Brewing Better NA Beer: Identifying Challenges

Non-alcoholic (NA) beer has a firm place in the beverage landscape. With double-digit category growth and three distinct categories in the 2026 Great American Beer Festival, it’s clear that the market is embracing NA beer as a solid beverage option.

However, recreating the experience of full-strength beer without alcohol presents unique challenges for brewers. Aside from adding alcoholic strength to beer, ethanol affects the solubility, integration, and perception of flavor and aroma compounds, while also contributing sweetness and mouthfeel that help balance the overall drinking experience. When alcohol is removed or prevented from developing, these sensory elements can shift, leaving beer tasting thin, unfinished, or out of balance.

This is where hops can become the NA brewer’s best friend. Beyond their traditional role in bitterness, hops and specialized hop products can help rebuild the sensory qualities that make beer satisfying, from expressive flavor and aroma to pleasant bitterness, mouthfeel, foam stability, and turbidity.

“We don’t realize how important alcohol is for beer flavor until it isn’t there.”

The key is choosing the right tools for the right task. Concentrated hop pellets such as LupoCORE™ and LupoMAX^® can deliver impactful hop flavor and aroma at lower hopping rates, while Prysma^®, a 100% hop-derived flavor platform, allows brewers to increase hop expression without adding alpha acids. Other advanced hop products can help address specific needs, such as adding smooth bitterness or developing stable haze.

By choosing the right tools for the job, brewers can take a targeted approach to filling the sensory gaps left by alcohol reduction or removal, creating complex and appealing NA beers that deliver a more complete drinking experience.

Learn more about Haas’ non-alcoholic brewing solutions here.

This post is part of a series about NA brewing.