The University of Copenhagen has found an alternative to beer that doesn’t make you drunk. This drink is ideal for people who like the taste of beer but don’t want to deal with being drunk or hangovers.

While non-alcoholic beer is not a new don’t, many people do not like its taste as they consider it watery and flat. Therefore, they are not a good substitute for the real thing. However, this new beer could be a game-changer.

Making non-alcoholic beer removes hops

According to Sotirios Kampranis, one of the study authors, non-alcoholic beer doesn’t have the aroma of hops. This type of beer is often made by heating. While this method removes the alcohol, it also removes the hops that give it its smell.

Kampranis explains another method for making non-alcoholic beer. This method is by reducing fermentation. It also results in a watery and tasteless drink since beer needs hops for it to have the aroma which contributes to its taste.

How the team made the beer

For this reason, Kampranis and his partner, Simon Dusseaux, who own EvodiaBio, a biotechnology company, wanted to find a way to brew beer without making it alcoholic. Kampranis states that it took years of work before they were successful.

The partners managed to create monoterpenoids. These are small molecules in beer. They are usually responsible for the hop flavor.  The team brewed a non-alcoholic beer and then added the molecules to it so that it could regain its flavor. No other team has managed this.

Other makers of non-alcoholic beer often try to add pricey hops aromas to their drinks after they make the beer. However, the aroma often dissipates; thus, the procedure becomes wasteful and ineffective.

The team used baker’s yeasts cells and made them micro-factories that could grow in fermenters and make the hoppy aroma. When the cells released the aroma, the team added them to the beer. This technique enabled the team to give the beverages the hops flavor without adding actual hops to non-alcoholic beer.

Fortunately, this method was also more sustainable than using hops aroma, which requires manufacturers to transport crops from a long distance and refrigerate them, so they don’t go bad.