The Non Alcoholic Beer Market
Brooklyn Brewery Special Effects Pils is brewed in Brooklyn and other New York locations. 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 estimated 19% market share, but more and more specialty non alcoholic breweries are entering the market, as well as traditional breweries like Brooklyn Brewery. Not a day goes by without some news story about the rise of non alcoholic beer and societal trends towards reducing alcohol intake.
Brooklyn Brewery
Brooklyn Brewery was founded in 1988 in Brooklyn. While they do have a brewery in Brooklyn, they have also contracted out much of their brewing to various locations in New York state. Their Brooklyn brewery has a taproom, tours and a merchandise store. Brooklyn Brewery has a large selection of beers, including Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn Pilsner, IPAs, seasonal beers, limited edition beers and non alcoholic beers. Their flagship beer is Brooklyn Lager, an amber lager.
Brooklyn Brewery Special Effects Pils
Brooklyn Lager brews three non alcoholic beers, an IPA, a hoppy lager and a pilsner, all marketed as “Special Effects.” The brewery describes Special Effects Pils as “Everybody (well, almost everybody!) loves a pilsner for two main reasons: crisp refreshment, and an easy, approachable style. Our Special Effects Pils delivers on all those beloved pilsner characteristics, just without the buzz, so there’s no distractions to keep you from enjoying this remarkably refreshing brew. Its familiar, easy flavor profile makes it a surefire crowd pleaser, its clean edge makes it the perfect palate cleanser between courses or as a daytime picnic companion, and it’s exactly what you’ll want to reach for for some snappy refreshment at the end of a long day. Special Effects Pilsner invites you to kick back, take a crisp sip, and focus on flavor.”
Brooklyn Brewery Special Effects Pils has 80 calories, 17g carbs, 0g fat and 2g protein. There is no IBU information. It has a “Good” rating on Beer Advocate.
Our Review of Brooklyn Brewery Special Effect Pils
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.
Next I moved on to craft brewers’ non alcoholic beers. Figueroa Mountain’s three non alcoholic beers were Hoppy Poppy IPA, Hikers High Hazy IPA and FMB 101 Blonde. Hoppy Poppy IPA wasn’t very hoppy. Hiker’s High was much better, and FMB 101 Blonde was also very good. Athletic Brewing Lite was much better than expected, but I don’t understand the market for a light non alcoholic beer.
The Tasting
The only beer I have had from Brooklyn Brewery is their Brooklyn Lager, which is excellent. When I used to travel to New York, I would stop at The Stage Deli to have a Brooklyn Lager on tap with a pastrami sandwich. I can’t imagine a better meal. So I was excited to try their non alcoholic Pilsner.
I was very disappointed. It did not taste like a Pilsner. It was very hoppy, and if I didn’t know better, I would have assumed it was an IPA. The only reason we didn’t give it a lower rating is that it may have made a decent IPA. But I would not drink it again or recommend it.
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. I would add Figueroa Mountain FMB 101 Blonde and Athletic Brewing Lite to this list. The Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn in particular does not live up to its hype and is overrated.
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 one purchasing option for Brooklyn Lager:
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For more recommendations, try Athletic Brewing Cerveza Atletica, Best Day Brewing Kolsch, Athletic Brewing Lite and Figueroa Mountain FMB 101 Blonde.
For non alcoholic beer nutritional information for all NA beers we have reviewed and more, see NA Beer Nutritional Information.
