Bavaria

The brewery traces its roots to 1680 in Lieshout, a small town in North Brabant. Seven generations of the Swinkels family have run the operation since 1773, and they still own it outright today. Now operating as Royal Swinkels Family Brewers (they received the Royal predicate in 2019 for their 300th anniversary), the company has grown into the Netherlands' second largest brewing group after Heineken.

Bavaria's alcohol-free range centres on their 0.0% Original, a clean pale lager that is exactly what you'd expect from Dutch brewing. Light, crisp, and refreshing without much complexity. They also produce a 0.0% Wit, a wheat beer variant with softer edges and subtle citrus character. Neither will blow your mind, but both do their job competently.

What sets Bavaria apart technically is their brewing method. Rather than removing alcohol after fermentation, they use a process that prevents alcohol forming in the first place. The result is a genuinely 0.0% product, not the 0.5% you'll find from dealcoholised alternatives.

You'll spot Bavaria in most UK supermarkets including Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and Asda. The pricing sits firmly in value territory, often around 50p a can in multipacks. That accessibility made Bavaria a gateway alcohol-free beer for many drinkers long before the current boom in the category.

Bavaria won't win awards for innovation these days. Craft-focused AF breweries have raised the bar considerably since 1978. But there's something to be said for a brewery that's been doing this longer than anyone else, doing it consistently, and keeping it affordable. Sometimes you just want a simple, cold, alcohol-free lager. Bavaria has been doing exactly that since before most people had heard the phrase.