Heineken Readies For “Dry January On Draft” In UK

Non-alcoholic beers are no longer a joke and Heineken is getting ready for Dry January at pubs in the UK.

Here’s the deal…

In an effort to capitalize on a fast-growing beer segment, “buzz-less beer,” Heineken launched a non-alcoholic version of their flagship lager in 2017.

The Dutch brewing giant positioned Heineken 0.0, to tap into a European market place where the demand for zero alcohol beer has grown an astounding 5 percent every year from 2010 to 2015.

This was not an overnight effort, Heineken 0.0 took years to develop as many of its experimental recipes generally failed the taste test.

The brewery had been working on two separate versions Heineken 0.0 and neither one of them were getting the job done. But then Heineken’s brewing team began blending both beers together till they came up with the final product that they ended up debuting at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Heineken 0.0 has gone on to become a huge success story for the world’s second largest brewery, but it has primarily only available in bottles and cans due to yeast growth problems in bar and pub taplines.

In 2019 Heineken trialed a countertop keg system in a number of UK pubs and bars, which received positive feedback. But the brewer failed to come up with a solution to a widespread launch of alcohol-free beer using a pub’s own keg lines until now.

“Five years of research has led to the company’s discovery that keeping the cellar equipment cooled to between 0°C and 2°C yeast can be prevented from growing, reports the Drinks Business. “Heineken’s standard lager, at ABV 5%, is stored at 3°C to 6°C.”

And the brewer told The Sunday Times that there could be as many Heineken 0.0 Draught taps in British pubs and bars as there are standard Heineken taps by 2025.

“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved,” Willem van Waesberghe, the brand’s global master brewer told the newspaper. “It was not an easy thing to do.”

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