STAR TREK’S SYNTHEHOL, THE EARLY YEARS: Heineken’s newest Beer has zero alcohol and sugar.
The “all or nothing” era of the American bar scene may officially be over. Whether it’s driven by your usual morning HIIT class or just a desire to stay sharp, more drinkers are reaching for the bottle opener without looking for a buzz. Heineken is betting that those consumers are now looking for even more “nothing” in their brews—specifically, the removal of the final few nutritional hurdles.
The company is bringing a new alcohol-free beer to the market. The product, called Heineken 0.0 Ultimate, contains no alcohol, no calories, and no sugar, which the company claims is a first for the American non-alcoholic beer category.
Described as fruit-forward with a mild malt character, the beer goes through the same double-brewing process used for other 0.0 products, which removes the alcohol before packaging.
I just tried a bottle – when first cracked open, it definitely has the same slightly skunky smell of Heineken, and while it tastes somewhat like it, it’s more Heineken-adjacent than the real thing. It’s also a bit watery in texture, which is a frequent complaint about zero alcohol wines: Non-alcoholic wine is mostly terrible, but here’s why.
Katie Espinosa is the Fine Wine Director for Johnson Brothers Wisconsin and, prior to that, she worked for many years in restaurants as a manager and sommelier. She says the increased popularity of Dry January and “sober curiosity” in general has encouraged the production of more alcohol-free wine, even if it has much room for improvement.
“There is definitely a trend toward moderation and health, which for some, can include less alcohol consumption,” says Espinosa. “So the effort to make better products in any category is important, and NA wine is no exception.”
According to Espinosa, there is a difference between non-alcoholic wine and de-alcoholized wine, which will affect the drinking experience – and might affect which word to look for on the bottle.
“NA wine often never had alcohol in it, or very little. De-alcoholized wine is made like traditional wine and had the alcohol removed, usually by vacuum distillation, or reverse osmosis, similar to purifying water,” she says.
However, regardless of how the alcohol is removed, wine without it will lose the mouth feel and weight many drinkers enjoy. Also, the lack of fermentation, which is the process of producing alcohol, will dull flavors, aromas and textures.
“In NA and de-alcoholized wines, the alcohol is replaced with concentrated grapes, sugars and juice to make up for the loss when the alcohol is removed and lack of fermentation,” says Espinosa. “Many of the aromas in wine are carried to the nose through evaporating alcohol, so naturally, some of that is lost when the alcohol is removed.”
In short, this is why most NA wines taste like juice, because they are, more or less, juice.
Perhaps the answer is to skip the middleman and go straight to the source: Water sommeliers are pushing premium stills and sparklings to American diners who want a luxury experience. But will they swallow the hype?