Contents
What is non-alcoholic beer
Beer soft drink is a foamy malt drink that differs from its prototype by a significantly lower alcohol content, up to 0,002% alcohol, which appeared in the 70s of the last century.
Initially, the drink was aimed at drivers who quite often got into an accident after a glass or two of the usual beer taken on the track. Subsequently, lovers of a healthy, but at the same time relaxed lifestyle, people who want to painlessly stop drinking alcohol, pregnant women, as well as beer drinkers who are forced to take drugs that are incompatible with ethanol, joined the target audience of the innovative product.
Many of the representatives of the above groups, realizing the illusory advantages and obvious disadvantages associated with the use of the mentioned drink, subsequently refused to deal with it, but more and more victims of well-designed tempting advertising campaigns come to their place.
How non-alcoholic beer is made
The first method
The production technology of the drink we are interested in at the first stage is no different from the generally accepted one. That is, at first, non-alcoholic beer is brewed in the same way as regular drinks of this kind are brewed.
Further, the first possible divergences may begin. If the “non-alcoholic” effect is achieved by eliminating or interrupting fermentation, special yeast is added to the wort, which in fact does not process barley sugar – maltose; or the fermentation is stopped by the sudden cooling of the drink, leading to the death of the yeast cultures. The result is a liquid that contains almost no ethyl alcohol, but has an obscenely pronounced malt flavor.
The second method
If, instead of under-alcoholization, the manufacturer prefers to rid the finished full-fledged product of alcohol, then the fermentation process is brought to an end, after which the maximum possible amount of ethanol is removed from the drink. In rare cases, this result is achieved by heating the liquid to temperatures in excess of 80°C, which removes virtually all of the alcohol, with irreparable damage to the taste of the drink.
More often, vacuum evaporation and vacuum distillation methods are used, leading to the evaporation of alcohol at lower temperatures, while the taste of the final product, although deteriorating, is still not to the same extent as in the case of full-scale heat treatment.
The third method
Finally, there is a membrane method of dealcoholization, in which ethanol molecules are “screened out” using a fine-membrane membrane (reverse osmosis) or a special filtration film (dialysis). As a result of the mentioned rather lengthy processes, a substance is obtained, as in the previous cases, somewhat inferior to the original version.
Then, in order to give the drink some additional resemblance to an alcoholic counterpart, various kinds of chemical compounds and flavors are added to it if it is required to saturate the product with an additional taste, for example, lime.
All this, coupled with the above-mentioned additional operations, make non-alcoholic beer more expensive than ordinary foamy drinks that are not tortured by anyone.
Non-alcoholic beer composition
The composition of the beer zero contains almost the same ingredients as in a regular drink.
Composition: malt, water, hops, yeast cultures and various branded naturally occurring additives (herbs, spices, berries, etc.).
How much alcohol is in non-alcoholic beer
Drinks of this kind contain from 0,002 to 1,5% ethanol. At the same time, in most countries, this figure should not exceed 1%. In any case, some kind of alcohol in non-alcoholic beverages, after all, is present.
Accordingly, to the question: “is it possible to get drunk from such drinks?”, We would theoretically give a positive answer. Of course, to obtain this tragicomic effect, a fatal combination of several factors is necessary.
For example, if a person with low resistance to alcohol blows 5 liters of one and a half degree beer, then due to the interaction of ethanol and the Mendeleev volume of chemicals, he can get not only relatively mild alcohol poisoning, but also a slight fume and even a slight hangover.
Non-alcoholic beer for the driver
According to the producers of “zero” beer products, a driver who has used it may not be afraid of meeting with representatives of the traffic police at all.
Technically, it is. After drinking two liters of soft drink in the blood will be from 0,09 to 0,11 ppm of ethanol.
While, according to, by no means the most condescending Russian legislation, the alcohol content in the air exhaled by the driver should not exceed 0,16 ppm, and the level of ethanol in the blood can reach up to 0,35 ppm.
How long does non-alcoholic beer disappear
The smell of beer (not to be confused with fumes) inherent in this type of soft drink can last 10-15 minutes after drinking a bottle and for about half an hour after two liters have been credited.
And if the driver doesn’t take the appropriate pause before getting behind the wheel, zealous traffic cops can scour him for various additional alcohol tests, and to top it all, make him pass a test for reaction and coordination of movements.
Can minors drink non-alcoholic beer?
There is such an old maxim: “first – candies with rum, then – rum with candies, then – just rum.” If we apply it to our situation, then we can say that from non-alcoholic to regular beer is one step.
Accordingly, we would recommend that adolescents, whose developing bodies have a reduced resistance to alcohol, do not fall for the aforementioned alcohol-containing drink.
In this case, the true manifestation of adulthood will not be the dashing overturning of a pair of cans of Nulevka, but the ability not to succumb to the influence of the crowd. Moreover, one should refuse the proposed drink calmly, confidently and without unnecessary bravado.
Can Muslims drink non-alcoholic beer?
Everyone knows that in Islam there is a ban on the consumption of alcohol. As the prophet Mohammed used to say: “Everything that intoxicates is forbidden, and everything that intoxicates in large quantities is forbidden in small quantities.”
Thus, the drink we are considering, capable of leading to intoxication in a large (no matter how much) quantity, any pious Muslim is obliged to bypass the tenth road.
Relevance: 14.03.2017
Tags: beer, cider, ale