No & low alcohol
Alcohol-free stout
An alcohol-free dark beer where roasted grain does most of the work — one of the more successful conversions in the category.
- Strength
- 0–0.5% ABV
- Bitterness
- 20–40 IBU
- Colour
- Black
- Serve at
- 6–9°C
Also known as non-alcoholic stout, 0.0 stout.
Emerging. Widely brewed and broadly agreed, but recent enough that its boundaries are still moving.
Roast character is robust and survives dealcoholisation better than delicate malt or yeast notes, so alcohol-free stout is often more convincing than an alcohol-free pale lager. Nitrogen dispense, where available, further compensates for the missing body.
It is worth judging against other alcohol-free beer rather than against a full-strength stout, and on those terms the good ones are genuinely convincing. What to watch for is the wort character common to the whole category — a sweetish, grainy note where fermentation was cut short — which roast can mask for a mouthful or two but not for a glass.
Nitrogen dispense flatters the category more than any other technique, because the creamy texture supplies exactly what the missing alcohol took away. That makes a nitro alcohol-free stout on draught a considerably better experience than the same beer from a can, and it is one of the few cases where the format changes the verdict rather than the detail.
Questions this page answers
- what does alcohol-free stout taste like — How it tastes
- alcohol-free stout abv — Measurements
- alcohol-free stout food pairing — What to eat with it
- alcohol-free stout serving temperature — Serving
- how long does alcohol-free stout last — Freshness and storage
- styles similar to alcohol-free stout — If you like this, try
- how to brew alcohol-free stout — How it is made
- what beer is an example of alcohol-free stout — Beers to try
How it tastes
BeerHQ’s own comparative scale, not a measurement. Each bar is a range because a style is a span of real beers rather than one beer.
Appearance and character
| Colour | Black |
|---|---|
| Clarity | opaque |
| Head | Tan, dense |
| Fermentation | De-alcoholised or arrested. Alcohol removed after fermentation, or fermentation deliberately limited, to reach a low or zero ABV. |
| Origin | Ireland |
Measurements
Conventional ranges published by style bodies, not a specification. IBU measures iso-alpha acids in a lab and does not track perceived bitterness — compare it against the sensory scale above rather than reading it as a flavour rating.
| Measurement | Typical range |
|---|---|
| ABV | 0–0.5% ABV |
| IBU | 20–40 IBU |
| Colour | Black — 28–40 SRM, 55–79 EBC. |
| Original gravity | 1.026–1.045 |
| Final gravity | 1.008–1.022 |
| Carbonation | 1.8–2.4 vol CO₂ |
What goes into it
| Malt | Pale ale malt, Roasted barley, Flaked barley |
|---|---|
| Yeast | English ale yeast |
Serving
| Temperature | 6–9°C |
|---|---|
| Glass | Nonic pint |
| Dispense | Nitrogen dispense — Dispense with a nitrogen-CO₂ blend through a restrictor plate, giving a dense creamy head and a notably softer palate. |
Freshness and storage
Alcohol-free stout shows best within 3–8 months of packaging. After that it declines in quality rather than becoming unsafe.
No benefit from keeping. Sound for its window and then slowly less good. Nothing bad will happen quickly, but nothing good happens either.
- Sound well past its window, but nothing in it improves with keeping. Drink it while it is fresh.
What changes with time
- Staling. The general, gradual loss of freshness that affects all beer, accelerated sharply by warmth. Months, and roughly twice as fast for every 10 °C warmer.
In the package
- Aluminium can — No light can reach the beer, so lightstrike is impossible in this format.
- Brown glass bottle — No format-specific concerns beyond the general advice above.
Old beer tastes worse; it does not become dangerous. Ethanol, low pH, hop compounds and the absence of oxygen make packaged beer hostile to the organisms that cause foodborne illness. The exception is a compromised package — visible mould at the closure, a pierced or rusted can, a lifted cap — which is a reason to discard the beer regardless of its age.
Guidance, not an expiry date. How a beer is stored matters more than the date printed on it, and staling roughly doubles in rate for every 10 °C. See storage and freshness for the full model.
What to eat with it
- Smoked fish
Roasted malt echoes the charred, caramelised edge of the food, so the two reinforce each other.
- Aubergine
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
- Calamari
Dry roasted bitterness against saline, savoury seafood is one of the sharpest contrasts in beer and food — the classic case being oysters with dry stout.
- Moules-frites
Dry roasted bitterness against saline, savoury seafood is one of the sharpest contrasts in beer and food — the classic case being oysters with dry stout.
- Pad Thai
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
- Scampi
Dry roasted bitterness against saline, savoury seafood is one of the sharpest contrasts in beer and food — the classic case being oysters with dry stout.
Beers to try
Widely-known examples BeerHQ carries as reference points for this style. Not a recommendation list and not ranked — these are the beers that make the category concrete.
If you like this, try
Alcohol-free pale lager
The pale alternative in the same category.
Suits you if: You like Alcohol-free stout but want more carbonation. Reason not to: Noticeably more carbonation than Alcohol-free stout, which not everyone wants.
Alcohol-free IPA
Same family — both are No & low alcohol beers.
Suits you if: You like Alcohol-free stout but want less roast. Reason not to: Noticeably less roast than Alcohol-free stout, which may make it feel thin by comparison.
Dry stout
The full-strength original.
Suits you if: You like Alcohol-free stout but want more malt intensity. Reason not to: Noticeably more malt intensity than Alcohol-free stout, which not everyone wants.
Alcohol-free wheat beer
Same family — both are No & low alcohol beers.
Suits you if: You like Alcohol-free stout but want less bitterness. Reason not to: Noticeably less bitterness than Alcohol-free stout, which may make it feel thin by comparison.
Low-alcohol bitter
Same family — both are No & low alcohol beers.
Suits you if: You like Alcohol-free stout but want less roast. Reason not to: Noticeably less roast than Alcohol-free stout, which may make it feel thin by comparison.
Compare with
- Alcohol-free stout vs Alcohol-free IPA — The main difference is roast: Alcohol-free stout has far more of it than Alcohol-free IPA. Alcohol-free stout also leads on coffee; Alcohol-free IPA on hop aroma and citrus.
- Alcohol-free stout vs Alcohol-free pale lager — The main difference is roast: Alcohol-free stout has far more of it than Alcohol-free pale lager. Alcohol-free stout also leads on coffee; Alcohol-free pale lager on malt intensity and hop aroma.
- Alcohol-free stout vs Alcohol-free wheat beer — The main difference is roast: Alcohol-free stout has far more of it than Alcohol-free wheat beer. Alcohol-free stout also leads on dryness and bitterness; Alcohol-free wheat beer on yeast fruitiness (esters).
- Alcohol-free stout vs Low-alcohol bitter — The main difference is roast: Alcohol-free stout has far more of it than Low-alcohol bitter. Alcohol-free stout also leads on coffee; Low-alcohol bitter on hop aroma and malt intensity.
Faults to watch for
- Vegetal character — Cooked-vegetable notes that are not DMS — a residual category rather than a single compound.
- Unintended sweetness — Beer that finishes sweeter than intended, from under-attenuation, excess crystal malt, or a mash run too warm.
How it got here
A recent category, and one of the more successful dealcoholised styles for a structural reason: roast and body carry the beer where alcohol would, so the absence is less exposed than in a pale style. Nitrogen dispense, where used, further compensates for the texture alcohol contributes.
How it is made
The steps that shape this style in particular, rather than the ones every beer goes through.
- Nitrogenation — Dissolve nitrogen alongside a low level of CO₂ so the beer pours with a dense creamy head and drinks soft rather than sharp.
- Arrested fermentation — Stop fermentation deliberately and early — by chilling, filtering or pasteurising — so little alcohol is produced.
- Vacuum distillation — Remove alcohol from finished beer by distilling under reduced pressure, so ethanol boils off at a temperature low enough not to cook the beer.
- Spinning cone column — Strip alcohol from finished beer at low temperature by running it as a thin film over rotating cones against a gas flow.
Sensory levels are BeerHQ’s editorial abstraction, described as None–Very high on a six-point scale. Measurements are conventional style ranges. Last reviewed 2026-08-15.
Evidence
What BeerHQ knows about this, and how. Every statement carries the state of the evidence behind it rather than being presented flatly as fact.
On Unintended sweetness
The temperature at which beta-amylase stops working is genuinely unsettled, and the round numbers repeated in brewing guidance sit between two incompatible sets of published figures.
— The long-standing figures, tabulated in the review, put beta-amylase’s temperature optimum at 55–65 °C and its inactivation at 74 °C.
— Recent work the review cites puts the optimum far lower, between 45 °C and 50 °C, with inactivation beginning at 52.5 °C and only 10% of activity remaining after 3.4 minutes at 60 °C.
The review sets both out without resolving them. The practical guidance a brewer acts on — mash cool for a dry beer, warm for a full one — is unaffected either way, which is why the disagreement has survived; but a specific inactivation temperature is not something BeerHQ can state.
Genuinely contested Credible sources disagree, so both positions are given rather than one.
Source: Laus et al., "Review on Recent Advances and Novel Approaches in Milling and Mashing" (2025), section 3.1.3, amylolytic activity during mashing (Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf 24(5):e70239)
On Vacuum distillation
Volatile aroma compounds are stripped alongside ethanol during de-alcoholisation, so capturing and returning that aroma fraction is much of what separates a good alcohol-free beer from a thin one.
Backed by a source
Sources: Technology Brewing and Malting — print; Institute of Brewing & Distilling technical publications
On Nitrogenation
Dissolved carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid, which contributes perceived sharpness and bite, so a nitrogenated beer with much less CO₂ tastes softer and less bitter than the same beer on carbon dioxide.
Backed by a source
Source: Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing — print
On Unintended sweetness
Above about 72 °C no further fermentable sugar is produced in the mash: alpha-amylase continues to break starch down but only into dextrins, which yeast cannot ferment and which remain in the finished beer as body and sweetness.
Checked against the source
Source: Laus et al., "Review on Recent Advances and Novel Approaches in Milling and Mashing" (2025), sections 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 (Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf 24(5):e70239)
On Nitrogenation
Nitrogen dispense was developed in the late 1950s to give keg stout the soft texture and dense head of a well-kept cask beer, and remains most associated with dry stout for that reason.
Backed by a source
Sources: The Oxford Companion to Beer — print; Beer: The Story of the Pint — print
On Nitrogenation
Nitrogen is far less soluble in beer than carbon dioxide, so most of it leaves solution immediately on dispense as very fine bubbles — which is what produces the cascading surge and dense head of a nitro pour.
Backed by a source
Sources: Brewing: Science and Practice — print; Institute of Brewing & Distilling technical publications
On Arrested fermentation
Each route to low-alcohol beer has a characteristic weakness: fermentation-limiting methods leave residual wort sugar and taste sweet and worty, while alcohol-removal methods strip aroma and body along with the ethanol.
Backed by a source
Sources: Technology Brewing and Malting — print; Institute of Brewing & Distilling technical publications
On Vacuum distillation
Reducing pressure lowers the temperature at which ethanol boils — from about 78 °C at atmospheric pressure to roughly 35 °C at the reduced pressures used commercially — allowing alcohol to be distilled out of beer without the cooked character that boiling it at atmospheric pressure would produce.
Backed by a source
Sources: Technology Brewing and Malting — print; Brewing: Science and Practice — print