Follow the leader. And right now, the leading segment in beer is nonalcoholic. Deschutes Brewing has recently installed new technology and equipment to their Bend, Oregon brewery to make nonalcoholic Black Butte Porter in-house, and will soon roll out a nonalcoholic version of Fresh Squeezed IPA.
Previously, Deschutes had their NA Black Butte Porter contract brewed at an outside facility. The brewer is now using the patented BrewVo technology from Sustainable Beverage Technologies (SBT) and utilizing their own proprietary brewing methods.
The company has also recently rebranded the Deschutes NA Black Butte Porter which has become the brewery’s highest rate-of-sale six-pack.
The non-alcoholic beer category is the fastest growing segment of the beer industry and grew 163% in dollar sales from 2019 to 2023.
Deschutes has also installed a tunnel pasteurizer, a method that helps ensure the quality of NA’s beer which lack alcohol as a natural stabilizer. Many other non-alcoholic brewers rely on contract brewing and/or packaging to include pasteurization.
More on the story here.