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Crux NO Mo IPA <\/span>Photo courtesy of Crux Fermentation Project. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n To legally qualify as non-alcoholic, beer must have 0.5% or less alcohol by volume. A common method to achieve this target is known as arrested fermentation: A recipe is formulated and brewed normally, but the fermentation process is stopped before reaching half a percent of alcohol. However, in such brews, residual unfermented sugars can leave a \u201cworty,\u201d unfinished quality, and there\u2019s often a harsh, oversteeped hop bitterness.<\/p>\n Crux doesn\u2019t follow this process at all. Instead, the N\u00d8 M\u00d8 brews begin as fully fermented, albeit extremely low-gravity, beers and are essentially diluted with water until the target alcohol-by-volume level is reached. It has to be tweaked with this dilution in mind, of course, but the process works\u2014the results, though light and a bit watery, taste like beer.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have tasted some of the N\/A beers of the past, you can see why people are looking for something that tastes more like a craft beer,\u201d O\u2019Connor says. \u201cI took some N\u00d8 M\u00d8 IPA on a rafting trip down the Deschutes last Memorial Day. It was great to have a beer while rowing on the river and not have the alcohol content in the beer.\u201d<\/p>\n In many ways, Deschutes has been leading the way in the lifestyle category in Oregon. The brewery launched Da Shootz in 2019, its 99-calorie, 4% ABV light lager, to tap into the calorie-conscious \u201clite\u201d beer market. It followed up in 2020 with Wowza, a 4% ABV hazy pale ale with 100 calories. And Deschutes has long offered a house-brewed, gluten-free option in its pubs.<\/p>\n Deschutes Non-Alcoholic Black Butte Porter <\/span>Photo courtesy of Deschutes Brewery. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Not all of the brand\u2019s efforts have been successful. Modified Theory, the low-sugar, gluten-reduced \u201ccraft hard bevvies\u201d designed to compete with hard seltzer, debuted just as the pandemic hit and was discontinued.<\/p>\n When it came time to produce N\/A beer, Deschutes partnered with Colorado\u2019s Sustainable Beverage Technologies and its proprietary BrewVo technology. Details on how this process works are vague, but production begins with a full-strength beer, and the alcohol is removed while other essential qualities are maintained. According to Deschutes brewmaster Veronica Vega, it provides the closest profile to a regular beer among those it tried.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough tasting products made from other processes and meeting with different vendors of de-alc equipment, we did explore other options,\u201d she says. \u201cBrewVo simply provided the best tasting beer and a path to scale that we could embark upon.\u201d<\/p>\n The proof is in the experience, and with Black Butte N\/A, it\u2019s reasonably close to drinking full-strength Black Butte Porter. It lacks the full body and malt richness of the original, but it avoids the off flavors of old-school N\/A brews.<\/p>\n Vega thinks it took some disruption in the market for quality N\/A beers to gain traction, but low alcohol is a tougher sell. \u201cI think low alc is a more difficult proposition to take to market to be honest,\u201d she says. \u201cIt can work as a beer on draft at a pub but is very difficult at retail.\u201d<\/p>\n Kellner doesn\u2019t brew alcohol-free beer at Worthy, but he recently produced Hop Quencher, a sugar-free sparkling hop water featuring Strata hops, and developed the Easy Day line of low-ABV, low-calorie hazy IPAs.<\/p>\n The Easy Day beers \u201cdefinitely provide the satisfaction of a full-flavored hazy IPA while maintaining the sub-100-calorie count that has been the focus of the many flavorless American light lagers out there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The region has plenty of light lagers and alternatives to offer. Boss Rambler Beer Club in Bend and Redmond\u2019s Kobold Brewing, for instance, brew Stokes Light (4.2% ABV) and K-Lite American Lager (4.3% ABV), respectively. Bend\u2019s Spider City Brewing has a regular line of house-brewed hard seltzers, as do Three Creeks Brewing in Sisters and 10 Barrel Brewing. Boneyard Beer in Bend also explicitly markets a line of CBD-infused sodas as wellness beverages, which feature CBD derived from locally farmed hemp.<\/p>\n Expect to see more of this as breweries continue to diversify to meet the demands of the lifestyle market. In particular, watch what comes out of Central Oregon\u2019s breweries, which are on the cutting edge of this trend.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/wweek-wweek-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/3St60Wkqps0uWYFXxrzJ-N25Rhw=\/1440x0\/filters:format(png):quality(70)\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/wweek\/SE2QSGRKCREO5M6BGNJPRF43NI.png\")