The Non Alcoholic Beer Market
Anheuser-Busch introduced O’Doul’s Non Alcoholic Beer in 1990. It was the first non alcoholic beer in the United States and has been much maligned for over 30 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.
Anheuser-Busch and O’Doul’s
Anheuser-Busch refers to itself as “one of America’s most iconic companies and the undisputed leader of the U.S. beer industry” on its website. The brewery is also listed on O’Doul’s packaging, but on their website, they list 27 beer and non-beer brands, none of which is O’Doul’s. So we can’t tell you how they describe the beer. The best description we can find comes from VineRepublic: “Deep, golden color with a spicy, light fruity and pleasant mild and slightly sweet with trace fruity notes. Crisp, light body with a slightly drying finish. O’Doul’s and O’Doul’s Amber are brewed as traditional premium beers – fermented and aged to full maturity. The alcohol is then removed through the use of low temperature, low-pressure distillation. This extremely gentle process allows the alcohol to be removed without heating or cooking the beer, which retains the full, rich and delicate flavor and balance of our non-alcohol brews.”
O’Doul’s 12 oz. can has a 5 IBU, 68 calories, 14.1g carbs, 0g fat and 1.1g protein. It has an “Awful” rating on Beer Advocate. The calories, carbs, fat and protein data come from the can itself. Untappd and others claim the 5 IBU and we have seen ABV estimates from 0.2% to 0.4%, but definitely less than 0.5%.
Our Review of O’Doul’s 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.
I planned for the worst. Maybe because I expected it to be so bad, it was better than expected. I am not saying it was good, it just wasn’t “awful” like the BeerAdvocate rating. It tasted like a lager beer, just not a good one. I even considered giving it a 3 out of 5 beer rating. 2-1/2 is probably right.
I do not plan to buy it again and don’t recommend it, but it just wasn’t that bad. However, if you must, here are some purchasing options:
O’Doul’s is available at Amazon at O’Doul’s
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
For better recommendations, try Athletic Brewing Cerveza Atletica and Best Day Brewing Kolsch.
For non alcoholic beer nutritional information for all NA beers we have reviewed and more, see NA Beer Nutritional Information.
