And Lewis believes Hoegaarden Soft Brew is more than simply a non-alcoholic beer: it believes it can hit the bullseye when it comes to numerous US beverage trends such as premiumization, bold fruit flavors, ready-to-drink options and portability. Bitterness up front, more of the citrus, mellows into more tropical fruit fare, finishing on a bitter note again. Please be aware that even if the label looks different, that product will be the same product if it has the same barcode.

I opened some for a friend and neither of us finished our glasses, the other four cans going directly to the recycling bin. The latest piece of news concerns another of their brands – the newly announced alcohol free Hoegaarden 0. The taste was certainly one that took a while to get used to, but opened me up to a world of wheat beers that previously I didn’t know about. Taste: thin to medium body, lively carbonation, classic non-alc beer taste; sugary and hollow taste. The meeting of the shareholders necessitated the announcement, but coming only two weeks after Pierre Celis’s death there’s something of the insensitive about it.

These cookies help provide information on statistics about the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Brewing behemoth AB-InBev have been in the news a fair bit recently – probably understandable given they control 25% of the world’s beer (in terms of market share). The problem with ghost ship is that it still contains alcohol at 0,5%, which for people like me who need to avoid alcohol for medical reasons is still problematic and dangerous. Seeing some reviews I was apprehensive it would be like the real thing but if you're in doubt go for it. What I do know is that you should never let this tastebud-free-focus-group-concocted swill touch your lips, and what more would you expect from the world’s largest brewer?Additions such as orange peel, aniseed and coriander give white beer that typical sweet and fresh taste. The medium body’s good enough but it has a syrupy texture that leaves an unwanted film in your mouth after each sip. That’s fine and probably a good way to expand or not stick out so much for those who are DD or non-drinkers. Low alcohol beers can be a little thin and sour but not this one, if anything it is superior to the original, but it does lose some of the delicacy of the botanicals and bitterness in the process.

Harry Lewis, VP New Brands, Premium and Super Premium at Anheuser-Busch, says Hoegaarden Soft Brew is an example of how Anheuser-Busch (the US arm of the world's largest brewer AB InBev) is using its brewing expertise to innovate in the relatively new no/low alcohol space - one that is growing fast as consumers seek out healthier options. One of the key lessons it hopes to learn from the trial is what other beverage categories Hoegaarden Soft Brew can attract consumers from. However, by the 1950s all these breweries had closed their doors due to the style going out of favour, with the beer drinking world being engulfed by the lager tide. I guess it’s all to do with the fact that the beer is actually dealcoholised, therefore completely throwing off any sense of equilibrium and leaving you with a rank mix of disparate parts that don’t quite fit together?

Being outsold by awesome beverages like water and soda, it seems the In-Bev marketing folks wanted to try capturing the non-alcoholic beverage market.