The stigma of non-alcohol (NA) drinks being “less than cool” has been replaced by a new paradigm that sees NAs being an attractive option.
Circana data indicates that 11 of the top 20 non-alcohol beer brands sold at retail are craft-based varieties. It’s a far cry from years ago when O’Doul’s and Sharps dominated what was then a sleepy segment.
Younger consumers, in general, tend to drink less alcohol, thus making NA beers ripe for the taking.
“They, in particular, are seeking hot flavors of all kinds of product categories, and that’s also true for NA: young consumers jump around, and this really fuels NA growth,” Scott Scanlon, executive vice president, alcoholic beverages, for Chicago-based Circana, said.
Some recent arrivals are demonstrating that NA beer innovation is poised for bigger things. This summer, The Boston Beer Co. debuted a first-of-its-kind non-alcohol beverage with General Admission, combining the flavor attributes of a non-alcohol beer with a fruited seltzer water.
General Admission (less than 0.5 % alcohol by volume) is available in four fruit-forward flavors: Lemon-Lime, Orange Ovation, Grapefruit Groove and Raspberry Remix.
“The non-alcohol category is seeing explosive growth [up more than 30% in 2023, according to company data) and it is becoming a sizable piece of the industry. In fact, NA is now bigger than hard cider,” said Tim Kerrigan, Boston Beer Co.’s assistant head of innovation.
“Knowing that, we wanted to create a new type of product that offers a much broader view of what we believe NA can be,” said Kerrigan. “We believe it’s actually alcohol drinkers that are the primary consumers of it, and we must find a way to make something that appeals to everyone, whether they drink spirits, beer, wine or only NA.”
General Admission is the first brand from Boston Beer to utilize direct-to- consumer shipping as a method of distribution. “With General Admission, we’ll be testing not only how drinkers respond to the product itself, but also how we can best leverage a direct-to-consumer platform as an impactful sales tool for the future,” Kerrigan adds.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.