How to taste and judge non-alcoholic beer fairly

Judge it against its category

Taste a non-alcoholic beer next to a full strength one and it will usually seem thinner and less aromatic. That comparison is not useless, but it is unfair. The question that matters for a brand is how this beer compares with other non-alcoholic beers of the same style. A second question follows: is it refreshing and satisfying on its own terms?

Set up flights within the category: three or four non-alcoholic lagers, or a non-alcoholic IPA next to its peers. Our guide to low alcohol craft beer describes the main styles and how they differ.

What alcohol normally does

Ethanol does more than make beer intoxicating. It carries aroma out of the glass, adds a faint sweetness and warmth and gives body. Take it away and three things change.

• Aroma lifts less. Hop and yeast aromas can seem muted, even when they are present.
• Body thins. The beer can feel watery unless the brewer has built body back with malt, dextrins or careful carbonation.
• Balance shifts. Without alcohol's sweetness, bitterness and acidity stand out more.

A good non-alcoholic beer has been designed around these gaps. When you taste, ask whether the brewer has compensated or simply removed alcohol and hoped for the best. Our guide to mouthfeel and body covers the vocabulary for that weight on the tongue.

Serving it right

Serve at the temperature you would serve the full strength style, perhaps a degree or two warmer for darker styles. Very cold serving hides aroma. Non-alcoholic beer has less aroma to spare. Use the same glassware you would for the equivalent beer.

Pour with a proper head. Carbonation does a lot of work in this category, adding liveliness and a sense of body. A flat pour makes even a good beer seem dull.

Faults that point to the process

Non-alcoholic beers are made in two main ways: brewing a full beer and removing the alcohol, or limiting how much alcohol forms in the first place, often with special yeasts or a short, cold fermentation. Each route has its tell-tale faults.

Worty or raw cereal. A sweet, porridge-like note of unfermented wort. Common when fermentation is cut short or minimal. A little is typical. A lot is a fault.

Cooked or caramelised. A heavy, toffee-like or cooked note can come from heat during alcohol removal.

Thin and stripped. Aroma that seems hollow, as though the top notes have gone. Some aroma escapes with the alcohol during removal unless it is recovered.

Sour, hazy or off when it should be clean. With little or no alcohol to help protect it, non-alcoholic beer is more vulnerable to spoilage organisms. Unexpected sourness, film or ropiness in a beer meant to be clean is a serious quality and safety warning. That pack should go back to the producer.

A fair scoring sheet

Score the usual headings: appearance, aroma, flavour, mouthfeel and overall impression. Then add two questions specific to the category. First, how well does it deliver the style it promises? A non-alcoholic IPA should still smell of hops. Second, would you happily drink a second one? Drinkability matters more here than in almost any other category, because people choose these beers to drink through an evening.

Taste blind. Brand perception colours non-alcoholic beer more than most, partly because many drinkers arrive expecting disappointment. Hiding the label gives the liquid a fair chance.

Why this matters for brand builders

If you are planning a non-alcoholic range, your tasting panel is your first customer. A panel that only knows full strength beer will mark every sample down for thinness and never tell you which one is good. Train them on the category first.

The harder part is linking a fault to its cause and its fix: whether a worty note is a recipe choice, a yeast issue or a process problem. Then you need to know what it costs to change. That needs a grounding in how these beers are actually made, which is what the full course is for. In India, check labelling and category rules with your state authorities and current FSSAI guidance before you finalise a pack, as definitions and requirements can differ and change.