Why Is Non-Alcoholic Beer So Expensive?

What was once an underwhelming, flat, barely-drinkable substitute for the real thing, is now a booming industry and a truly crushable brew in its own right. We're talking, of course, about non-alcoholic beers.

The category has seen explosive growth and an outpouring of not just drinkable, but award-winning brews in the past few years as the sober and sober-curious movement has picked up momentum, with more people reaching for NA pours. While options have never been more varied or delicious, the sticker shock is also real — so don't expect to see a lighter price tag to match that non-alcoholic IPA or pale ale. And inflation alone can't be blamed. While prices for just about everything have spiked, the price of a non-alcoholic beer has risen at three times the rate of traditional beer, just in the past year.

A mashup of factors can be blamed for this disproportionate price hike, from premium ingredients, a smaller pool of suppliers and facilities, and a more complex brewing process to create your fave non-alcoholic beer (which is different from alcohol-free, FYI). Far from being a watered-down version of the real deal, NA brews are highly technical creations requiring great time, care, and costs to brew. While those abstaining once had to settle for a passable-at-best NA option, nowadays, brands like Athletic Brewing and many others have sprung up to create truly great, hoppy, complex brews — just don't expect to save much on your tab by skipping the booze.

At first glance, one might assume NA beer is simply regular beer, hold the alcohol — but it's nowhere near that simple. The steps required to produce non-alcoholic beer can actually be more technical and specialized, requiring custom and costly equipment. Furthermore, while there's no shortage of suppliers, packers, and other facilities for traditional beer, the NA world is far smaller. This means non-alcoholic beer brands have to work harder — and perhaps pay more — to find the facilities to get their product distilled and bottled. This trickles down to higher prices for consumers, as does the marketing required to get drinkers to give NA beer a try.

Ingredients too in many cases are top shelf — all of the grain going into an Athletic Brewing NA beer, for example, are organic (rare for a traditional beer) as brands cater to more health-conscious consumers. Makers of non-alcoholic drinks have to be choosy about ingredients and manufacturing to create a truly amazing-tasting beverage — after all, without the buzz from alcohol numbing senses and taste buds, we're paying close attention to the quality and taste of every sip.

Only time will tell if customers will continue to fork over the money for these increasingly pricey non-alcoholic beverages. The NA beverage market is still in its very early days, but currently, even higher price tags don't seem to be a deterrent for America's growing thirst for booze-free beer.