How we brew great non-alcoholic beer

The future of booze-free brew is Sober Carpenter. 

In January 2023, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) released updated guidelines on alcohol consumption. They now recommend Canadians limit alcoholic drinks to no more than two standard drinks per week. What’s a standard drink? In terms of beer, we’re talking 341 ml with 5% alcohol content.

The good news is that it’s never been easier or tastier to reduce your alcohol consumption. Non-alcoholic beer brands like Sober Carpenter have come a long way in delivering booze-free beer that reflects the traditional craft beer you crave. 

How do we do it? There are several different ways to prepare non-alcohol beer. Let’s go over the three most popular. 

Method #1: Boil Off Method

The idea here is to remove as much alcohol as possible by evaporating the ethanol (alcohol). Because the boiling point of ethanol is lower than that of water (78.5°C vs 100°C), brewers can boil off the alcohol without having to boil the beer. 

After fermentation has taken place, then simply heat the beer to 80°C for 30 minutes (to remove a maximum of ethanol). That’s it, that’s all.

Method #2: Membrane Filtration

The beer mixture is essentially filtered through a small membrane separating the alcohol and water from the ferment. Then, brewers distil the alcohol and return the water to the mixture. 

The most expensive and least popular among microbreweries, the membrane filtration method requires a lot of specialized equipment to accomplish. 

Method #3: No Fermentation (The Sober Carpenter method) 

We like this method because it limits the production of alcohol from the get-go. How do you stop alcohol from developing in beer? By preventing the natural sugars in the beer from fermenting. This is how Sober Carpenter guarantees a 0.5% brew.

Although drinks made using this process are typically sweeter (because the yeast has not processed the sugar), we’ve taken up this challenge head-on. All of our products mimic the great taste of craft beer without an overpowering sweetness. 

Once our beer is canned there’s still a very important step: Pasteurisation. The filled cans are passed through a chamber where hot water is sprayed over them for a fixed time before cooling. By pasteurizing our beer, we can better preserve the flavours, plus it guarantees the alcohol present won’t ferment once on the shelf.

Booze-free brew keeps getting better and better

The NA beer industry continues to grow, and Sober Carpenter will remain at the forefront with innovative products. Keep an eye on our limited edition collection to taste what we've been up to –– from beers brewed with more uncommon hops to beers brewed with new, beautifully technical methods. Take a sip and tell us what you think @sobercarpenter.