Beer Marketer's Insights - SF Chronicle Praises NA Beer, Trashes NA Wine (But Says It Could Improve)

The SF Chronicle published two stories on Tues, both by Esther Mobley, that cut to the heart of two growing NA industries: "How California nonalcoholic beer got so good" and "Nonalcoholic wine is still terrible. Will it ever get better?" (Tell us how you really feel!) The beer piece goes into detail on techniques: vacuum distillation, reverse osmosis, and, most crucially in Esther's telling, maltose-negative yeast, which "lowered the barrier to entry for NA beer as a whole," said Fieldwork co-founder Alex Tweet. Maltose-negative yeast is used by CA brewers Fieldwork, Firestone Walker, Fort Point and Sierra Nevada, while Best Day uses membranes and Athletic (which has a production facility in San Diego), sales of which represent about 50% of all NA craft beer sales in the US, has not divulged its processes. The proof of the success of NA beer is in the sales, natch. Athletic surpassed 500K bbls in 2025, growing volume by more than 25% vs yr ago. Best Day grew more than 60% to 50K bbls of NA beer all-channel. Sierra Nevada NAs up ~36% in NIQ with Trail Pass up even faster, dragged a bit by Hop Splash decline. Firestone 8ZERO5 up 350% over same period and Fort Point up ~4000% in natl scans following its merger with HenHouse in Apr (see Apr 15, 2025 issue). Overall, NA beer sales $$ were up 22.1% YTD in Circana MULC thru Dec 28.It's Not Sour Grapes; Wine Is Just Harder So why is NA wine still "terrible?" The short answer is that wine has more alcohol than beer, and removing it "impacts a lot of the flavor compounds and texture compounds that wouldn't necessarily be as soluble without the presence of alcohol," said UC Davis chem engr Ron Runnebaum. Per Esther's report, the dealcoholization technologies (reverse osmosis and vacuum distillation, primarily) aren't up to snuff, but "Runnebaum cautions, however, that these technologies are rapidly improving."To wit, Australia's Treasury Wine Estates last yr unveiled a new $10 mil facility for nonalcoholic winemaking, and Ron expects what the report calls "a sea change in how winemakers approach NA winemaking: just as a winemaker will farm, harvest and vinify a wine differently if they know it's destined for sparking rather than still wine, they might start the growing season by making decisions tailored for a nonalcoholic outcome."

SF Chronicle Praises NA Beer, Trashes NA Wine (But Says It Could Improve)

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