If you ever want to take a moment to appreciate all the wonderful things that alcohol contributes to beer, there’s nothing like taking a sip of a poorly made nonalcoholic one.
Ethanol performs many useful functions:
- It is mood altering and sometimes intoxicating.
- It acts as an aroma carrier.
- It adds flavor.
- It masks off-flavors.
- It adds viscosity.
- It decreases density.
- It decreases surface tension.
- It provides a warming sensation.
- It acts as a barrier to bacterial growth.
As brewers get better at finding other ways to replace those functions, they’re taking a longer look at the growing range of hop products, as well as products derived from sources such as herbs, spices, and botanicals. Many of these can help compensate for what’s lost when alcohol is removed or what’s never created when fermentation is restricted.
“The focus is [on] desirable flavors,” says Jake Kirkendall, a hop scientist at Kalsec, which specializes in natural-ingredient solutions for the food and beverage industry.