The Non Alcoholic Beer Market
Bravus Brewing is a brewer of non alcoholic beers like Golden Light. 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 with an approximate 19% market share. More and more specialty non alcoholic breweries like Bravus Brewing 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.
Bravus Brewing
Philip Brandes started Bravus Brewing in his garage in 2015. A year later he started Bravus Brewing Company in Santa Ana, California as the first exclusively non alcoholic craft brewery in the United States. In 2020 the company expanded into a 23,000 square brewery in nearby Anaheim. Today they brew 9 different non alcoholic beers and other non alcohol wines and spirits. Their beers include IPAs, Blonde, Peanut Butter Dark, Oatmeal Dark, limited edition beers and more.
Bravus Brewing Golden Light
Golden Light is one of Bravus Brewing’s everyday beers. The brewery describes the beer as “With all the flavorful craft brews we make, it was time for a good ol’ fashioned light ale. Crisp & clean with a touch of biscuit malt sweetness, this approachable brew tastes so much like one of those light beers from the big guys, you will find it hard to believe it is non-alcoholic. Only 65 calories!” Golden Light has no rating on Beer Advocate. It has a 3.05 out of 5 rating on Untappd.
Golden Light has 65 calories, 16g carbs, 1g protein and 0g fat. It is vegan and gluten reduced but not gluten-free. There is no IBU information.
Our Review of Bravus Brewing Golden Light
If you read our post about ProofNoMore, I bought 35 single non alcoholic beers to try. I started with non alcoholic beers from large well known breweries and followed that up with craft breweries. Then I moved on to non alcoholic breweries, starting with Athletic Brewing Lite, which was better than expected, Partake Brewing, which were exceptional considering the low calories and carbs, and Collective Arts, which were disappointing. Golden Light is the third of four I am trying from Bravus Brewing. West Coast IPA was good, not necessarily great and Oatmeal Dark tasted like carbonated chocolate milk.
The Tasting
Golden Light tasted like beer, albeit a weak and watered down one. I waffled between rating it 2 or 3 before deciding on 2. The real issue here is that it is supposed to be a light beer that is lower in calories and carbs but it isn’t. We have reviewed about 50 non alcoholic beers and the 65 calories and 16 carbs are both pretty close to the median number for all of them. Many of those with lower numbers are much better beers, including Athletic Brewing Lite, Upside Dawn and Cerveza Atletica, all the Partake Brewing Beers, Sober Carpenter Irish Red, Wellbeing Hellraiser and Best Day Brewing Kolsch. Any of those would be a better choice.
If your goal is to find a good tasting NA beer with low calories and carbs, don’t choose Bravus Brewing Golden Light.
We don’t recommend it, but Bravus Brewing Golden Light is available at Amazon at Golden Light.
As an Amazon Associate and a Proof No More affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
For better recommendations, try Athletic Brewing Light, Partake Brewing Blonde, Partake Brewing Pale and the others we reference above.
For non alcoholic beer nutritional information for all NA beers we have reviewed and more, see NA Beer Nutritional Information.
