AB-InBev to launch a non-alcoholic Leffe

Belgium | No-alcohol and low-alcohol (“NOLA”) beers are considered a boom category and not just during “Dry January”, when people are urged to abstain from alcohol after the assumed excesses of the previous month. But they are still small fry.

A recent report by the Brewers of Europe, a trade group, shows that non-alcoholic beers alone only account for 2 percent of Europe’s beer production by value (EUR 900 million/USD 1 billion in 2017).

In pursuit of its ambitious goal of NOLAs representing 20 percent of its volume sales by 2025, AB-InBev, in early January 2019, announced the launch of the first ever non-alcoholic version of one of the country’s most celebrated abbey beers.

AB-InBev will begin selling a zero-alcohol version of its Leffe beer in Belgium at the beginning of 2019. Normally Leffe has 6.6 percent ABV. For the non-alcoholic Leffe, the alcohol is removed after the fermentation process, which allegedly helps preserve the taste.

Some beer marketers will wince at the idea of extending the Leffe brand to include even a non-alcoholic version. However, over the past few years, Leffe has seen so many brand extensions that no one knows – certainly not consumers – what the core Leffe is supposed to be.

The more worrying long-term concern is: is it really possible to sell huge amounts of NOLAs at beer’s high prices? It’s a bit like attempting to sell champagne without alcohol.