Americans have been moving away from alcoholic drinks, causing sales of non-alcholic beer to skyrocket—hitting $395 million in sales last year, according to Nielson IQ.
Key Details
- Non-alcoholic beer sales hit $395 million in sales for 2022 and is expected to continue to grow to upwards of $40 billion by 2032, according to Nielson IQ.
- Overall non-alcoholic sales have been rising since 2018, increasing from 0.22% to 0.47% market share.
- The growth has been helped by large beer companies such as AB InBev and Heineken launching non-alcoholic beers and new independent brewers like Athletic Brewing, which specializes in non-alcoholic drinks.
Why it’s news
Non-alcoholic beers were once a very small category with little interest, but in the last few years, due to more brewers adding options and Americans looking for beer alternatives, the non-alcoholic sector has been skyrocketing.
Non-alcoholic beers were once known to have little flavor, which caused many to shy away from them, but as popularity grows, large brewers and new independent brewers alike have been making new, flavorful non-alcoholic options.
In recent years more Americans have been turning to seltzers and non-alcoholic options, causing the sector to grow. Non-alcoholic beer grew 20% in the U.S. in retail dollars in the past year reaching $395 million in sales.
The global beer market is worth more than $750 billion, making the non-alcoholic sector just a small percentage, but it is a significant jump from years past.
New independent brewery Athletic Brewing had $37 million in revenue in 2021, a three-year revenue growth of 13,071%, according to Inc. Magazine, and has recently received a $50 million investment from Keurig Dr. Pepper to keep creating non-alcoholic beverages and to keep up with larger breweries.
The company was created in 2017 to focus solely on non-alcoholic brewing to help the space’s lack of quality non-alcoholic beers.
″Non-alcoholic beer has gone from something that was 0.3% of the beer category and a total afterthought and penalty box beverage to something that is really exciting, aspirational, and kind of reframing how modern adults think,” says Athletic co-founder Bill Shufelt.
Shufelt also says that non-alcoholic beers make up 2% of all beer sold at U.S. grocery stores, and at some national chain retailers, it is upwards of 8% of their total beer category, a big jump from previous years.
