WEBVTT - How Does Non-Alcoholic Beer Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogelbaumb here. Just a few decades ago in the

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<v Speaker 1>United States, beer choices for purchasing non alcoholic beer were

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<v Speaker 1>just about as scant as their alcohol content. As of

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen ninety, there was really only one national brand, Oduels,

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<v Speaker 1>and it had a reputation for being sort of flat

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<v Speaker 1>and dull, even more boring than the other boring beers

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<v Speaker 1>on the market. But as laws in the United States

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<v Speaker 1>changed during the nineteen nineties, allowing for the growth of

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<v Speaker 1>small craft breweries, innovation and competition increased, and with that

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<v Speaker 1>expansion in the styles of beer available our pallets expanded.

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<v Speaker 1>Beer is the world's most popular alcoholic beverage and the

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<v Speaker 1>third most popular drink period behind water and tea. Brewers

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<v Speaker 1>have tapped into what consumers want most better tasting beer

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<v Speaker 1>in general, but also better beverage options for anyone who

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't want to consume alcohol at the moment for whatever reasons.

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<v Speaker 1>Since about twenty fifteen, but especially during the pandemic, that

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<v Speaker 1>category of us has grown. For the article this episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on, has Stuff Works spoke with John Walker,

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<v Speaker 1>the chief product officer for Athletic Brewing Company, a non

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<v Speaker 1>alcoholic craft brewery. He explained, when we started in twenty seventeen,

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<v Speaker 1>the non alcoholic beer market was zero point zero three

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<v Speaker 1>percent of the total beer market, and now we just

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<v Speaker 1>created two percent in grocery sales this past year. According

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<v Speaker 1>to GMI Insights, the global non alcoholic or NA beer

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<v Speaker 1>market raked in twenty two billion dollars in twenty twenty

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<v Speaker 1>two and is expected to reach forty billion by twenty

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<v Speaker 1>thirty two. Legally speaking, non alcoholic beer can contain up

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<v Speaker 1>to zero point five percent alcohol by volume or ABV,

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<v Speaker 1>so one half of one percent, meaning that these beers

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<v Speaker 1>aren't always appropriate for people looking to avoid alcohol entirely.

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<v Speaker 1>There are some completely alcohol free beers on the market,

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<v Speaker 1>like sun Trees brand All Free, but they're a little

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<v Speaker 1>trickier to make, which is why they're more rare. It is, however,

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<v Speaker 1>highly unlikely that you'll catch a buzz from a beer

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<v Speaker 1>with a zero point five percent ABV or lower. That's

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<v Speaker 1>because your body can metabolize that amount of alcohol about

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<v Speaker 1>as fast as you consume it. By contrast, alcoholic beer

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<v Speaker 1>usually ranges from around three to twelve percent ABV, although

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<v Speaker 1>they can go lower or higher. Just for example, a

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<v Speaker 1>beer with a five point six percent ABV takes more

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<v Speaker 1>than three hours to metabolize. These days, no and low

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<v Speaker 1>alcohol beers are brewed pretty much the same way that

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<v Speaker 1>alcoholic beers are, but afterward extra steps are taken to

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<v Speaker 1>remove the alcohol produced during the process. Okay, brief rundown

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<v Speaker 1>of how brewing works. So, to make beer, you need

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<v Speaker 1>grains like wheat, corn, rice, oats, rye, or barley. You

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<v Speaker 1>typically malt them, meaning you let them start to germinate

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<v Speaker 1>a little so that they start to produce sugars, and

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<v Speaker 1>then you roast them off to stop that and to

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<v Speaker 1>give them some amount of roasty flavors. Then you heat

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<v Speaker 1>your grains in water, which becomes your wart, and ferment

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<v Speaker 1>the wort with friendly yeasts. These yeasts eat some of

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<v Speaker 1>the sugars from the grains and poop alcohol, carbon dioxide,

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<v Speaker 1>and flavors. You probably also add some hops at some

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<v Speaker 1>point during this process. Hops are the flour of this

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<v Speaker 1>climbing plant, once called a pernicious weed, that add flavors

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<v Speaker 1>and especially bitter flavors plus super bonus inhibit the growth

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<v Speaker 1>of unwanted microorganisms, especially bacteria in your beer. They also

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<v Speaker 1>help stabilize beer's foam. You might add other stuff to

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<v Speaker 1>to help flavor your beer, fruit herbs, more other yeasts,

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<v Speaker 1>or bacteria that poot, more other flavors, what have you.

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<v Speaker 1>You can make low alcohol beer by simply stopping the

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<v Speaker 1>fermentation process before very much alcohol is created. There are

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<v Speaker 1>also enzymes you can use to simulate some of the

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<v Speaker 1>effects of fermentation, or modified strains of yeasts that don't

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<v Speaker 1>digest maltose so they don't produce alcohol, or strains that

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<v Speaker 1>produce alcohol really slowly. But with those methods you're also

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<v Speaker 1>not letting very much flavor or carbonation develop. So most

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<v Speaker 1>na beer goes through the full brewing process. But then

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<v Speaker 1>you get the alcohol out in one of a couple

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<v Speaker 1>of ways. The easiest way is to heat it out.

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<v Speaker 1>Everything has a different boiling point, right, and alcohol's boiling

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<v Speaker 1>point is about one hundred and seventy three degrees fahrenheit

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<v Speaker 1>or seventy eight celsius, much lower than the boiling point

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<v Speaker 1>of water. So easy you heat up your beer to

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<v Speaker 1>alcohol's boiling point, it releases as a gas boom non

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<v Speaker 1>alcoholic beer. Right. Not quite. The problems are that a

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<v Speaker 1>some of the flavor compounds and beer are alcohol soluble,

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<v Speaker 1>so boiling off the alcohol will take them out too,

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<v Speaker 1>meaning you'll have to recapture them and add them back

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<v Speaker 1>in later and b more Complicatedly heating or reheating your

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<v Speaker 1>beer enough to boil out the alcohol can break down

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<v Speaker 1>or alter all of your flavor compounds in ways that

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<v Speaker 1>will make the final product taste like not beer. So

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<v Speaker 1>the workaround is to rig physics so that you can

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<v Speaker 1>boil the alcohol out at a lower temperature. You do

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<v Speaker 1>that by lowering the pressure by putting your brew in

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<v Speaker 1>a vacuum chamber. At lower pressures, the boiling points of

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<v Speaker 1>stuff are lower. The exact pressure you go down to,

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<v Speaker 1>and thus the boiling point you go down to depends

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<v Speaker 1>on your equipment. Generally, the lower it can go, the

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<v Speaker 1>more expense of it is. Temperatures might range from one

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and twenty fahrenheit all the way down to eighty

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<v Speaker 1>that's about forty nine to twenty seven celsius. This more

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<v Speaker 1>gently cooks the alcohol out and you can then recapture

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<v Speaker 1>those alcohol soluble flavor compounds and add them back in. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>So that's the vacuum distillation method. The other main method

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<v Speaker 1>used is filtration or reverse osmosis. In this process, you

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<v Speaker 1>take your beer and force it using applied pressure through

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<v Speaker 1>ultrafine filters. So ultrafine that only molecules of alcohol and

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<v Speaker 1>water can pass through because they're so tiny. Pretty much

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<v Speaker 1>all the other stuff in the beer, all of the

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<v Speaker 1>flavor molecules get trapped. You can then take your alcoholic

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<v Speaker 1>water safely boil out the alcohol at the normal temperature,

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<v Speaker 1>and add the flavor molecules back in to the resulting

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<v Speaker 1>plane water. This is a little bit more expensive than

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<v Speaker 1>vacuum distillation. Either way, the carbon dioxide bubbles in your

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<v Speaker 1>original brew have not made it through this process, so

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<v Speaker 1>you're probably going to want to carbonate it like you

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<v Speaker 1>might as soda. This can also add a slightly sour

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<v Speaker 1>or metallic taste, so you might also doctor the flavor

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<v Speaker 1>a little more at the end of the process. Technology

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<v Speaker 1>is always evolving and brewers are constantly refining their craft

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<v Speaker 1>for both alcoholic and non alcoholic beers. Perhaps ironically, as

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<v Speaker 1>na beer slowly gains more attention, it's actually becoming one

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<v Speaker 1>of the hardest to learn. How to make it home.

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<v Speaker 1>Home brewing is a popular hobby, and how lots of

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<v Speaker 1>craft brewers got their start, but the craft brands that

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<v Speaker 1>make great NA beers, like Athletic and Brooklyn Brewery are

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<v Speaker 1>keeping their methods. Industry secrets are now. Today's episode is

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<v Speaker 1>based on the article how do Today's Brewers Make non

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<v Speaker 1>alcoholic Beer? On how stuffworks dot com written by Jennifer

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<v Speaker 1>Walker Journey. To learn more about the history of NA beer,

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<v Speaker 1>check out the episode of my other podcast SAB called

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<v Speaker 1>the Lowdown on non Alcoholic Beer. Brain Stuff is production

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<v Speaker 1>of by Heart Radio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com

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<v Speaker 1>and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from

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<v Speaker 1>my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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<v Speaker 1>wherever you listen to your favorite shows.