Non-alcoholic beers are increasingly making their way into the mainstream, and soon, anyone who wants a brew without the buzz will have a local option. DC Brau will be the first DC brewery to sell a canned non-alcoholic beer. NA Brau, a take on pale ale, will launch in late April.
“Part of this industry is having the intuition to know which movements to get behind and which to pause on or steer clear of. This one really feels to me like it’s a change in the way people drink, and not just something that’s going to be ephemeral,” says DC Brau co-founder Brandon Skall, noting that non-alcoholic beverages are one of the only segments of the market seeing considerable growth. The move will allow DC Brau to expand their footprint in Maryland in particular, where restrictive liquor laws limit retailers that can sell their alcoholic beer. “It gives us an easy in to a lot of locations that are not legally allowed to carry our product right now,” Skall says.
The beer is modeled after the Public, DC Brau’s flagship pale ale, and uses the same hops. “A lot of the trials we have done, it’s very hard for people to discern that it is NA,” Skall says.
There are two ways that non-alcoholic beers are typically made. The first is to essentially brew the beer, then remove the alcohol afterward. But this can be a costly and time-consuming endeavor, and it prevented DC Brau from getting in the game sooner. The brewery was ultimately able to take advantage of newer methods using a special yeast strain that will create beer without the alcohol. The end product has a trace amount alcohol—0.3 percent.
New York-based Other Half Brewing, which has a location in DC’s Ivy City, has previously produced a non-alcoholic beer called All NA Everything, but it’s not canned or available for distribution.
NA Brau will be available in cans only. Expect to find it at many of the restaurants, bars, and retailers where you already find DC Brau at some point this month, pending final lab tests. If all goes well, Skall says they may make an alcohol-free pilsner and IPA down the line.
“I think for the remainder of this year, we’re going to focus on the pale ale,” he says. “If there’s going to be innovation for us in the NA space, it would be coming in 2025.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
