LOW OR ZERO ALCOHOL BEER NO LONGER SECOND BEST

Finding yourself taking to low-alcohol or non-alcoholic beer on an increasing number of occasions, not just because you have to, but, well, because you’ve started to quite like the taste? If that’s the case, according to speakers at the Canadean International Beer Strategies Conference in Amsterdam earlier this month, you’re not alone.

Beverage Daily.com reported Canadean account director Kevin Baker as saying that historically non-alcoholic beer had been selected for negative reasons – by people who’d prefer to drink something else but were obliged to turn to alcohol free beverages because of driving or health concerns – but that over the last few years there had been a real perception shift towards something more positive.

The growing international Islamic population and the number of states where consumption of alcohol was prohibited, was also a strong factor in the growth of the category.

The conference reported that the overall beer market was expected to show a 3% volume growth, but that the growth in non-alcoholic beer consumption would be far more promising.

And this growth meant that traditional brewers could expect an increasing amount of competition from soft drinks manufacturers as they ‘make moves towards things that maybe have some beer credentials,’ Baker told Beverage Daily.com. Coke’s acquisition of equity in Aujan and Barbican signalled that they were moving into the non-alcoholic part of the beer market.

For the full story on this, and more dispatches from the conference, go to (link to Beverage Daily.com story)

And if you’re keen to broaden your low- or no-alcohol beer horizons, Planet Wine has several options to offer you: Kereru (a committed craft brewer from Wellington) and Birch ‘beer’, which while technically not a beer, has all the appeal and refreshing characteristics of a traditional American root beer.  http://www.planetwine.co.nz/beer/new-zealand/kereru-come-bye-shepherds-ale-330ml/