Beer being poured into a conical flask in a laboratory

Exploring the pathogenic challenges and uncertainties with low/no alcohol beer

7 January 2025 | Greg Rachon, Section Lead, Brewing Microbiology Research

The market for low and no alcohol beer is booming. With recent statistics from the British Beer and Pub Association, highlighting year-on-year growth for low/no alcohol options of 23%, and claims that already 87% of pubs serve at least one low or no alcohol beer with 8% of these served on draught; the market shows no sign of slowing down.

While such growth has been a surprise, and the market for low/no alcohol beers still offers great opportunities for brewers looking to enter it, this needs to be tempered against some of its uncertainties, particularly in the area of pathogen contamination. This is because pathogens have not yet been researched deeply enough for us to be fully conclusive about the risks they pose in low/no alcohol beer.

The challenges with low/no alcohol beer for brewers

While the market for low/no alcohol beer looks here to stay given the ongoing shift in consumer preferences and healthier lifestyle choices, there are still some specific challenges for those choosing to brew it, which can make it harder to deal with the pathogenic risks of brewing alcohol-free beer.

Health and safety

Firstly, compared with alcoholic beer, the health and safety challenge with alcohol-free varieties are a lot more complex.

Traditionally, health and safety has not been such a big issue for brewers, because pathogens are unable to grow in alcoholic beers and only some, those producing spores are able to survive for a prolonged time.

However, with the absence of ethanol in alcohol free beers, these varieties are more susceptible to microbial spoilage and the potential survival (or growth) of pathogenic bacteria.

Subsequently, brewers already producing or looking to brew low or no alcohol beer need the support of brewing microbiology experts, if they are to gain greater assurances about the safety of brewing these varieties of beer.

Size of brewing company and their ability to finance microbiology support

Another factor that can determine how well brewers are able to deal with the pathogenic risks of brewing alcohol-free beer, is their ability to finance microbiology support.

Generally larger brewers have been the ones with more funds available to get the microbiological expertise they need, compared to smaller brewers, who are more likely to have to try to manage the risk themselves.

Potential damage from pathogen contamination

Given the many questions that still need to be answered when it comes to the pathogenic risks of brewing alcohol-free beer, those still looking to enter the market need to carefully risk assess their ability to withstand a potential pathogen contamination.

While the seriousness of its impact may vary, the potential damage from pathogen contamination is a very real threat for brewers of low/no alcohol beers, irrespective of their size. This is because while a pathogen contamination and subsequent product recall could potentially cause a smaller brewer to go out of business, a similar product recall for a larger brewer could still result in reputational damage that could potentially cause long lasting damage to their brand and market position.

So how prevalent is the problem of pathogens and their survival in non-alcoholic beers?

Considering the potential damage from pathogen contamination of low/no alcohol beers, this is a crucial question that brewers of all sizes will want answers to.

However, as we have already touched on, this is difficult as the actual number of published studies on the survival of pathogenic microorganisms in non-alcoholic beers is rather limited. And there are still many questions to be answered, and more research needed.

Some of the key research studies in this area to date include:

Menz et al. (2010) – The growth and survival of food-borne pathogens in sweet and fermenting brewers' wort
Menz et al. (2011) – Growth and survival of foodborne pathogens in beer
Cobo et al. (2023) - Survival of foodborne pathogens in low and non-alcoholic craft beer

Yet, while these studies highlight pathogen growth in wort and non-alcoholic beers, none of them investigated the survival and growth of pathogens in the final packs (bottles or cans), or in the Erlenmeyer flasks or vials, where the level of CO2/O2 could have affected the survival of tested microorganisms.

Beer in conical flasks with microscope in the foreground

With so many questions still left unanswered, this inspired us to do our own research in this area, to try to ascertain just how much of a problem the issue of pathogens and their survival is within non-alcoholic beers already available on the market.

Some of our main aims included:

Evaluating the prevalence of pathogen contamination among alcohol free beer varieties already on the market in the UK
Determining the ability of key pathogens to grow and survive in non-alcoholic beer varieties
Assessing what impact the pH and bitterness of those beers can have on the growth and survival of pathogens in non-alcoholic beer

Having bought 50 non-alcoholic beers and tested them for typical spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms, our research produced some interesting findings that led us to conclude that:

Factors such as carbonation together with the pH levels of alcohol-free beer can determine the growth of some types of pathogens
Some specific characteristics of draught alcohol-free beers can make them more susceptible to the risk of pathogen contamination

These are some top-level findings from our research. For more detailed information about the results including the research methods we used, I will be presenting my ‘Pathogen survival in low/no alcohol beer’ study at the Campden BRI Brewers’ Day event on the 28 January 2025, which is available to our members.

How we can help you

When it comes to issues around spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms in low/no alcohol beers, there is a lot we can do to support customers, from examining those beers for pathogens and checking whether those pathogens can survive or grow, to offering solutions to kill microbes.

Some of services we offer in brewing microbiology with a direct relevance to supporting customers with issues around spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms in low/no alcohol beers include:

Challenge testing

Our microbiologists are experts at challenge testing for all types of food and drink, including pathogens and spoilage organisms. We are knowledgeable about the correct processing and preservation systems, the availability of predictive models and for the definitive answer, the use of the best challenge testing protocols and experience available.

Our challenge testing services include:

Testing bottles, cans and other containers with yeast, bacteria (spoilage and pathogens) and moulds over a period of time
Open or closed challenge testing
Preservative effectiveness verification

Pasteurisation optimisation

We offer pasteurisation optimisation for premium beers, low/no alcohol beers, wines, cocktails and any other low pH beverages.

Our pasteurisation optimisation services are designed to help the industry reduce costs, and save energy and time, while maintaining the highest product quality. We use a heat-resistant yeast ascospore pasteurisation indicator to help ensure a robust validation.

More information about these services and our wider brewing microbiology expertise, can be found on our brewing microbiology services page.

About Grzegorz Rachon

Grzegorz (Greg) is a microbiology expert who has been in the food industry since the early 2000s, and has been working at Campden BRI since 2016. He has PhD from Reading University and Birmingham University, as well as extensive expertise in pasteurisation optimisation of beverages, process validation, and stability of traditional and novel beverages.