Zero Alcohol vs. Regular Beer: Can Tasters Tell The Difference?

[@MartinKeen]

I still can't quite believe how this shook out... what the heck?

[@Margarinetaylorgrease]

Quite disturbing.

[@WarfareJournal]

My theory is that they've put an exceptional effort into the NA beers to make sure they're still as good and managed to surpass their original recipes which they were too afraid to make changes to over the decades. Basically, everything to lose by changing the original and everything to gain by making the NA decent

[@owenorton]

Very very disturbing

[@logandempsey]

Suspicious you avoided hoppy beers Mr. Keen 🤔

[@rici_22]

You’d have a better idea after half a glass

[@leehaseley2164]

I also MUCH prefer Heineken 0.0% over the original.

[@zsolt5348]

I can't believe this either. I'm feeling a strange inclination to do blind tests on myself now... Thanks for the inspiration! :)

[@Samtallica]

NA beers have come a very long way! I quit drinking a few years ago and love all of the NA options we have now. Makes it very easy to go to social events and have a beer without feeling like I'm missing out! I love Sam Adams Just the Haze for a nice hop fix but also drink Guinness 0.0 pretty frequently too.

[@ThomasBrooksMedia]

The 0.0 products have an advantage in that the makers can adjust them with flavorings and other components to "zero in" on a target profile.

[@pv4669]

During Covid I gave up alcohol for about 18 months and was strictly drinking NA beers. There weren't as many back in 2020. I liked Weihenstephan, Erdinger and Bitburger (Germany has NA beers for years; known as Sport Beer). I also liked some Athletic product and believe it or not I had a few Coors NA. Great test!

[@deantheking08]

Great video - loved this comparison!

[@donosborn]

Astounding results. The only one I've had out of these 3 is the Heineken 0.0 and I actually thought it was enjoyable. I just can't believe so many people, including Martin, got it wrong. They must be very close. Cheers.

[@indiekiduk]

My fav is Brulo Lust for life brewed in belgium. I heard some brulo are now made at other Scottish breweries but not tried those. The belgium brewery is same one Mikkeller use for their NA beers and those taste great too.

[@ElementaryBrewingCo]

Crazy! I’ll have to try them! Cheers 🍻

[@j616s]

So worth remembering that this experiment was testing if people could identify which they thought was alcohol free, not if it was indistinguishable. They certainly didn't seem indistinguishable. The preference often started for the low abv could be attributed to these companies putting a lot of effort into these beers too optimise for experience rather than cost. Really interesting.

[@Tatterdash71]

Love the Kölsch glasses!

[@inambaguum]

That was fascinating, thank you.

[@lau.lauritzen]

I really like the Mikkeller Energibajer as a light refreshing beer that's not missing anything

[@Leo99929]

Does anyone else think it's insane that 0.0% non alcoholic beer requires you to be over 18 to buy?!

[@mrow7598]

But you can buy malt, hops and yeast and brew your own with out being 21 in the us.... I don't think they ID anyone, you could be 12.

[@EbliZ]

You can buy an alcoholic free beer in Sweden at any age in Sweden.

[@jsfourdirections]

Not in Canada

[@Marshall_Brulosophy]

American puritanism knows no bounds...

[@Sibula]

Not in Finland, although some shops refuse to sell them to minors. Just their own policy. The same ones usually also have policies against selling energy drinks to young kids for example, although there is no law on that.

[@cidmontenegro8225]

So interesting, great video. Can't wait for this to get around to other channels to try with different beers. I was wondering if the Heineken also came in a green bottle, and somehow that came into play. As in the beer was 'off' so the assumption was it was the N/A beer. But maybe whatever chemical process happens to a traditional beer in a green bottle (i.e. skunking) doesn't happen in a 0% beer for some reason and that was why the N/A beer tasted 'normal'? I only mention it because It is rare to get a good Heineken in a bottle where I have lived. But to be fair I have not bought one in years because of this, so it may be better now.

[@normlang1994]

Hate that I missed this one.

[@jymferrier]

I'm a huge fan of these. Always keep some in the fridge. Most of the NA IPAs are just eh but but these are totally worth keeping around.

[@pjarnfelt]

Love the tests and comparisons, but please use a triangle test to be more statistically significant.

[@hhundee]

I'm quite sure that most of participants usually drink draught one and were waiting for that taste, hence the surprise, bottled/canned ones taste different than draught.

[@urehlav]

this is ridiculous, I can't accept that its not that obvious. I have really tried to enjoy NA beer and I just can't. It's quite immediate to me how lacking in flavour they are. The heineken zero for instance is more sweeter, which is probably a result of higher carbs. I am, however, really interested in how the 0.0 guiness tastes like.

[@Urretado]

No, u dont see the full vídeo?

[@Sibula]

Seriously. I haven't had any of those three non-alcoholic beers specifically, but the ones I have tried have mostly been watery, sweet, and missing in aroma.

[@GREEENZO]

Guiness NA has that same watery aftertaste that ruins them all for me unfortunately. If I’m doing a dry month or whatever I’d rather just have a soda, hop water, or just a plain sparkling water to be honest. Not saying NA beer doesn’t have its place for some folks obviously, but I’ll pass personally

[@jasonmhite]

Sam Adams Just the Haze is the only one I like. It's not quite beer flavored, but it tastes good. The rest of the trendy NAs I've tried just taste like unfermented wort to me.

[@dpromny]

agree, I'm shocked

[@MPiotroff]

I mean, basically all tasters told the difference, right? They just guessed wrong which one is which. In my experience, non alcoholic beers from big companies taste better, but I've never seen a NA craft beer being anywhere close to it's "regular" version. We don't have anything like Athletic Brewing in Poland though, so maybe I'll have to change my mind on that in the future

[@ijdicer]

Ive had loads of NA beers, usually buy them when theres a party or something im going to where i need to drive. But theres always a marked difference in taste/mouthfeel compared to alc versions. The NA ones have come a long way and theyre good in their own right, but theyre easily distinguishable.

[@dpromny]

I'm very conflicted about this. I've tried a whole bunch of n/a beers and hated pretty much all of them and I'm completely shocked that tasters couldn't pick some of them. Will have to try this myself. Maybe the production has improved.

[@FafthriechRalofson]

Peroni 0% is the best one i have had with guinness being a close second. I actually buy them over the alcoholic versions now.

[@jasongarland3165]

I tried 0.0 Guinness and detected something off about it. Maybe at the end of the night, after drinking several i wouldn't notice, but just sitting around after work, I sure did. The best N/A beer I found locally during COVID was O'Doul's Amber. It actually tasted like beer. Regular O'Douls was bleh.

[@OffroadBrewventures]

I enjoy the Corona Sunbrew when i cant slam back crafties due to family obligations...and i like the crafties..lol

[@thecoastalelite2074]

It’s hilarious how divisive NA beer is amongst my homebrew friends. I do enjoy the flavor more than anything else so a lot of times I don’t want the buzz or getting slowed down. Anyways - for Martin’s challenge I reckon the reason everyone failed the Heineken and Stella is because the regular bottles were light-struck! That’ll explain the bad taste?

[@garethpritchard7012]

Im doing sober october and have tried quite a few over the last few days. They've all been terrible and quite obviously alcohol free. Its the conplete lack of body rather than taste i think. I'm keen to do my own test in November.

[@StratoJohn]

I am quite shocked by this but I do have a few thoughts about why the taste testers couldn't correctly identify the drinks, including that some had never had 0.0% beers before. I think the Guiness 0.0% is really close to the originals taste

[@theliberalrepublican]

My favorite NA beer is Athletic IPA

[@wesleykamerer6154]

N/A Guinness is great and I love athletic brewing too.

[@N3ss3s]

NA beer is almost 100% of the time sweeter and has more body, which might confuse you which is which :) Personally I like Leffe blonde 0% (tastes nothing like leffe, but good), quite a few local breweries in Finland are good too and nanny-state IPA from brewdog

[@GiGaSzS]

My only grind with 0% alcohol is fake carbonation (and all additional flavours), I hate it even in cheap beers with alcohol. The pleasant and smooth carbonation is unreplaceable, and I would much more prefer a 0.5% beer with natural carbonation.

[@Leo99929]

I love beer. Maybe not Stella/Heineken enough to have a NA one. But sometimes I want a beer but can't because I'm driving later or something and an NA beer hits the spot.

[@greentom9189]

Now it would be great to see a 0 abv home brew recipe that is good.

[@jasonjones9210]

I really enjoy Coors Edge N/A beer.

[@Leo99929]

NA beers are getting real good these days. Ever thought about trying to brew one? I'd love to see that!

[@Samtallica]

There are lots of videos/guides on the internet but I'd love to see Brulosophy do a video on it! The big brewers have a lot of advanced techniques to remove alcohol but most home brewers just brew something at or below 0.5% ABV.

[@daithiocoinnigh]

Really needs a big step up in equipment to brew NA

[@Samtallica]

@@daithiocoinnigh No you don't. Anyone can brew a low alcohol beer using standard equipment. Mash high, use the right malt and yeast. Basically, you want to provide less fermentable sugars, while still providing long chain sugars for body. As I stated, the big guys use specialized equipment but it's not absolutely necessary for brewing NA beer.

[@TheVindalloo]

I've really come to enjoy Guinness 0, sadly hard to get in Germany. Brought 30 cans from the UK 😂

[@tommykraft9648]

If you live close to the netherlands you can get it there in many stores as well as a ton of other grest n/a beers. We recently went there almost only because of that

[@TheVindalloo]

In Munich, Augustiner AF is quite good. But helles AF just isn't the juice

[@graham2954]

I've barred myself from drinking full strength guinness with my whisky, so drink the zero % instead. It is a wee bit thinner but other wise indistinguishable. Happy days.

[@heymulen1840]

up here in DK the so called 'non alcoholic beers' just requires to be under 0,5 % abv. to be called alcohol free beer 😵 My favorite right now are Brooklyn Brewery Special effects hoppy lager 0,4 % abv. 🍻 cheers out there.

[@TeeKayFour21]

I've had some awful NA beers, Heineken mostly. My belief is the low demand results in poor sales and its likely the stores don't turn the product over as much as they should resulting in poor taste. I'd be curious to try more from these testings.

[@mustyditch4703]

Norm would have nailed it.

[@tsimmons4730]

Sounds stupid but I’m curious to how they made it. My other half can’t have alcohol with the medication she on, so she can’t taste any of the beers I make. If there was a simple way to do it at home that would be pretty awesome, so she could try my beer

[@JamesW-sn5vu]

I mean, heineken and stella arent exactly the best. the NEPIAs would be a very interesting test, like Lucky Saint.

[@NathanKraemer]

I hate to say it, but one of the best NA beer is Busch NA

[@m00nh34d]

Seems like people were able to tell the difference pretty easily (in the non-triangle test, mind you). Preference and assumptions on taste are probably not great with these styles that age poorly and don't have strong flavours to begin with.

[@GaviLazan]

7:16 How are two taste tests preformed by 5 people "6 tests"? Even if you don't count yourself, that's 8 tests.

[@mattrickl06]

I think that you have been had there, there is zero % chance that I would not be able to pick out the NA beer from those. Zero

[@TheVindalloo]

Mashcamp from England have great AF or LA beers

[@JimP226]

Very interesting! Although I'm not entirely surprised. Simply because alcohol by all rights tastes absolutely horrible and is quite poisonous in its pure form. Remove that horrible tasting substance and expect it to taste worse? Not sure about that. Also when they are removing the alcohol with new sophisticated methods to preserve the quality I think that's pretty cool. With that said. I don't think I'd bother. If I'm going to drink a beer I want the real deal. I want that buzz after a couple pints.

[@Barney5G]

Were all the testers drunk pretest? Not a rude comment. Legit question

[@KelrynGrey]

I'd try Guinness NA to see what that's like. I'm not sure I could tolerate either of the others. I really dislike Heineken and Stella already tastes chemically to me most of the time.

[@gomezfriesen]

Macro non alcoholic beers have a good, albeit expensive method for removing the alcohol from their beer. Craft brewers who are trying don't have the money to do those options, so they are trying a different method of fermenting slightly different, and using yeasts that that wont ferment much. It's a horrible method that while I've tried a lot, I've only dumped those products. This is super sad.

[@Non-Stick_Pan]

The Stella can be explained how AB Inbev have ruined the beer over the past 15 years or so, it's now very poor.

[@Leo99929]

You learn to appreciate non alcoholic beer when you're mowing the lawn on a hot day and you have a few beers and feel awful. Try the same with non alcoholic and feel great! Got too drunk? Had enough? You don't have to stop drinking, you can just switch to NA!

[@wesleykamerer6154]

This is exactly what I do!

[@dyyddson]

@@wesleykamerer6154 me too, apart from the lawn mowing and drinking na beer or quitting, but in essence, me too.

[@ianlaker9161]

I've never had a N/A beer that hasn't tasted inferior to an alcoholic one. I really wish they did taste as good but there is either too much residual sweetness (wort-like) or they are lacking in body with a thin, waterery mouthfeel and no finish (aftertaste). In fact I had a 0.0 Guiness not so long ago when I had to drive and it was so awful I had to leave half of it. It was cloyingly sweet. Perhaps it was a dodgy can.

[@cidmontenegro8225]

This is also my experience. While the body was sub-par (used to that in some commercial beers), it was the sweetness that really made them unpleasant for me.

[@urehlav]

this is exactly my experience and i suspect most people who are really interested in beer

[@paulschroeter4987]

M. atlantic brew is closing! :(

[@Leo99929]

All the NA beers in this are low to none on cold side hops. Hop flavour is mainly oils which aren't very soluble in water, but are highly soluble in ethanol (alcohol). So hoppier beers tend to be able to carry more flavour at higher ABV's. The only hoppy beers I know of with NA counterparts are the Brewdog ones. I'm confident I could tell the difference between NA Punk and alcoholic Punk. Same for Elvis Juice and Hazy? It's not fair, but I think I could tell between the NA hoppy beers and alcoholic in general. You're not going to trick me into thinking something NA tastes the same as Deya - Right Brain Feeds The Left Brain... Or at least I don't think you would? If you could I'll buy a 24 pack.

[@Samtallica]

While I never cared much for Sam Adams regular beers, their NA IPA "Just the Haze" is fantastic. By far the best hoppy NA available. Athletic, Brewdog and Untitled Art also make some very good examples.

[@owenorton]

I am shocked at these results. But considering I cannot recognise my own beer at a blind tasting maybe I shouldn't be. BTW Lucky Saint lager is very nice.

[@heindaddel7074]

Heineken and Stella Artois, two beers that I wouldn't drink if there was nothing else beerwise. God awful. Out of curiosity I bought a bottle of Heineken 0 in dry January and I thought it tasted like smelly feet. Not that I know how smelly feet taste like.

[@Morventhus]

For a channel that prides itself on triangle tests..... Seems really odd to not do them for this challenge.

[@KnobbyWobby]

My initial thought as well. These are low abv beers, being able to pick the odd one out or even judging preferences would say way more than having to find the NA beer.

[@MrSirJordan]

Triangle tests are for identifying difference, these are clearly difference but it's about choosing which is non-alcoholic, they have no place here

[@KnobbyWobby]

​@@MrSirJordan I get the explanation, but then the title of the video is off.

[@MartinKeen]

@@MrSirJordan Yeah exactly this was the thinking. A triangle tests asks "is there a difference between two beers". I was more curious if we could pick out which of the two clearly different beers contained alcohol.

[@rogerjohnston9545]

lol❤

[@Leo99929]

Why not a triangle test this time?

[@White_Rose_Al]

You can tell the difference straight away, that being said, some nonalcoholic ranges are getting much better. Nonalcoholic Guinness is one of the better ones, it's just much thinner than it's Alcohol equivalent. The nonalcoholic darker beers are much closer to the real thing. Some nonalcoholic lagers and IPA are far too malt forward.

[@InfoAction_]

I think these video are doctored to get people’s reactions, we all know a non alcohol beer when we taste one and to me it seems like the host is disingenuous and acting u like his other videos, I’m disappointed in this