Rhinegeist’s New Non-Alcoholic Beer Should’t Be That Surprising To You
Written By: The Gnarly Gnome
Don’t look so shocked, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Rhinegeist is releasing a duo of Non-Alcoholic beers this summer. The brewery has never been afraid to lean into innovation when it fits into their portfolio, and when you’re the 16th biggest craft brewery in the United States, you have to look towards everything, and when something becomes “unignorable,” it only makes sense to explore the idea.
Non Alcoholic Beer In Cincinnati
We’ve been looking for this for a long time. While not a massive segment of drinking, the non-alcoholic beer category is steadily growing every year. It only makes sense that we should get some locally. There have been a couple of attempts at it, too. Both MadTree and Braxton have tried their hand and released Non-Alcoholic beers within the last few years, and I know that several more have attempted (or are currently working on) creating their own versions, as well.
Walk into any decent bar or craft beer spot, and you’ll see non-alcoholic beer in the cooler. The brands are starting to get more varied, and the beer itself is starting to taste better. Recently, I stopped by my local spot and snagged a six-pack of Deschutes NA Black Butte Porter and was surprised that it actually tasted like, well… beer. Gone are the days of O’Douls and terrible non-alcoholic beer that wasn’t worth the calories.
It’s actually good.
The question lingered, though, for me… why couldn’t we get something that would stick by one of the big guys here in Cincinnati?
What Makes It Tough
Creating a non-alcoholic beer (and making it safely) is no simple feat. That’s the biggest reason that we don’t see more of them. Not only does Rhinegeist not have a pasteurizer on site, nor the space for one, but they just weren’t sure that if they couldn’t make a product that was as good as their other products, they wanted to put it out there into the market.
They’ve been exploring options for years at this point, with all of the methods either not possible in their space or just not producing a product that they were happy with.
There are several different methods that are commonly used to make NA beer, and each of them has it’s own difficulties (or downsides) associated with them.
- Vacuum Distillation involves heating beer under reduced pressure. That lowers the boiling point of the alcohol and makes it evaporate out. The remaining liquid is then cooled, carbonated, and packaged.
- Reverse Osmosis forces beer through a semi-permeable membrane that filters out the alcohol, and the resulting liquid is then blended with unfermented beer.
- Arrested Fermentation literally stops the yeast from creating alcohol during the process, leaving a lot less than would normally be present.
- Heat Treatment heats the beer up to a high temperature to evaporate alcohol out of it.
- Dilution just waters down the beer until its ABV is low enough. Yum.
Enter Sustainable Beverage Technology’s BrewVo
Here’s where things get really interesting. Remember that Deschutes beer that I mentioned earlier? They partnered up with a company that patented technology a few years back, which they call “BrewVo”. This uses a process that they’re calling “nested fermentation”. After a portion of the beer is brewed, the BrewVo machine removes the alcohol and adds in a new batch of wort, which allows for more fermentation. That process is repeated a handful of times, and what you’re left with is a concentrated non-alcoholic beer base.
The condensed beer is packaged in a disposable bag and can be shipped in a box – a method that is exponentially easier than shipping in kegs for obvious reasons. What’s even more wild is that the technology can be used in two ways… to blend up with carbonated water and alcohol to make beer right at the tap, straight from the concentrate, or blended up without the alcohol to make great tasting non-alcoholic beer.
Rhinegeist is partnering up with SBT for their pair – yes… pair of NA beers.
About The Rhinegeist Releases
Rhinegeist is going to be releasing two beers under a “sub brand” that they’re calling ‘Ghost’. The beers will be: Ghost Pils and Ghost Haze. The beers will launch in August in 12oz six packs across the entire Rhinegeist footprint, which at this point covers nine different states:
- Ohio
- Kentucky
- Indiana
- West Virginia
- Illinois
- Pennsylvania
- Michigan
- Tennessee
- Wisconsin
The beer will only be available in cans, with draft non-alcoholic beer opening up too many doors for unsafe beverages falling into consumers’ hands (and mouths) – a topic that I’ve been working on writing about for a while now… keep your eyes peeled for that one.
My Thoughts
I’m excited for this. I’m always looking for non-alcoholic products that fit into my lifestyle and that I enjoy drinking, and I have little doubt that this will provide that for me. The bigger question is how it will do in the market.
I mentioned earlier that NA beer is a small segment, but that it’s growing. YTD it’s grown 23.9% – which is significant growth – but its dollar share is only 1.33% of overall beer. With that being said, I don’t imagine this will blow the doors off of anything outside of Cincinnati – but I hope that it will start to take ground away from some of the bigger NA brands that have become staples in bars in this city.
As time keeps going by, I find myself more and more impressed with how Rhinegeist has built its brewery. In a world where other places are shifting heavily towards hospitality-focused models, opening restaurants that feel miles away from the taprooms that I fell in love with when I started drinking craft beer, Rhinegeist leans hard into who they are.
It feels as good (maybe even better) to walk up the stairs into the Rhinegeist taproom as it did the very first time. The beer is great, the people are great… It’s an experience that could only get better by giving me some barstools and a bar to sit at in the main taproom space.
I love what Rhinegeist is doing, and I think that this addition will only add to it!