A review of methods of low alcohol and alcohol-free beer production

The increasing interest of consumers in health and alcohol abuse issues motivates breweries to expand the assortment of products with low alcohol content. The goal of producing beers with low alcohol content can be achieved by two main strategies: namely by gentle removal of alcohol from regular beer and by limited ethanol formation during the beer fermentation. Within these two basic strategies, there are a number of techniques that vary in performance, efficiency and usability. This paper presents an overview and comparison of these techniques and provides an evaluation of sensorial properties of low-alcohol and an alcohol-free beer produced as well as suggests possibilities for their additional improvement. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.