The Challenge for Pubs

Who’s Doing Draft Alcohol-Free Well?

Ask For What You Want

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Hello and welcome to Mindful Drinking and Moderation in Midlife Drinks 101, where in just a few minutes each week I help make low, no, and light alcohol drinks make sense. Today we're looking at why you can't find more alcohol-free beer on draft in your local. When I interviewed the founder of Jump Ship Brewing last year, she said it perfectly. Only a pint is a pint. And she's right, bottles and cans are fine, but sometimes you just want that crisp, fresh pint pulled from the tap. But unfortunately, it's one place where choice is still very limited. So why are they so hard to come by? In a word, demand. Draft beer is a very delicate product, and if it's not looked after well, it can soon go bad. Now with alcoholic beer, that's not as much of a concern because dear old booze is in the barrel and it's doing its job as a natural preservative, killing off all the unwanted nasties, trying to make their way up the lines and into your pint. But for beer with no booze, that first line of defense just does not exist. But that's not all. If alcohol-free beer is left to sit in barrels for too long, before it starts to go bad, any residual sugars could start to ferment again, nudging the ABV up to more alcohol than is on the label, and nobody wants that. So, what pubs are left with is a very expensive but very delicate product that, if it isn't sold fast enough, is going to cost them more money than it makes them. And we all know that our pubs are struggling at the moment. While Low and No is growing at a rate of knots, yay, it's still not quite at the level where landlords can confidently take away a line of well-selling alcohol full beer to replace with a lesser-known, yet equally delicious and thirst-quenching alcohol-free one. But all is not lost. There are some brands that are doing draft alcohol free very well. In the big alcohol space, Heineken has made a massive dent in the draft scene with some 2,000 draft taps across the country. Not far behind is dedicated alcohol-free brand Lucky Saint. I spoke to their team in episode 90, at which point they had over a thousand taps and counting. And when I spoke to the director of category for Peroni Nastro in episode 117, he was adamant that the company have big plans to make draft a much bigger part of their offer in 2026 and beyond. I'll link to that episode in the show notes for you. If you take one thing away from this drinks 101 episode, let it be that if you want more draft AF beer on the bar at your favourite pub, the best thing that you can do is to speak to the landlord or the manager and let them know that there's a demand for it and that you're willing to pay for it. Once they know that there is money to be made and that they are not going to have stock sit and go to waste, they'll be far more likely to take action and give you the drinks that you want. I'll link to my interview with Asahi and Peroni director Andy Wingate in the show notes for you so you can hear all about their plans for more draft AF beer this year and beyond. Whilst you're in the show notes, you'll also find my email address if you'd like to send me a question to answer on another Drinks101, or you can use that Snazzy text message link at the top. Next time we'll be looking at what ABV actually means. And until then, cheers to a life less intoxicated.