Not everyone wants to pay two pounds for a can of Lucky Saint. Sometimes you just want something cold and inoffensive from a shop you were already in. Perlenbacher 0.0%, from Lidl, is that drink. Perlenbacher 0.0% Ingredients: water, barley malt, flavouring, hop extract, acidity regulator: citric acid. The full-strength Perlenbacher Pilsner won World’s Best Classic Pilsner at the 2024 World Beer Awards, which sets an interesting benchmark for the alcohol-free version. The 0.0

Beck's Blue is the original mainstream alcohol-free lager in the UK — it has been on supermarket shelves since the 1980s when the category barely existed. That longevity tells you something about reliability, though not necessarily about ambition. Beck's Blue Ingredients: water, malted barley, hops, hop extract, yeast. The pour is clear pale gold with a thin white head that dissipates quickly — functional rather than inviting. The aroma is light and slightly grainy. On the pa

Birra Moretti Zero is the entry that completes the supermarket lager picture — the Italian option sitting alongside Heineken and Beck's on the bottom shelf, priced for accessibility and widely available everywhere. Birra Moretti Zero 0.0% Ingredients: water, malted barley, maize, hops, yeast. The pour is clear pale gold with fine carbonation and a modest white head — clean and uncomplicated. The aroma is mild, with a faint malt note and little else to speak of. On the palate

Heineken 0.0 is the most widely available alcohol-free lager in the UK, which is either its greatest asset or its greatest limitation depending on what you are looking for. It is reliably present — service stations, corner shops, pubs with limited non-alcoholic options — which makes it more useful in practice than drinks that taste better but are harder to find. Heineken 0.0 Ingredients: water, malted barley, hop extract, natural flavourings. The pour mimics its full-strength

Lucky Saint has become the benchmark for alcohol-free lager in the UK, and it is not hard to see why. Lucky Saint Unfiltered Lager 0.5% is brewed in Bavaria using pilsner malt, Hallertau hops, spring water and yeast — nothing else — and left unfiltered, it arrives with more body than most of its competitors dare attempt. Lucky Saint Unfiltered Lager 0.5% Ingredients: water, malted barley, hops, yeast. The pour is convincing. A hazy pale gold with a decent head that holds long