Non-alcoholic beer is immensely popular in Spain

Spain is the largest producer of alcohol-free beer in the EU

Life there is great. The sun always seems to shine. And as soon as the sun's rays warm the beaches, the terraces are full. Time is hardly a factor in Andalusia. Enjoy a long lunch, relax for a while and then get ready for an extensive dinner.

The first beers and wines are consumed on the terraces around noon. What always strikes me is that there was also a lot of alcohol-free beer on the tables. In the supermarket I saw that the range in Spain is enormous.

In Spain, with a market share of 13 percent, the most alcohol-free beer (malt beer) is drunk. This is stated in a report by Cerveceros de España, the Association of Spanish beer brewers. Craft beer brewers also want to profit from this growth market. Opportunity for companies that invest a lot in innovation

Since 1976, when an Aragonese brewer was the first to introduce the alcohol-free ‘Ambar Sin’, the Spanish market has been dominated by the large beer companies. Since then, consumption has only increased and the market is solid. Drinking habits are changing and this market offers many opportunities, especially for companies that have renewal and product innovation in their DNA. Reason for craft brewers to also offer more 0.0 beer.

Investment in time and money

Thanks to technological progress and cost reduction, brewers such as As Cervecera, Villa de Madrid, Domus, Majara, Birra&Blues or La Cibeles continue to make low-alcohol beer – with an alcohol percentage that fluctuates between 0.6 and 0.9%. However, brewing is not cheap, fast or worry-free. For small brewers, ‘time is money’, says Jaco Nieta of Villa de Madrid. Making a beer that meets all the requirements has cost many litres of trial beer. For example, Villa de Madrid carried out more than 110 tests in two years before producing the alcohol-free Blonde Ale.

The Valencian brewer Birra&Blues, with its alcohol-free beer a medal winner at the last Barcelona Beer Challenge, invested mainly in time, testing and money. Specifically, 50,000 euros were invested in research and development and machinery. “A lot of money for a craft beer producer”, according to the CEO of the beer group, which is about to launch a second beer ‘without alcohol’.

A fragile product

In many cases, the batches are first made on a small scale, to test the development of the drink, which is more fragile with less alcohol and due to the lack of pasteurisation. A process without pasteurisation and filtering is typical of craft brewers. “That makes the products more sensitive and they suffer more from natural enemies such as heat, light and oxygen”, says Ángel Cozar of Majara.

A question of taste

Discovering the perfect recipe is complicated. “The first beer without alcohol is the hardest,” explains Andrés López, of As Cervera. This brewer has already launched three alcohol-free beers, including a dark beer.

The challenge is to “find a balanced taste” and avoid “the often sweet taste,” he adds.

Brewer Domus, which recently launched its first 0.0 beer, has been conducting research since January. “The quarantine has allowed us to make progress,” says Fernando Campoy, master brewer at the Toledo-based company. For him, like many others in the industry, drinking alcohol-free beer was “a personal thing.” His work requires him to travel a lot and he didn’t think the market was good enough. “I wanted to find a 0.0% beer that I liked,” he explains.

Using experience with low-alcohol beer

For other companies, the experience gained in brewing low-alcohol beer has helped them create alcohol-free beer. For example, Cervezas Majara, which only makes beer with less than 3 percent alcohol. Majara will soon introduce a new beer with an alcohol percentage of only 0.65 percent. The idea for this was conceived in May, together with the Valencian Zeta.

Legislation

Spanish legislation distinguishes between completely alcohol-free beer (0.0%) and low-alcohol beer (less than 1% alcohol). The law does not require the content of these beers to be stated on the label, but many companies do so. “It is a matter of taking responsibility,” says Andrés López van As, a pioneer in the field of craft malt beer.

Same production process, different ingredients.

To make alcohol-free beer that comes as close as possible to the taste of a normal beer, the craftsmen use the same production method as for beer with alcohol. However, the ingredients are different: the usual malt is replaced by grains, the sugars of which ferment to a lesser extent into yeast. This produces less alcohol. In addition, precise control of the temperature is essential throughout the entire process. As is the yeast used.

At the Madrid brewery La Cibeles, they have tried 50 different types of yeast on the same must, to see which gave the best results, both for the alcohol produced and for the taste. The yeast ultimately used comes from Madrid. These adjustments allow beer to be made with less than 1 percent alcohol. To really get to 0 percent, the alcohol must be removed from the beer, which no craft brewer does yet.

According to La Cibeles, it is a lie when brewers claim to offer craft beer without a trace of alcohol. With all the knowledge and the right ingredients, almost all types of malt beer can be produced, although not all types of beer are equally suitable.

Conclusion

My conclusion: Spain is leading the way when it comes to the consumption of alcohol-free beer in Europe. There are tasty alcohol-free beers for sale, but also a lot of - let me put it mildly - less successful drinks. Are you going alcohol-free in Spain? Then choose a beer from the top 6. As far as I'm concerned, you can forget the rest.

This is the Top 12:

01 - San Miguel

02 - Rubia Bionda

03 - Cruzcampo

04 - Heineken 0.0

05 - Amstel 0.0

06 - Free Damm

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07 - Carrefour - Sin

08 - Mahou - Sin

09 - Estrella de Levante - Sin

10 - Moritz 0.0