Low- and no-alcohol beer is one of the fastest-growing segments in brewing — but making a great one is anything but simple. From managing fermentation and flavour balance to ensuring microbiological stability, there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than most drinkers realise. In this article, we break down the key takeaways from Lallemand’s best practices guide and simplify what brewers need to know to produce high-quality NABLAB beers with confidence.
A big thank you to Lallemand Brewing for sharing their expertise and technical guidance with the industry. Resources like this make it easier for brewers everywhere to innovate and raise the bar for alcohol-free beer.
What’s “NABLAB” Anyway?
“NABLAB” just means beer that’s non-alcoholic (usually <0.5% alcohol) or low-alcohol (up to ~1.15%). These styles are getting more popular because people want the 'beer experience' without too much alcohol.
Two Ways to Make It
According to Lallemand, there are basically two main approaches:
1. Take the alcohol out after brewing
This can be done by heating or reverse osmosis, but it’s expensive, energy-heavy, and can remove flavour. This process is usually for big commercial breweries.
2. Limit the amount of alcohol that you make
This is cheaper and easier on flavour if done right, and can be done by limiting how much sugar the yeast can ferment.
Yeast & Fermentation Tricks
Yeast converts sugar into alcohol. To make low ABV:
* Pick special yeast strains. Some yeast can’t digest big sugars like maltose or maltotriose, so less alcohol is made. LalBrew® Windsor™ is a great option due to its complete inability to consume the malt sugar maltotriose, which typically constitutes 10-15% of the sugars in a standard wort. In combination with very high mash temperatures (of around 78-80 Celsius), and less-fermentable grist options (base malts such as Munich and Vienna, and specialty malts with lower fermentability), this strain can exhibit apparent attenuations of 50% or less. When used with lower starting gravities, this can achieve great tasting low-alcohol beers made at home.
* Mess with the mash temperature
Higher mash temps create a wort with more big sugars that yeast can’t eat, again producing less alcohol.
* Use grain choices wisely
More specialty malts and less fermentable sugar leads to a fuller body and lower alcohol.
Flavour Challenges & How to Fix Them
Low-alcohol beers can end up feeling thin, watery, or worty (that uncooked beer taste). Lallemand suggests:
* Add more body with specialty grains or yeast autolysates (they give mouthfeel and mask harsh flavours).
* Manage pH carefully — a target of around 3.7-4.1 makes the beer safer and tastes better.
* Reduce harsh bitterness by using fewer bittering hops.
Food Safety Matters
Because there isn’t much alcohol in NABLAB beers, they’re more open to funky bacteria or even real pathogens (like Salmonella). This means you need to be sure you:
1. Watch the pH during brewing
2. Stabilise the beer (often with pasteurisation)
For commercial breweries, low alcohol beer is often tested in a lab to confirm it’s stable and safe before packaging.
Wrapping It Up
✔ There’s no magic trick — making great NABLAB beer is all about controlled fermentation, good yeast choice, and recipe tweaks.
✔ Traditional alcohol removal can work but isn’t ideal for flavour or small brewers.
✔ Yeast like LalBrew® LoNa™ or LalBrew® Windsor™are great options because they make low-alcohol beer without weird tastes.
✔ Safety and flavour quality need extra attention since alcohol isn’t doing as much preservative work.
For more in-depth reading on this subject, take a look at the Lallemand article: https://admin.lallemandbrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/NABLAB-BP-ENG-Digital-LalBrew.pdf