From a wider variety of products and more draught lines available in pubs to an increasing number of experimental beers, the category has changed significantly over the past five years, the non-alcoholic brewer said.
Baggs, who co-founded the low and no brewing brand with James Loveday, Jordan Childs and Alex Loveday, continued: “When we first started [in 2020], people saw us a novelty act.
“The real challenge for lots of non-alcoholic brands from here is getting draught working well.
“Lucky Saint are doing it incredibly well. It can be quite a tough nut to crack, but once it’s done and people can see the PoS and glassware as well, they recognise that more people around them are drinking non-alcoholic and it’s not a big issue.”
In fact, almost half of UK adults (48%) now regularly enjoy alcohol-free beer, wine and spirits, the Everyone 2025 report from Club Soda recently revealed, in particular those aged 24 and under.
Things have changed
“[Younger drinkers] have not been socialised into alcohol, so an alcoholic beer doesn’t really fly. They weren’t exposed to the flavour profile”, Baggs added.
But its not just younger people that are becoming more open to exploring the category, the co-founder said: “We still have the odd time where we do a beer festival or something and people that have had several beers walk past and start laughing about the idea of non-alcoholic.
“But the number of people doing that versus the number of people excitedly running up to us just shows things have changed.”
An increasing number of more experimental brews in the low and on beer space, from brands like Northern Monk, BrewDog and Beavertown has also encouraged consumers to be more open within the category, Baggs noted.
However, the launch of Guinness 0.0 was a real game-changer for the sector, the co-founder continued: “As an industry we’ve been blessed by Guinness 0.0, it’s really interesting actually. It’s been so profound the impact it’s had on trade.
“A lots of pub operators have historically had Guinness 0.0 in cans or they might have a line for Lucky Saint, but because it’s sold so well, the idea of having a second line now for non-alcoholic fruit beer or non-alcoholic New England IPA or some other hazy IPA [is much more common]. People love that.
Lots of opportunity
“The idea of having more than one non-alcoholic beer line a year or two ago, it just wouldn’t happen, it was a couple of cans thrown at the back of the fridge.
“The number of people who are open to non-alcoholic beer and are open to more flavour profiles and to exploring within that [is rising]”, he said.
Mash Gang has built a strong following since its launch, but does not have a dedicated brewery, instead working with partners to brew at different sites and remote working for head office.
In response to the increased demand for no and low products, Mash Gang has stepped up its production both in the UK and US and is looking to expand its draught offering in the on-trade.
Baggs told The MA: “We’re going everywhere. It feels like there’s lots of opportunity and we’re just making sure we do take right ones in the right ways.
“There’s so much uncertainty [in the on-trade], not just around beer and alcohol and non-alcohol, but at a macro level the economy is still shifting around, people are really uncertain about how consumers are going to behave. It’s very hard for people to plan production or sales.”
- Read The Morning Advertiser’s Big Interview with Michael Baggs here.
