Alcohol-free beer put to the test: 8 trendy drinks for cyclists compared

This article first appeared in 2024 and was updated on 1 May 2026.

If you want to, you can even drink a beer before training! This recommendation does not come from Brägel, the main character of our satirical column "Radschlag" and fan of Hefe hell, but from Uwe SchröderThe ecotrophologist and amateur cyclist is very serious about this. Beer - as long as it is non-alcoholic - is more than just a thirst quencher for racing cyclists. Thanks to its ingredients, it is an excellent alternative to conventional juice spritzers or special sports drinks.

Effect of non-alcoholic beer

As a recovery drink after sport, non-alcoholic beer can fulfil important functions: It balances water levels, stabilises blood sugar levels thanks to its carbohydrates, helps to quickly replenish depleted muscle energy stores and, with its mineral potassium, helps to store this energy in the muscles. A recognised recommendation is to consume around one gram of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight immediately after exercise for effective regeneration and replenishment of glycogen stores. Drinks containing carbohydrates, such as non-alcoholic beer, make it easy to fulfil this recommendation. As around 19 mg of potassium is stored in the muscle cell per gram of carbohydrate, potassium-rich drinks are particularly suitable for regeneration after intensive activities. An example: One litre of Bitburger 0.0 contains 78 grams of carbohydrates, which is enough to refuel an 80-kilo sprinter as recommended.

Some beers are even labelled "isotonic". This means that two liquids - in this case the beer in the bottle and the blood in the body - have the same concentration of dissolved particles. This means that the drink and its ingredients can be digested particularly quickly. "However, the 'isotonic' property is not the only indicator of the quality of a sports drink," adds ecotrophologist Uwe Schröder. If you don't sweat much in cool temperatures, you may be better off with a slightly hypertonic drink that has a higher concentration of carbohydrates than the blood.

Alcohol-free is not always alcohol-free

Many non-alcoholic beers actually still contain small amounts of alcohol. However, with a residual alcohol content of up to 0.5 per cent, they can be described as alcohol-free. From a nutritional point of view, this residual alcohol is usually unproblematic; even our blood is never completely alcohol-free, as our bodies produce ethanol themselves and even rye bread or bananas can contain alcohol, which many people do not realise. However, the German Institute for Sports Nutrition recommends performance-orientated athletes to drink alcohol-free beers that actually contain no residual alcohol; these are usually labelled "0.0" by the breweries. They have the advantage of having no alcohol-induced dehydrating effect, which is important to compensate for the large sweat losses typical in endurance sports. The low alcohol content in "only" alcohol-free beer can also have a slight dehydrating effect and impair rehydration after sport.

If you need to recover quickly, for example in a training camp, on multi-day stage rides or when training twice a day, abstaining completely from alcohol can promote muscle regeneration and recovery. This is because alcohol inhibits protein synthesis. This delays muscle building and repair after intensive exercise.

As beer is mainly made from barley or wheat, it is not suitable for people with gluten intolerance. However, there are now even gluten-free beers such as Neumarkter Lammsbräu Alkoholfrei.

A question of taste

Non-alcoholic beers don't taste good! This prejudice has always been attached to the zero per cent hop drink and was difficult to get rid of. Proof to the contrary was provided in 2001 by non-alcoholic Erdinger wheat beer, which was marketed from the outset as an isotonic recreational drink and is one of the market leaders. Subsequently, non-alcoholic wheat beers from many other breweries also became popular thirst quenchers and summer drinks.

The challenge remains to give non-alcoholic beer the typical beer flavour, because: "Alcohol is a flavour carrier!" explains beer expert and sommelier Simon Rossmann. During alcohol fermentation, many flavour compounds are created whose interactions have not yet been fully researched, enthuses the brewing engineer, who teaches at the Doemens Consulting Institute for the Brewing, Beverage and Food Industry in Munich.

There are various methods for producing non-alcoholic beers: Stopping fermentation prevents more than 0.5 per cent alcohol from being produced. This method has been used for decades. The use of new yeasts is relatively new. Certain yeast strains do not produce alcohol and bring interesting flavours to the beer. This method is particularly interesting for small breweries that do not have a lot of money. New yeasts and better filter systems encourage brewers to be creative, which is why many new non-alcoholic beers - often pale beers instead of wheat beers - are coming onto the market in different flavours. The third way to alcohol-free beer is via dealcoholisation plants, which remove the alcohol from the full beer; however, these plants are complex and expensive and therefore only suitable for financially strong breweries.

Tasting at 11

For the taste test of our eight beers, sommelier Simon Rossmann carried out the sensory evaluation; seven colleagues from the editorial team chose their favourites in a blind tasting. Both tests took place at eleven o'clock in the morning because, according to beer expert Rossmann, this is the ideal time due to the very sensitive taste buds at this time of day. And due to the lack of alcohol, there was no danger of the rest of the working day getting out of rhythm...

Non-alcoholic Helles/Pils

Non-alcoholic wheat beer