After two years of development, and the largest pre-sale uptake in their history, Canberra’s Capital Brewing will launch their first alcohol free beer tomorrow right on time for Dry July.

Capital’s <0.5% ABV Alc-Less Pacific Ale joins their core range and emerges as one of the first releases from their research and development brewhouse which is effectively a smaller version of their main 3,000 litre system.

Co-founders and managing directors Laurence Kain and Tom Hertel said expanding into the non-alcoholic category was a natural next step, given demand from consumers and the growth potential within the category. They said interest from independent and major retailers, as well as on-premise venues, had seen pre-orders of Alc-Less outstrip any of the brewery’s previous new beer releases.

“We have been working on creating a non-alcoholic beer for over two years,” Laurence said. “Developing a recipe that holds up (to what)… Capital drinkers have come to expect – while removing all the alcohol – took a lot of research and development. Beyond perfecting the flavour, we encountered many challenges, including the product freezing in the tank because there was no alcohol present. Although it tastes like one, Alc-Less behaves very differently to a normal beer in so many ways.

“Having the R&D brewhouse means we use the same steam heating and brewing process as all of our other beers, but allowed us to test and perfect our non-alcoholic recipe efficiently, whilst being considerate of potential wastage.”

Tom added: “As more and more of our customers’ lifestyles are changing to become more focused on health and wellbeing, they can’t afford to be hungover but still want to kick back at the end of the day with a good tasting brew.

“We’re excited to be adding an alcohol-free option to our range at a time when we, as founders, are also becoming more health aware and find ourselves leaning ever more to the low/non alcoholic options.”

Alc-Less is available in select independent retailers in the ACT and NSW, plus Capital’s online store, from July 1.

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