Canada, ON: Labatt Brewery in London now making alcohol-free beer

The Labatt Brewery in London is making an alcohol-free beer to quench the growing thirst for non-alcoholic drinks, London Free Press reported on March 19.

The Richmond Street plant, located south of downtown, is now producing Busch De-Alc, a lager with a 0.4 per cent alcohol content. The alcohol in the beer – brewed from American hops, fine barley malt, cereal grains and pure water – is removed through a low-temperature process to retain flavor.

“Exclusively made in London in Canada, this launch expands Labatt’s portfolio of non-alcoholic and dealcoholized offerings, while reinforcing its commitment to brewing locally,” Labatt officials said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Sales for non-alcoholic drinks in Canadas grew to $199 million between June 2023 and June 2024, an increase of 24 per cent from the previous year, with non-alcoholic beer accounting for more than three-quarters of those sales, according to NIQ, a global marketing research firm.

Labatt has invested $26.6 million into the London brewery, the company’s oldest brewery in Canada, in the last year, boosting capacity by 597,000 hectoliters annually, Labatt officials said.

The addition of the booze-free beer production at the Richmond Street operation drives innovation, makes the plant an essential part of the company’s brewing network and fuels local jobs, officials said.

Founded by Irish immigrant John Kinder Labatt in London in 1847, the plant produces 40 per cent of Labatt’s domestic supply.

And this isn’t the first time Labatt has produced non-alcohol drinks in London. The brewery periodically halts beer production to can water for its Canadian disaster relief program, created to provide safe drinking water to help communities nationwide.