24 Apr 2025 Researchers uncover yeast strains for rich non-alcoholic brews
Here’s news of American scientists who are exploring the potential of non-traditional yeasts to transform the burgeoning non-alcoholic beer market….
In an era where wellness and moderation are reshaping the beverage landscape, a new breed of yeast is stepping into the brewing spotlight — not to ferment more alcohol, but to craft flavour-rich, non-alcoholic beer (NAB).
That’s why these researchers explored non-traditional yeast strains to find out which ones could brew the best NABs for a rapidly growing market.
The Center for Beverage Innovation and Lafontaine Lab — including researchers with the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas and the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station — evaluated 11 commercially available yeasts to identify their strengths based on chemical analysis and sensory panel opinions.
The study was published in the ACS Food Science and Technology journal on April 15. The experiment station is the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
“These findings provide brewers with actionable insights to select yeasts that align with desired NAB characteristics and enable them to produce style-specific, high-quality nonalcoholic beers,” said Scott Lafontaine, assistant professor of food chemistry in the food science department, co-director of the Center for Beverage Innovation and corresponding author of the study.
Most of the yeasts that were tested in the study are strains that have been developed or screened to not ferment maltose, the primary sugar created from malted barley in the beermaking process.
While physically extracting and removing alcohol from ordinarily fermented beverages requires costly equipment, biologically limiting alcohol from forming during the fermentation process opens the NAB space to a wider group of small-scale brewers, Lafontaine noted.
“This approach democratises nonalcoholic beer production,” he added. “It opens the door for craft brewers to experiment and innovate without having to invest in industrial-scale dealcoholisation systems.”
Andrew Maust, a Bumpers College graduate student working in the Lafontaine Lab/Center for Beverage Innovation, and lead author of the study, said that while these “maltose-negative” yeasts still ferment simpler sugars like glucose, fructose and sometimes sucrose, not fermenting maltose results in low- or nonalcoholic beer.
“Typically, when people think of the role of yeast in brewing, they only think of the creation of ethanol and carbon dioxide from the consumption of sugars,” Maust said. “That reaction occurs, but the beauty of yeast is that they also produce a wide range compounds that become the soul of beer.”
Classic yeast-driven flavours include fruity, spicy and floral notes, as well as the ability to biologically transform the rest of the raw materials in the brewing process, Maust added.
“Over several hundreds of years, we’ve domesticated and evolved these organisms to act exactly how we want them, often leading to yeast choice as a driver of regional beer flavors and styles,” Maust explained.
“Characterising these flavour profiles created by nontraditional yeasts gives brewers a more precise palette to work with as they craft distinct beer styles,” Lafontaine said.
Growing market
The timing of this study and its findings are critical, Lafontaine said, as NAB remains one of the few bright spots in the craft beer segment amid the category’s rapid expansion. In the US, NABs are defined as containing 0.5 percent alcohol by volume or less, while international definitions typically range from 0.05 to 1.2 percent.
Consumer demand for NAB has surged due to health and wellness trends. According to a 2024 Statista forecast published in 2024, NAB production in the US has grown for 10 consecutive years and is projected to increase another 13.5 percent by 2029.
In Germany, NAB makes up roughly 5 percent of the beer market and is even marketed as a post-workout beverage.
Despite this momentum and although brands are getting much better, Maust said, flavour remains a key hurdle. “A common barrier to adoption in the US is the perception that NABs lack flavour and depth compared to their full-strength counterparts,” Maust said.
Lafontaine has been studying NAB since 2019, with earlier work focused on characterising commercial products to understand which flavour chemistry and sensory attributes of existing NABs best matched consumer expectations.
This new study marks a significant evolution, Lafontaine said, by moving from analyzing finished beers to actively developing and evaluating NAB formulations in the lab.
The work builds on Lafontaine’s previous research published in 2020 looking at factors that influence flavour and American consumer preference toward NAB.
Source: Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station
Reference: Andrew Maust et al, Exploring Non-traditional Yeast for Flavor Innovation in Non-Alcoholic Beer, ACS Food Science & Technology (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.5c00291