In the United States, beverages containing less than 0.5%
alcohol by volume (ABV) were legally called non-alcoholic, according to the now-defunct
Volstead Act. Because of its very low alcohol content, non-alcoholic beer may be legally sold to people under age 21 in many American states. In the
United Kingdom, Government guidance recommends the following descriptions for "alcohol substitute" drinks including alcohol-free beer. The use of these descriptions is voluntary: • No alcohol or alcohol-free: not more than 0.05% ABV • Dealcoholized: over 0.05% but less than 0.5% ABV • Low-alcohol: not more than 1.2% ABV In some parts of the
European Union, beer must contain no more than 0.5% ABV if it is labelled "alcohol-free". In
Australia, the term "light beer" refers to any beer with less than 3.5% alcohol.
Light beer Light beers are beers with reduced
caloric content compared to regular beer, and typically also have a lower alcoholic content, depending on the brand and where they are sold. The spelling "lite beer" is also commonly used. Light beers are manufactured by reducing the
carbohydrate content, and secondarily by reducing the alcohol content, since both carbohydrates and alcohol contribute to the caloric content of beer. Light beers are marketed primarily to drinkers who wish to manage their calorie intake. However, these beers are sometimes criticized for being less flavorful than full-strength beers, being "watered down" (whether in perception or in fact), and thus advertising campaigns for light beers generally advertise their retention of flavor. In Canada, regular beers typically have 5% ABV, while a reduced-alcohol beer contains 2.6%–4.0% ABV and an "extra-light" beer contains less than 2.5%. In the United States, most mass-market light beer brands, including
Bud Light,
Coors Light, and
Miller Lite, have 4.2% ABV, less than ordinary beers from the same makers which are 5% ABV. however, some stores voluntarily opt out from selling it to minors anyway. Similarly, in
Norway, beer with an alcohol content of up to 4.7% ABV can be sold in ordinary supermarkets, though within restricted hours. Any beer exceeding this limit, as well as wine and spirits, must be purchased at the state-run
Vinmonopolet. Due to high alcohol taxes, there is also a wide variety of low-alcohol beers (known as
lettøl) available in supermarkets, as these are significantly more affordable for consumers.
Low-point beer Low-point beer, which is often known in the United States as "three-two beer" or "3 point 2 brew", is beer that contains 3.2%
alcohol by weight (equivalent to about 4% ABV). The term "low-point beer" is unique to the United States, where some states limit the sale of beer, but beers of this type are also available in countries (such as
Sweden and Finland) that tax or otherwise regulate beer according to its alcohol content. In the United States, 3.2 beer was the highest alcohol content beer allowed to be produced legally for nine months in 1933. As part of his
New Deal, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the
Cullen–Harrison Act that repealed the
Volstead Act on 22 March 1933. In December 1933, the
Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed, eliminating a federal level prohibition on the production and sale of alcoholic beverages and returning to the states the power to regulate them within their borders. After the repeal of Prohibition, a number of state laws prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors remained in effect. As these were repealed, they were first replaced by laws limiting the maximum alcohol content allowed for sale to 3.2 ABW. As of 2019, the state of
Minnesota permits general establishments such as supermarket chains and convenience stores to sell only low-point beer; in the 2010s,
Colorado,
Kansas,
Oklahoma, and
Utah revised state laws to end this practice. In the states that maintain such laws, all alcoholic beverages containing more than 3.2% alcohol by weight (
ABW) must be sold from state-licensed liquor stores.
Missouri also has a legal classification for low-point beer, which it calls "nonintoxicating beer". Unlike Minnesota and Utah, Missouri does not limit supermarket chains and convenience stores to selling only low-point beer. Instead,
Missouri's alcohol laws permit grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations, and even "general merchandise stores" (a term that Missouri law does not define) to sell any alcoholic beverage; consequently, 3.2% beer is rarely sold in Missouri.
Near beer "Near beer" was a term for
malt beverages containing little or no alcohol (less than 0.5% ABV), which were mass-marketed during
Prohibition in the United States. Near beer could not legally be labeled as "beer" and was officially classified as a "
cereal beverage". The most popular "near beer" was
Bevo, brewed by the
Anheuser-Busch company. The
Pabst company brewed "Pablo",
Miller brewed "Vivo", and
Schlitz brewed "Famo". Many local and regional breweries stayed in business by marketing their own near-beers. By 1921, production of near beer had reached over 300 million US gallons (1 billion L) a year (36 L/s). A popular illegal practice was to add alcohol to near beer. The resulting beverage was known as
spiked beer or
needle beer, so called because a needle was used to inject alcohol through the cork of the bottle or keg. Food critic and writer
Waverley Root described the common American near beer as "such a wishy-washy, thin, ill-tasting, discouraging sort of slop that it might have been dreamed up by a
Puritan Machiavelli with the intent of disgusting drinkers with genuine beer forever." In the early 2010s, major breweries began experimenting with mass-market non-alcoholic beers to counter with declining alcohol consumption amid growing preference for craft beer, launching beverages like Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser Prohibition Brew, launched in 2016. A drink similar to "near beer", "bjórlíki" was quite popular in Iceland before alcoholic beer was made legal in 1989. The Icelandic variant normally consisted of a shot of vodka added to a half-a-litre glass of light beer.
Small beer Small beer (also,
small ale) is a
beer/
ale that contains very little
alcohol. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favored drink in
Medieval Europe and colonial
North America as opposed to the often polluted water and the expensive beer used for festivities. Small beer was also produced in households for consumption by children and servants. However, small beer/small ale can also refer to a beer made of the "second runnings" from a very strong beer (e.g., scotch ale) mash. These beers can be as strong as a
mild ale, depending on the strength of the original mash. This was done as an economy measure in household brewing in England up to the 18th century and is still done by some
homebrewers. One commercial brewery, San Francisco's
Anchor Brewing Company, also produces their
Anchor Small Beer using the second runnings from their Old Foghorn
Barleywine. The term is also used
derisively for commercially produced beers which are thought to taste too weak.
Non-alcoholic beer n brewery
Gösser As more people consume non-alcoholic beverages for health reasons, social reasons, or because they want to enjoy the taste of beer without the effects of alcohol, the global non-alcoholic beer market was expected to double by 2024 from the level in 2018.
Arab world The Middle East accounts for almost a third of worldwide sales of nonalcoholic and alcohol-free beer.
Iran In 2008, the sale of non-alcoholic beers in Iran continued its high performance with double-digit growth rates in both value and volume and is expected to more than double its total volume sales between 2008 and 2013.
India Non alcoholic beer sales in India are relatively low.
United States The United States has seen a rise in non-alcoholic beer consumption over the last decade.
Europe 0,0, a non-alcoholic beer from Spain In 2014 Spain was the main consumer and producer of low-alcohol beer in the
European Union.
United Kingdom As of March 2020, sales of alcohol-free beer were up by 30% since 2016, with younger generations shunning alcoholic beverages. Brewers have introduced low or no alcohol varieties of established brands to meet the increased demand for low-alcohol beers, and new low-alcohol brands such as
Lucky Saint have seen success in the UK market. ==Legal drinking age in the US==