Germany’s non-alcoholic beer production has enjoyed a boom in the last 10 years, according to a new report. Low-alcohol drinks like Radler are also seeing increased sales.
Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, Destatis, published a new report on Tuesday highlighting that drinkers across the country are increasingly turning to alcohol-free varieties for their after-work or weekend choice of beer.
In the last ten years, the production of non-alcoholic beer has more than doubled in Germany. In 2023, that amounted to some 556 million liters (147 million gallons) and €548 million ($593 million) in sales.
The new statistics were published to coincide with International Beer Day, which is August 2.
Destatis also noted that the production of low-alcohol drinks like Radler, a mixture of beer and lemonade, has also increased from 328 million liters in 2013 to 363 million liters in 2023.
“However,” the report said, “there is still much more beer with alcohol being produced” in Germany than non-alcoholic.
I’m with you, I also don’t like getting drunk and I don’t like how even a little bit of alcohol tires my body, but unfortunately I’ve found that flavor and alcohol content are directly related: a 5% beer never tastes as rich as a 9% tripel, and a 0.0% beer will never have as much flavor as even a simple 5% lager. I’ve tasted quite a few and they all taste “empty” to me. I think this is because alcohol is a solvent for a lot of chemical compounds in beer that give flavor.
So what I do instead is pick my moments, and never overindulge to the point where I feel intoxicated.