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The 10 Best Non-Alcoholic Beers You Should Drink in 2025, According To Beer Experts

Skeptical about NA beer? We were, too, until these brews turned us into true believers.

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FOR HEALTH-CONSCIOUS beer lovers, the promise of craft-brewed, alcohol-free beers is finally beginning to deliver. Yes, beers without booze finally taste and feel like drinking great beer. Gone are the days of cracking a sad, fizzy O’Doul’s—more a punchline than a beer replacement—as breweries dedicated solely to NA beers, as well as some of the world’s largest and most advanced brewers, have spent years to creating an array of great near beer options.

Best Non-Alcoholic Beers


Our top pick, Designated Dale’s NA Pils, took a year and a half of development to nail, says Aaron Baker, brand director for Dale’s and its parent brewery, Oskar Blues. The biggest challenge, he says, is formulating a beer that’s designed to have the alcohol removed.

You can’t simply make good beer and pull out the ethanol. “The essential characteristics in beer come from the interactions between hops and malt and yeast and alcohol. Everything is tied together,” he says.

All of our picks overcome this technical hurdle through similarly painstaking and thoughtful brewing processes. While the best non-alcoholic beers can definitely help you reduce your alcohol consumption, they still have carbs and calories. So yes, NA beers can still give you a beer belly. And despite most non-alcoholic beer options probably not matching their full-strength counterparts in a blind tasting (though a few do), every beer included is a good example of its style that we enjoy drinking, regardless of ABV, and would be happy to share at a BBQ.

What to Consider

Calorie Count

Just because these NA brews lack the empty calories of alcohol doesn’t necessarily mean they’re low-cal (or low-carb). “Alcohol contributes a lot to the mouthfeel and the thickness of a beer,” says Baker. In an effort to make a zero-ish alcohol beer feel like the real thing, he says, brewers often up the carbs to add body and improve the balance of flavors. All of our picks are on the lower end of the calorie spectrum for their style.

Freshness

Non-alcoholic beer ages and degrades faster due to its lack of that natural preservative, alcohol. Most beers have their canning or bottling date printed on the label or bottom of the can. I check this and aim for less than three months old. Others will have the less helpful best-by date. These can be up to a year after their packaging.

I also only buy NA beers that have been stored in a cooler (never off a room temperature shelf), which significantly slows their aging. NA brews are pasteurized and safe to drink past their peak flavor, but they won’t taste much like beer.

Style

Certain beer styles lend themselves better to NA brewing. This is largely determined by how well the flavors are balanced in a standard example, says Baker. In my testing, yeast-forward wheat beers and sour ales are safer bets. Especially hoppy beers and malty beers—IPAs and stouts—are more difficult to nail. This explains why most NA IPAs feel thin compared to their full-strength siblings, says Baker. I’ll add that I’ve struggled for years to find tasty dark NA brews (though the Guinness 0.0 is a pretty worthy option). Most taste like sweet, under-fermented homebrews.

How We Chose

I’ve been reviewing beers for nearly 20 years and testing non-alcoholic options for seven. To pick our top NA beers, I reviewed my expansive tasting notes from over the years, tasted promising new releases, and retested old favorites. I also consulted with Men’s Health Senior Gear and Commerce Editor Ryan Brower, who is a Certified Beer Server and has been tasting beer and writing about it for over a decade.

For this guide, I sought to identify a best NA option for every broad category of beers, providing delicious options for any mood, taste, or season. Each beer was tasted at least twice, all in the same beer-specific glassware designed to increase the intensity of aroma—revealing flaws or confirming greatness. For each beer, we paid close attention to mouthfeel, how true the beer represented the style, the carbonation, drinkability, and availability. After tasting dozens NA beers combined, we landed on the following 10 best non-alcoholic beers of 2025.

Best Overall NA Beer

Oskar Blues Brewery Designated Dale’s NA Pils

Designated Dale’s NA Pils

Designated Dale’s delivers that classic oh-so-crisp pilsner character without compromise. It features citrus-forward American hops that might remind your of a pale ale or session IPA, but with the snappy finish of a lager that’s satisfying but leaves you eyeing a second can. (Go for it).

Calories60
StyleAmerican Pilsner
IBU25
Best Post-Workout Beer

Best Day Brewing Electro-Lime Cerveza

Electro-Lime Cerveza

Brewed with lime puree and sea salt, this take on the Mexican lager and lime combo is the most refreshing NA beer I’ve tested. I particularly appreciate it after a sweat session, where that hit of electrolytes (sea salt) feels sublime with the citrus edge.

Calories75
StyleMexican-style Lager with lime
IBU20
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Best Stout

Guinness 0.0

0.0

Many of the NA options from global brewers are technically sound beers, but unexciting. Guinness 0.0, however, very nearly matches one of the world’s most beloved beers. While the mouthfeel is not as thick and milkshake-like, it is one of the better NA replications of a beer out there. And of the many great options here, none spends as much time in my fridge as this roasty, pitch-black stout.

Calories60
StyleIrish Dry Stout
IBU28*
Best Hoppy NA Beer

Athletic Brewing Company Free Wave Hazy IPA

Free Wave Hazy IPA

Athletic Brewing has been at the forefront of this new wave of non-alcoholic beer since 2017. While the brewery has many delectable NA brews, Free Wave nails the hazy IPA formula with the hops creating a bright mix of mango, citrus peel, and just enough herbal pine to ground it. Many NA hazies taste like artificial fruit flavors (whether they use them or not), but Free Wave truly scratches the juicy IPA itch.

Calories70
StyleAmerican Hazy IPA
IBU50
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Best Classic IPA

Lagunitas Brewing Company IPNA

IPNA

Hailing from one of the top IPA brewers, this booze-free hop bomb hit all the notes of an American IPA with a big grapefruit-forward citrus punch. Like most NA IPAs, the body is a step lighter than the real deal, but Lagunitas has crafted a brew that can sate any IPA lover looking to avoid the style’s higher ABV.

Calories80
StyleAmerican IPA
IBU20
Best Light Lager

Michelob ULTRA Zero

ULTRA Zero

Like many of the best NA siblings of popular beers, Michelob Ultra Zero doesn’t attempt to perfectly copy the flavor, but rather, recreate the experience of drinking a standard Mich Ultra. There’s a subtle fruit and spice component you won’t find in the standard version. And frankly, this is the tastier beer of the two. Yes, I said it.

Calories29
StyleAmerican Light Lager
IBU10*
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Best Porter

Deschutes NA Black Butte

NA Black Butte

Non-alcoholic dark beers are especially difficult to brew and I’ve found few passable options. Black Butte and Guinness 0.0 are the only two I recommend, but I do so enthusiastically. Black Butte nails the roasted chocolate profile of the porter style, which is fuller and less bitter than an Irish stout. Another rare great NA version of a great beer.

Calories110
StyleAmerican Porter
IBU30
Best for Food Pairing

Good Time Pils

Pils

Good Time Pils is brewed to recreate the classic German pilsner, and it’s better than anything NA I’ve tried that actually hails from Europe. And like a great German pils, Good Time is hop-forward but only slightly bitter, making it an ideal and versatile beer for washing from a dinner off the grill.

Calories68
StyleGerman-style Pilsner
IBU22
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Best American Lager

Al’s Classic

Classic

Al’s indeed hits the notes of a classic American lager—think your grandfather’s beer, like Hamm’s or Old Style—with a grainy, lightly toasted sweetness. It’s the sort of NA brew you can take to a backyard hang and folks will wash down burgers not noticing it’s a near beer.

Calories54
StyleAmerican Lager
IBU16
Best Beach Beer

Firestone Walker Brewing Company 8ZERO5

8ZERO5

This non-alcoholic ale from the craft beer visionaries at Firestone Walker is a member of the highly-drinkable 805 beer family that embraces California’s outdoors culture. And rather than mimic the full-strength 805, the 8ZERO5 establishes its own character that’s reminiscent of lighter, summer-friendly wheat beers. Some beers here, while tasty, can’t completely hide their sober nature. 8ZERO5 just tastes like a great beer.

Calories60
StyleBlonde Ale
IBU12*
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Headshot of Matt Allyn
Matt Allyn
Features Director

Matt Allyn has written and edited for Men's Health, Men's Journal, Men's Fitness, Bicycling, Popular Mechanics, and Runner's World magazines. He's run 10 marathons and come heartbreakingly close to BQing three times. In addition to running, cycling, and never skipping leg day, he's also covered beer for almost two decades and is a certified beer judge. 

Headshot of Ryan  Brower
Reviewed byRyan Brower
Senior Gear and Commerce Editor

Ryan Brower is the Senior Gear and Commerce Editor at Men’s Health, where he tests the best products in outdoor gear and tech. Baseball, surfing, and camping occupied most of his time growing up.

He also trained in martial arts for 12 years and holds a third degree black belt. He has written about the outdoors for nearly two decades and was previously the Managing Editor, Content Performance at Gear Patrol. He is also a Certified Beer Server and previously covered the craft beer industry. Ryan currently lives on the water in New Jersey with his wife and their dog.

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