The Non Alcoholic Beer Market
Sierra Nevada Trail Pass Golden is brewed by Sierra Nevada, a craft brewer located in Northern California and North Carolina. The brewery is known for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. 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.
Sierra Nevada
Sierra Nevada was an early pioneer of the craft beer movement in the United States. The company’s founder Ken Grossman started home brewing in 1976 and then opened a brewery in 1980 in Chico, California where he introduced Pale Ale. Today the company has taprooms and breweries with tours in Chico and Mills River, North Carolina. They offer 10 different IPAs, Pale Ale, Non Alcoholic beers and more. Their website is very heavy on their history, the history of Pale Ale, and their role as one of the founders of the craft beer revolution. The brewery is highly regarded in the craft beer industry and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is considered a ground breaking beer.
Sierra Nevada Trail Pass Golden
Sierra Nevada began tinkering with non alcoholic beers in 2018 and finally introduced Trail Pass IPA and Trail Pass Golden as its first non alcoholic beers in December 2023. The brewery describes Trail Pass Golden as “Grab a Trail Pass and start a non-stop adventure with miles of flavor. Explore the smooth malt and crisp finish in non-alcoholic Trail Pass Golden, a refreshing easy-drinker with a surge of hops for bright floral and citrus notes.”
“If a craft drinker is looking for that non-alc option, but still wants a complete beer experience, this is gonna do it for them,” says James Conery, [Sierra Nevada’s] Innovation Brewmaster.”
Trail Pass Golden has 95 calories, 15 IBU, 19g carbs, 1g fat and 1g protein. It has a “Good” rating on Beer Advocate.
Our Review of Sierra Nevada Trail Pass Golden
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.
So now it was time to move on to some craft brewers’ non alcoholic beers. A good place to start was one of the leaders of the industry, Sierra Nevada. First I tried Trail Pass IPA, which is an excellent non alcoholic IPA. Now it is Trail Pass Golden’s turn.
The Tasting
Trail Pass Golden is more like a Pilsner or golden ale. I assumed it would be like Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn Golden. That is one of Athletic Brewing’s flagship beers and best sellers, but I found it to be mediocre. It was not as good as other Athletic Brewing beers I have had, the two IPAs and Cerveza Atletica.
I was correct. Trail Pass Golden tasted similar to Upside Dawn Golden, perhaps a little better, but still somewhat mediocre and definitely inferior to Trail Pass IPA and the better Athletic Brewing beers. It tasted like beer, but nothing special.
The table below 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 rank them differently in order from best to worst: Athletic Brewing Cerveza Atletica, Best Day Brewing Kolsch, Corona Non Alcoholic, Becks Non Alcoholic, Sierra Nevada Trail Pass Golden and Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn. I am sure some would disagree vehemently and be horrified with my putting Corona ahead of Sierra Nevada and Athletic Brewing, but I found it to have a much cleaner taste. It is also a negative that the Trail Pass Golden has much higher calories and carbs.
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 |
If you still want to try Trail Pass Golden, here are some purchasing options:
Trail Pass Golden is available at Amazon at Trail Pass.
As an Amazon Associate and 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.
