Also, if you know of a nice dark beer, stout or even a bitter that is 0,0% I would appreciate it because I still haven’t found any of those. The original recipe for Hoegaarden was conceived in the middle ages and there were soon more than 30 breweries in the village after which the beer takes its name. My aim is to review these beers the same as beers I've paid for but you may want to bear this in mind when reading the review. On the face of it, plenty of large European brands have 0% versions – I don’t know if brands like Bitburger Drive, Becks Blue or Jever Fun make it over to the States, but giving drinkers a ‘sin alcohol’ version is commonplace on the continent.

Based in Toronto, GFR is published by Gingerz Consulting with a mandate to educate the public about artisanal food, wine, beer, and spirits. I’m partial to an occasional bottle, but it’s the sort of beer I need to be in the mood for and favour in the summer. And it could very well be that since the alcohol is not present, especially if you are used to drinking alcohol, that it does not stimulate the receptors in your brain, thereby making you not like it. In the end, we bought artisanal ginger beer, which was great and definitely scratched the beer itch while tasting better than I’ve heard most non-alcoholic beers are. the non-alcoholic brew is already firmly established in Europe (no and low alcohol versions now make up half of Hoegaarden's Belgian retail volumes) and is expanding globally (such as with its launch in India​ earlier this year).

Hope was not lost however, with a local chap by the name of Pierre Celis determined to preserve the traditional brew, and set up his own brewery in his old hay loft. Belgian Beer Factory has been sending packages to end consumers all over Europe for more than 8 years. So most people who will drink 0,0% non-alcoholic beer are people who still want the benefits of hops, the mouth feel, taste and social feel of drinking a beer but who can not for health reasons, because, like me they are suffering from a crippling disease and on horrible medications.

Fair enough, Hoegaarden have been owned by AB-InBev (in their various guises) since their money helped Pierre Celis rebuild after a fire in the mid-1980’s, prior to the official takeover. The tk_or is a referral cookie set by the JetPack plugin on sites using WooCommerce, which analyses referrer behaviour for Jetpack. It has the Hoegaarden flavours I remember, but slightly different, almost as if watered down with lemonade as I alluded to before. With a cool name like H0 (H-Zero), it seems to be that any kind of european beer tradition or class that was once associated with this brand has been erased. An alcohol-free version of Hoegaarden is something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time, so lets crack it open and hope we’re not disappointed.Perhaps brewing interesting and original beers is what will jump start beer sales, and not stuff like H-Zero.

Hoegaarden Soft Brew: 'We've seen success with existing beer drinkers at new occasions, such as lunch'.

Well, firstly there’s the fact that it was announced by the parent comapny at a shareholders meeting. Harry Lewis, VP New Brands, Premium and Super Premium at Anheuser-Busch, says Hoegaarden Soft Brew is an example of how Anheuser-Busch (the US arm of the world's largest brewer AB InBev) is using its brewing expertise to innovate in the relatively new no/low alcohol space - one that is growing fast as consumers seek out healthier options. Do check the number of calories in these alcohol free lager, some have more calories than alcoholic beer. At Anheuser-Busch, we have implemented a heightened focus on innovation and speed to market to develop and launch new products in as short a timeframe as possible to be able to learn from consumers interacting with products in real retailer shelves or bars, instead of months of internal testing,” ​said Lewis.

This tasty beer originates from the Belgian village of Hoegaarden where it was first created almost 600 years ago by monks. But you get that for you drinking non alcoholic beer is a novel thing, that you do for trivial reasons, for me it is a sense of normalcy in an otherwise horrible existence. It has chosen two different markets so it can compare any similarities and differences on how and when consumers chose to drink Hoegaarden Soft Brew.

If you've not tried wheat beers before then you might struggle with this compared to some of the big name 0% lagers. Additions such as orange peel, aniseed and coriander give white beer that typical sweet and fresh taste. The latest piece of news concerns another of their brands – the newly announced alcohol free Hoegaarden 0.