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.
“alcohol free” is not free of alcohol but can contain up to 0.5% alcohol.
This could be fatal for people having had an alcohol addition because that sets them right back into the circle of drug abuse.
There are beers that are at 0.0% and they are marketed like that for everybody trying to drink no alcohol at all.
Since apple juice can contain up to 0.5% of alcohol as well, somebody who wants to drink no alcohol at all has to be careful and knowledgeable about drinks and food in general.
The last time I read something about this, former alcoholics have different tolerances of trace amounts of alcohol. For some a drink that only tastes like an alcoholic beverage can already be difficult just due to the memories connected to it even if there is no alcohol in it.