, I like it!”

4th: Coopers Ultra Light Non Alc, score 6.1/10

Score: 6.1/10

Coopers Ultra Light came a respectable fourth in our taste test, with a score of 6.1/10 and four tasters indicating they would buy it. This beer had, somehow, a distinctly tomatoey vibe, with two tasters picking up the red fruit on their palates. Coopers is the beer delivering the best bang for your buck, being the second cheapest in our taste test at $0.52 per 100ml.

Tasters’ comments

“Old school.”

“I’d drink it but wouldn’t go back for seconds.”

“I’m getting tomato soup as a flavour.”

5th: Asahi Super Dry 0.0%

Score: 5.6/10

Before conducting the tasting, a few tasters said this beer was their go-to non-alcoholic lager. Interestingly, its middle of the road score of 5.6/10 suggests that our tasters might want to shop around for a new go-to. Alongside its middling score, Asahi was the second most expensive lager at $0.73 per 100ml.

Tasters’ comments

“Good carbonation.”

“Super malty, but not particularly crisp.”

“Smells like the bottom of my gym bag.”

6th: Brothers Beer Shoey Non Alc. Lager

Score: 5.45/10

Brothers Beer Shoey was the only non-alcoholic craft lager available at the supermarket that we could track down. It scored around the middle of the road with 5.45/10, and fell on the cheaper side, coming in at $0.55 per 100ml. But the big talking point for this beer? According to our tasters, it was the smelliest. Aromas included “egg sandwich”, “sulphur” and “the hairdressers”.

Tasters’ comments

“Official beer of Rotorua, judging by the smell.”

“If you don’t smell it, the taste is okay.”

“Not the most delicious, but it does the trick.”

7th: Steinlager Alcohol Free

Score: 4.65/10

Our tasters had mixed feelings about Steinlager Alcohol Free, reflected in their comments below. Clearly, the negative feelings came out on top, with this beer falling towards the bottom half of our samples with a score of 4.65/10. Only three tasters said they would buy it. The worst part? For a beer with “lager” in its name, our tasters didn’t think it tasted like one. Grabbing an alcohol-free Steinlager will set you back $0.61 per 100ml.

Tasters’ comments

“Quite flavoursome … possibly my favourite so far.”

“This is awful. Nasty.”

“Smells and tastes like perfume, it’s weirdly foamy.”

Export Gold 0.0%

Score: 4/10

Every one of our tasters thought this beer was closer to a fruit juice than a lager. As a result, it didn’t score high on the similarity to regular lager criterion, coming last out of all the samples. However, our tasters didn’t mind the flavour as much as the worst-ranked beer, awarding the brew a 4/10. A redeeming factor was the price, $0.55 per 100ml, making it the third cheapest brew, equal with Brothers Beer.

Tasters’ comments

“My lord, apples all the way down. This is what would happen if Just Juice made a lager.”

“Tastes like fruit juice rather than beer.”

“Big apple aroma.”

Worst: Clausthaler Premium Original Non-Alcoholic

Score: 3.2/10

Clausthaler came last in our taste test, with a score of 3.2/10. All of our tasters stated they would not buy this beer. It was strangely viscous, unbalanced, and ultimately “not easy to drink.” Clausthaler fell around the middle of the pack when it came to price, costing $0.61 per 100ml.

Tasters’ comments:

“The beer they serve in hell.”

“Way too sweet and strong.”

“This is bad beer.”

Dishonourable mention: Bitburger Drive Premium Pils 0.0%

Score: 3.2/10

Despite being listed on Woolworths’ online shopping platform as a “lager”, this beer is actually designed to mimic a pilsner. We gave this beer to our tasters believing it to be a lager, and although a pilsner is technically a lager, we decided to exclude its results from the tasting.

Nevertheless, the results would have landed this beer worst-equal alongside Clausthaler, with a score of 3.2/10. Bitburger Drive was the cheapest beer in our taste test, at $0.50 per 100ml. None of our tasters said they would buy it.

Tasters’ comments

“Tastes revolting.”

“I would struggle to finish a glass of this.”

“Sour taste, like it’s gone off.”

Is non-alcoholic better?

Alcohol Healthwatch is a Ministry of Health-funded organisation dedicated to reducing and preventing alcohol-related harm and inequities in Aotearoa.

It says that while some evidence suggests no and low-alcohol beverages (known as NoLos) may be effective at helping individuals reduce alcohol consumption, they aren’t necessarily “better” for you, and the marketing of these drinks is problematic.

“The branding, consumption, availability, and advertising of NoLo products remains under researched and inconsistently regulated … These products are often labelled with content claims including ‘low sugar’, ‘organic’, ‘gluten-free’ and ‘better for you’, resulting in the perception that low-alcohol products contain fewer calories and carbohydrates, or are generally ‘healthier’ than standard alcohol products,” it said.

The organisation says social media plays a big role in the problematic marketing of NoLos.

“Global digital marketing of NoLos is likely to undermine their potential public health benefits by encouraging widespread pro-drinking attitudes, portraying drinking as acceptable, and ultimately glamorising and normalising alcohol consumption among younger audiences.”

The World Health Organisation has also expressed concerns about NoLos, stating that the drinks “normalise a culture of alcohol consumption and blur potential conflict of interest in developing public health policies”.

Alcohol and nutritional content

In New Zealand, there are rules about what companies can label as a non-alcoholic beverage and what information labels must include.

If a beverage contains less than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV), it can be labelled as non-alcoholic, but the range of terms used to refer to these drinks can be confusing. Non-alcoholic, alcohol free and 0.0% were all used to describe the beers in our tasting.

All beverages containing 0.5% or more ABV must include information about their alcohol content on the label. Anything below 0.5% ABV doesn’t have to, so don’t expect to find this information on every non-alcoholic beer you try.

On the flip side, alcoholic beverages aren’t required to include a nutrition information panel on product labels, but non-alcoholic beverages with less than 0.5% ABV are. All but one beer in our tasting included a nutrition information panel.

Q&A with Good George’s Brian Watson

We spoke with Brian Watson, award-winning head brewer and co-founder of Good George, a New Zealand craft brewery, and asked him our burning questions about non-alcoholic beer.

Q: What makes a good non-alcoholic beer?

A: First and foremost, it's got to taste like a beer, doesn't it? So, it's got to have a nice, hoppy aroma or ester profile, which is what gives that fruitiness in the aroma, and it's got to have good body and flavour.

And if it tastes like water, then it's not really a non-alcoholic beer. It's a flavoured water.

What you want is a beer that you go “actually, a lot of people will be hard pressed to tell the difference between that and an alcoholic beer”. And if you can do that, then that's the Holy Grail.

Q: How do you brew non-alcoholic beer?

A: There are quite a few ways to do it. You can make a beer and then run it through a process called reverse osmosis and filter the alcohol out. It's like a fine, micro filtration. Some brewers do it this way but it’s quite an expensive process. You can just brew up a beer that has less sugar in it, so therefore has less alcohol. But we use a special yeast, which we get from Montreal.

Q: What should people look for when buying a non-alcoholic beer?

A: They just need to go with what tastes good to them. If you like it, keep buying it! The other things are that it’s got to be clear, and it can’t have a dirty sock aroma, which some of them do because of the way they’re made. In general, though, choose one that you like.

Q: How popular is non-alcoholic?

A: Oh, it's the fastest growing category. It's 15% of all our sales now at Good George. It's massive around the world and businesses like Guinness and Heineken are getting into it. It has the potential to be a truly game changing thing.