The 7 Best Nonalcoholic Beers, Tasted and Reviewed

Dale's / Bero / Best Day Brewing4 min readWhere the hell did all this nonalcoholic beer come from? It feels like just yesterday we were stuck between an O’Doul’s and a hard place. Now, at any beer distributor or liquor store or even Whole Foods, beer drinkers are met with a plethora of sober-curious options. And it’s not like breweries like Athletic or Best Day or BERO are keeping it basic, either. Nowadays, there are NA lagers, pilsners, IPAs, stouts, shandies, kölsches, and, yes, even pumpkin beers that offer both the nondrinkers and the beer faithful something to sip on.If you’re like us, the options overwhelm before they excite. So we here at Esquire decided to taste a heck of a lot of nonalcoholic beers to narrow down this widening field into a handful of must-try brews. After gulping down dozens of options over the last few months—yes, sometimes at the office—we came up with the following list below.Best Nonalcoholic Beers, Tasted and ReviewedHeinekenBest Go-to Nonalcoholic BeerHeineken 0.0If you’re ever frozen with choice paralysis and not sure what to grab on an NA beer run, reach for the Heineken 0.0. The brand’s signature 0 percent alcohol variant launched in 2017—which means its tenth anniversary is right around the corner—and has succeeded due in large part to its almost identical flavor to Heineken’s flagship brew. Sure, this means your enjoyment (or perhaps lack thereof) of the 0.0 depends on whatever you already feel about Heineken overall. But if you want a 0 percent beer where you know exactly what’s in the can—and trust us, reach for the cans over bottles, which skunk more easily—Heineken 0.0 is the best go-to you’ll find. —EFGuinnessBest Classic Nonalcoholic BeerGuinness 0Here’s a quick test to find out if an NA beer is any good: Blind taste the brew alongside its full-bodied counterpart. Such is the case with Guinness 0. Staff members of The Dead Rabbit—one of New York’s premier Irish pubs that’s known for fine pours of black gold—tried this very challenge and struggled to tell A from NA. If that doesn’t convince you, we don’t know what can. But here’s one more positive anyway: This malty, creamy delight is widely distributed, so no matter where you are in the country, you can always score a four-pack. —CHDale'sBest Nonalcoholic PilsnerDesignated Dale’s American NA PilsStraight out of Colorado from the famed Oskar Blues comes Designated Dale’s (cough, cough, DD), which maintains a sterling rep among truly dedicated beer lovers. In 2024, Dale’s entered the NA space with its acclaimed NA Pils. Just two later, the NA Pils is still maybe the best option if you’re looking for an alcohol-free pilsner. Its crispy and sweet character is punctuated with a distinct lemon zest. It’s an effective drink for summertime, but it won’t do you wrong the rest of the year. —EFBest Day BrewingBest Nonalcoholic Beer for SummerBest Day Brewing Endless Mango IPAThere’s just nothing like day drinking in the summertime. It’s a simple pleasure, really. But when you’ve had enough alcohol and the sun is still out, you can keep the good vibes going with Best Day’s Endless Mango IPA. Ever since Best Day Brewing joined the nonalcoholic beer market in 2022, the brand has released seemingly a dozen varieties of its India pale ales, but our favorite has been the Endless Mango. It lives up to its name with a lingering mango flavor that keeps things fruity and light until the last bite of pleasant bitterness. —EFSamuel AdamsBest Nonalcoholic Beer for FallSamuel Adams Oktoberfest NANote for the beer newbies out there: Oktoberfest is actually in September, but thankfully this NA brew from Sam Adams can be enjoyed anytime during the fall. Sam Adams’s OG Oktoberfest is beloved, and the Boston-based brewer pulled no punches in creating the NA version. It’s got that deep bready character you expect from an Oktoberfest with just a hint of caramel, honey sweetness overlaid on top. Dump a couple into a big ol’ stein and prost to the best beer-drinking season of the year. —CHBeroBest Nonalcoholic ShandyBERO Daybreak Shandy Thank you, Spider-Man, for BERO. In 2024, Marvel star Tom Holland got into the NA beer biz with the launch of his own 0 percent label. It swiftly became clear that BERO was more than a Hollywood actor’s vanity project. It was and still is a legitimate endeavor that’s given NA beer a touch of class. While I’m personally devoted to the Noon Wheat, it’s the brand’s new Daybreak Shandy (Brand New Day-break, anyone? Please clap) that has me certain that BERO’s best days are still ahead. The zingy sweetness of lemonade gives the Daybreak Shandy a superheroic punch of flavor atop BERO’s reliable Kingston Golden Pils. Though you shouldn’t drink and web-swing, the Daybreak Shandy is a 0 percent beer of blockbuster proportions. —EFLawson's Finest LiquidsBest Nonalcoholic IPALawson’s Sip’NSome of us here at Esquire (okay, maybe just me) are total IPA snobs. As such, we were a bit skeptical about how this oftentimes boozier, most times hoppier style of beer would translate to the non-acoholic space. Turns out, we just had to wait for one of the best in the game to drop its own version. Lawson’s Finest Liquids is a craft brewing legend that doesn’t shy away from iterating on its fan-favorite Sip of Sunshine Double IPA to cater to customers with differing ABV preferences. Sip has a younger sibling called, appropriately, Little Sip, which is a single IPA that cuts down the alcohol but keeps the bright flavor. Then, earlier this year, Lawson’s dropped Easy Sip, which appeals to the session drinkers. Finally, most recently, they bequeathed us Sip’N, an NA IPA that doesn't sacrifice flavor for sober-curious trends. Each sip’s got all the requisite tropical hop character with a pleasant nip of bitterness on the tail end. —CH