Why does alcohol-free beer taste so different, and generally nowhere near as pleasant, as ordinary beer? Is it purely the presence or lack of alcohol? I’m not convinced that it is, because I added some neutral alcohol spirit to an alcohol-free lager we have here in the Netherlands to make it up to the strength of ordinary beer. My friends and I can report that it tasted absolutely foul.
So what else is missing from alcohol-free beer that makes it taste so different?
Anton Shaw, Delft, The Netherlands
