What is alcohol-free beer?

A Dutch beer may be called alcohol-free at a maximum of 0.1% alcohol. Above that, from more than 0.1% up to and including 1.2%, a beer is called low-alcohol. Both limits are in the Warenwet.

Outside the Netherlands wider limits apply. Germany and Belgium allow up to 0.5%, Spain even up to 1.2%. Those beers are also sold in the Netherlands, with the word alcohol-free on the label. If you want to know exactly, read the percentage on the label itself; it is always there.

0.0% is a rounded number, alcohol-free is a legal category. If the label says 0.0%, the alcohol content has been rounded down to zero — a trace may be present. If a Dutch beer only says alcohol-free, you know it stays below 0.1%; if it says so on a German or Belgian beer, it can go up to 0.5%.

That difference is small but not zero. Anyone who wants to avoid alcohol completely looks at the figure on the label and not at the word next to it.

There are three ways, and brewers use them in combination. The first is never to let the alcohol arise: with a special yeast and a lower fermentation temperature the process is stopped before the yeast cells have converted the sugars into alcohol.

The second way is simply to brew beer and then heat the alcohol out of it. During that heating the aromas evaporate too, so they are first taken out of the brew and put back later. The third way is filtering: the brew is pressed through a membrane that separates the alcohol. That is a costly and slow process and is therefore used less often.

Because alcohol itself carries flavor and, when removed, takes aromas with it. In the distillation method, aromas evaporate together with the alcohol; brewers capture them and add them back later, but that is not the same as a beer in which they were never missing.

Bij bieren die nooit doorgegist zijn, blijft er meer restsuiker in het bier zitten. Dat geeft een voller en zoeter bier dan een gewone pils van hetzelfde merk. Zwaardere stijlen — weizen, IPA, tripel — houden daarom in alcoholvrije vorm vaak meer overeind dan een lichte pils.

The Alcohol Act calls a drink alcoholic from more than 0.5% alcohol at 20 °C. Alcohol-free beer stays below that and therefore falls outside that definition. Legally it is not an alcoholic drink.

That is the legal side. If you are unsure about a particular beer, look at the percentage on the label: with a German or Belgian beer, alcohol-free can mean up to 0.5%, and that is precisely the limit.