The Non Alcoholic Beer Market
Clausthaler Brewing is a German brewery that pioneered the non alcoholic beer market in the 1970s. Like O’Doul’s, it has been much maligned for 30- 40 years. However, 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.
Clausthaler Original
Clasuthaler describes Clausthaler Original as “Ever since it put non-alcoholic beer on the map in 1979, Clausthaler has been the gold standard of the segment. With its own, specialized brewing technique, the pioneer still creates its signature non-alcoholic lager, Clausthaler Original, in strict accordance with the German purity law. Its genuine real beer taste is well-balanced, fresh, and easy to drink, with a creamy feel on the palate and a pleasing golden color to match.”
Clausthaler Original has a 29 IBU, 92.3 calories, 19.9g carbs, 0g fat and 1.1g protein. It has a “Poor” rating on Beer Advocate. The calories, carbs, fat and protein data come from the bottle itself. IBU information comes from Untappd.
Our Review of Clausthaler Original Non Alcoholic Beer
If you read our post about ProofNoMore, I bought 35 single non alcoholic beers to try. I decided to start at the bottom with O’Doul’s, one of the most well known and most reviled non alcoholic beers. Then I tried Budweiser Zero. Both of these were better than expected although I would not say they were good. The Budweiser Zero scored a few points with me only because it did taste like Budweiser. Clausthaler was next. Just like O’Doul’s, beer drinkers have hated on it for more than 30 years.
How Bad Was It?
It was awful. The only reason I didn’t give it a rating of 1 beer out of 5 is that it did taste like beer. Unfortunately the beers that it reminded me of were the cheap bad ones I drank in the 1970s. Some examples: Schlitz. which was the first beer I ever drank and cost $0.55 for a quart at a local liquor store, called a “packie” in Massachusetts. Tuborg, which was about $23.00 for a keg for college dorm parties. Red White and Blue, which cost about $3.00 for a case of 24 cans at spring break in Fort Lauderdale. Red White and Blue was Pabst’s low end beer, which tells you how bad it was. Not a great list for comparison. In addition, Clausthaler’s calories and carbs are much too high for such a horrible non alcoholic beer.
Please don’t buy Clausthaler. But if you like bad beer, here are some purchasing options:
Clausthaler is available at Amazon at Clausthaler Original.
As an Amazon Associate and ProofNoMore affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
For better recommendations, try Athletic Brewing Cerveza Atletica and Best Day Brewing Kolsch, or even Budweiser Zero.
For non alcoholic beer nutritional information for all NA beers we have reviewed and more, see NA Beer Nutritional Information.
