The Non Alcoholic Beer Market
AL’s Classic Non-Alcoholic Lager is brewed by AL’s Drinks Co. , a one product brewer based in New York. The non alcoholic beer market has grown rapidly in recent years with the introduction of non alcoholic beers that taste more like regular beer. Non alcoholic beers have several health advantages over regular beers, including fewer calories, sugar, carbs and of course, alcohol. Non alcoholic means less than 0.5% alcohol, so non alcoholic beers can still have traces of alcohol.
Athletic Brewing is the current market leader in non alcoholic beers and is a top 10 craft brewer, but more and more specialty non alcoholic breweries are entering the market, as well as traditional breweries. Not a day goes by without some news story about the rise of non alcoholic beer and societal trends towards reducing alcohol intake.
AL’s Drinks Company
AL’s was founded in 2020. According to founder Alban de Pury “Drinking a cold beer is one of life’s simple pleasures. However, I found myself wanting to cut down on alcohol. So a few years ago, I decided to see what life could be without drinking, but as a beer lover I struggled to find a decent drink. When I found out that none of my favourite dive bars or music venues carried non-alcoholic beer, I went on to start AL’s!” Al’s has only one product, which is available in NY, NJ, CT, MA, RI, PA, OH, NC and SC.
AL’s Classic Non-Alcoholic Lager
Al’s one product is AL’s Classic Non-Alcoholic Lager, which Al’s describes as “a classic American easy drinking lager to enjoy all of life’s best moments without the booze.”
Al’s Classic has 54 calories, 13g carbs, 0g fat and less than 1g protein. There is no IBU information, but it must be low. It has no rating on Beer Advocate, but we have seen some publications listing it as a top 10 non-alcoholic beer.
Our Review of AL’s Classic Non-Alcoholic Lager
If you read our post about ProofNoMore, I bought 35 single non alcoholic beers to try. I decided to start with non alcoholic beers from large well known breweries. O’Doul’s and Claustauler, two of the most well known and most hated non alcoholic beers, Budweiser Zero, Becks NA and Corona NA. Clausthauler was awful and O’Doul’s was better than expected. Budweiser Zero tasted like regular Budweiser, and Becks NA and Corona NA were both better than their respective regular beers. Corona was a pleasant surprise. After that, I tried two from Sierra Nevada, Trail Pass IPA, which is an excellent non alcoholic IPA and Trail Pass Golden, which is OK. Al’s was next up.
The Tasting
When I first heard of AL’s, I thought it was a joke. It sounded like a guy with some brewing equipment in the basement bootlegging out of the back of the house. But AL’s is not a joke. As indicated above, I actually saw some publications who had it listed as a “top ten non alcoholic beer.”
I tasted AL’s one day after Sierra Nevada Trail Pass Golden and it was a little better. Decent, drinkable, clean but nothing special. Al’s description “classic American easy drinking lager” is accurate. But perhaps it is a little too “easy drinking” and a bit light in taste.
The table below is the same one we showed in our Review of Trail Pass Golden. It shows a summary of some of the more drinkable non-IPA non alcoholic beers I have tried. We include the Beer Advocate ratings for more opinions which are all close except Becks. Adding AL’s to the list, I would rank them in order from best to worst: Athletic Brewing Cerveza Atletica, Best Day Brewing Kolsch, Corona Non Alcoholic, Becks Non Alcoholic, AL’s Classic Lager, Sierra Nevada Trail Pass Golden and Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn.
Non Alcoholic Beer Nutritional Information
| Brewery | Beer | Beer Advocate Rating | ABV (%) | IBU | Calories | Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Fat (g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athletic Brewing | Upside Dawn | 83 | less than 0.5 | 25 | 45 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| Athletic Brewing | Cerveza Atletica | 80 | less than 0.5 | 15 | 60 | 14 | 1 | 0 |
| Best Day Brewing | Kolsch | 86 | less than 0.5 | na | 55 | 11 | 3 | 0 |
| Sierra Nevada | Trail Pass Golden | 84 | less than 0.5 | 15 | 95 | 19 | 1 | 1 |
| Corona | Corona Non Alcoholic | 82 | less than 0.5 | na | 60 | 17.5 | 1.3 | 0 |
| Anheuser-Busch/Becks | Becks Non Alcoholic | 62 | 0.5 | na | 68 | 14.6 | 1.2 | 0 |
Here is a purchasing option for AL’s Classic Lager:
As a ProofNoMore affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
For more recommendations, try Athletic Brewing Cerveza Atletica, Best Day Brewing Kolsch, Corona Non Alcoholic and Becks Non Alcoholic.
For non alcoholic beer nutritional information for all NA beers we have reviewed and more, see NA Beer Nutritional Information.
