Low alcohol on the up
2021
With the festive season rapidly approaching it won’t be long until the new year will be among us. With the dawn of January comes new year’s resolutions and the trending practice of ‘Dry January’. Dry January 2022, will be somewhat different to previous years, thanks to Dutch brewer Heineken, who have solved the mystery of how to serve non-alcoholic beer from draught taps as opposed to the traditional bottles or cans, the Sunday Times reports.
The breakthrough is believed to be welcomed by the British public who are increasingly opting for no or low alcohol option over a pint of beer or a glass of wine. Sales of low and no-alcohol drinks in the UK are forecast to rise by 22% from 2019 to 2024, according to IWSR, the international drinks analysts. A link to the IWSR findings can be found here (https://www.theiwsr.com/press-releases/).
Heineken believes that by allowing non-drinkers to join their friends for ‘a pint’ would “make ordering alcohol-free beer more acceptable” in social settings. The brewer went onto add “there are still stigmas attached to no and low-alcohol beer among certain sections of society”. By 2025, the beer giant claims would be as many Heineken no or low alcohol Draught taps in British pubs and bars as there are Heineken Original taps.
As a reminder anything over 0.5% strength remains classified as alcohol and is therefore an age restricted product. For reference the descriptors of alcohol are as follows:
Low alcohol – the drink must be 1.2% alcohol by volume (abv) or below and an indication of its maximum abv should be included on the label.
Non-alcoholic – this should not be used in conjunction with a name commonly associated with an alcoholic drink. There is an exception for non-alcoholic wine where it is derived from unfermented grape juice and is intended exclusively for communion or sacramental use. The labelling or advertising of these non-alcoholic wine should make it clear that it is exclusively for such use.
Alcohol free – this should only be applied to a drink from which the alcohol has been extracted if it contains no more than 0.05% abv, and the products should also include the abv (or state that they contain no alcohol) on the label in order to use the descriptor.
De-alcoholised – this term should only be applied to a drink from which the alcohol has been extracted if it contains no more than 0.5% abv and the product should also include an indication of its alcoholic strength (or state that it contains no alcohol).