MORE BREW, LESS BUZZ
For drinkers seeking moderation, low-alcohol beers are bubbling up
One summer day in 2018, Sean Boisson was washing his car in Sonoma, California, when a bubbly little epiphany arrived. He asked his younger sister, Brittany Rossi, who was helping, if she wanted a second beer — a domestic lager low in alcohol, but not quite low enough. “She was like:
‘No, I’ve got to drive. I can only have one,’ ” Boisson recalled.
What about a lower-alcohol beer? “I had the spark on a Wednesday, and I quit my job on Friday,” said Boisson, who has worked for SpikedSeltzer and for Vita Coco, a coconut-water brand.
Boisson partnered with a friend, Mathew Rohrs, to found Bella Snow Soft Ale, focusing on ales with no more than 2.4% alcohol by volume, or ABV, about half the strength of a Budweiser. (The federal government lets breweries label beers less than 2.5% “low alcohol.”) “There’s just this completely unexplored space,” said Boisson, who started Bella Snow in June 2020.
American brewing excels at extremes, delivering brawny stouts and IPAs as well as nonalcoholic beers that are growing in quality and sales. But for drinkers seeking a moderate option, not abstinence, breweries are increasingly making compelling beers that weigh in at 2% and 3% alcohol, below the typical 4% floor for light lagers. (Bud Light is 4.2%.)
Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers, in Framingham, Massachusetts, created a series of low-ABV beers it calls the 2% Beer Initiative, and one of the bestsellers at Hermit Thrush Brewery in Brattleboro, Vermont, is Party Guy, a sour ale with an alcohol level of 3%. “I would much rather have two beers and not fall over,” said Christophe Gagne, an owner and
the brewmaster.
Lower-alcohol beers are stitched into the drinking fabric of Scandinavia and pub-rich England, where taxation increases as alcohol content rises. In the United States, loweralcohol beers align with the growing popularity of moderate-strength wine and spirits.
“You don’t need to blast people in the face with alcohol,” said Todd DiMatteo, an owner and the brewer of Good Word Brewing & Public House.
American craft brewing is entering its fifth decade, and the industry’s audience is maturing as well. “We’re not surprised that lowerABV beers are coming of age because, well, millennials are coming of age,” said Lester Jones, chief economist for the National Beer Wholesalers Association.
As people get older and responsibilities stack up, they tend to consume less alcohol. “The 40-yearold liver is not the same as a 25-year-old liver,” said
Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, which introduced Fuzzy Details, a hazy IPA that is 2.5% alcohol, at its taproom in December. Oliver fondly recalled the brewery’s Black Light, a 2.2% stout. “I could have a pint and just go straight to the gym,” Oliver said.
When Luc Lafontaine brews, he doesn’t drink much water. “I drink beer,” said Lafontaine, an owner and the brewmaster of Godspeed Brewery in Toronto. His go-to is Baby Svetly, his Czech-style pale lager that, at 1.5% alcohol, is a warm-weather favorite.
Building quality lowalcohol beer is a balancing act. Brewers must use less malt — the grains supplying the sugars that are fermented into alcohol — and too many hops can create clashing bitterness and flavor. Lafontaine uses imported Czech malt and hops, and carefully adjusts water chemistry. “I want to go as low as 1%,” he said of Baby Svetly’s alcohol level.
One complaint about low-alcohol beers is that they can taste watery. To brew Buzzard, a 3% “hoppy small beer” released earlier this year, Matt Young, director of brewing operations at the Chicago brewery Half Acre, boosted the body with wheat. He also leaned on fragrant hop extracts and Cosmic Punch, a yeast strain that imparts complementary tropical aromas. Buzzard costs $10.99 for four 16-ounce cans, or $1 less than several stronger IPAs.
“Just because there’s less alcohol doesn’t means that it was cheaper to produce,” Young said.
Boisson released two versions of Bella Snow Soft Ale, flavored with mandarin or grapefruit, in fourpacks of 12-ounce cans sold for $7.99. “It was a low enough price point where people would try it,” Boisson said, adding that half the return customers are baby-boomer men. After decades of drinking, “they just know they shouldn’t have as much,” he said.
Going low while others go high can also help breweries stand apart. Wild
East Brewing, in Brooklyn, conceived Temperance, a 3.5% English-inspired dark mild, as a one-off,
“but it sells consistently year-round,” said Brett Taylor, a founder and the head of brewing. Wild East produces other low-alcohol beers, like a 3% farmhouse ale aged in oak. After years of high-intensity beers, “I think this is a natural correction,” Taylor said.
When Cheyne Tessier and his wife, Erika, opened Origin Beer Project in Cranston, Rhode Island, in fall 2020, their first release was Small Victories, a 3.5% Czech-style pale lager aged on oak staves. “No one was doing that in Rhode Island,” said Cheyne Tessier, the brewer.
Strong consumer response led the couple to make lower-alcohol beers that have become central to Origin’s lineup of beers and branding. They have sold sweatshirts proclaiming “low ABV,” and rustic ales like the 2.5% Dystopian Fields, which is seasoned with rose hips, spruce tips and pineapple sage. It delivers a memorable flavor, interesting without being inebriating even if you have a few.
“It’s not about consuming alcohol to get drunk,” Tessier said.