When Sarah Kate first saw the giant billboard advertising Michelob Ultra Zero near BMO Field during the FIFA World Cup, she felt emotional.
It wasn’t the first time she had seen non-alcoholic beer advertised, but the prominence of the placement, and the fact that a zero-proof brew was ubiquitous at one of the world’s biggest sporting events, felt significant. And it was a major contrast to the beer commercials she grew up watching during the Super Bowl.
“It’s a real milestone,” says Kate, the Toronto-based founder of non-alcoholic drinks website Some Good Clean Fun. “We’re focusing on the healthy alternative in an arena where we’re focused on the athleticism and health of the people on the field. It’s a natural fit.”
While those billboards starring Canada forward Jonathan David have come down and the World Cup visitors have departed, there’s evidence that non-alcoholic beer’s moment in the sun will linger even longer than Donald Trump did onstage after presenting the Spanish team their trophy.
Non-alcoholic beer is growing
Walk the aisles of the LCBO, peruse almost any bar or restaurant’s drinks menu or dig in the cooler at a friend’s barbecue and odds are you’ll find a booze-free lager, IPA or even stout. The number of options — including major players like Guinness, Heineken and Corona, jostling for an increasing share of shelf space with local breweries — is growing fast, in inverse correlation to the steadily decreasing amount of alcohol Canadians are drinking.
Booze consumption hit a 20-year-low for the fourth year in a row in 2025, according to StatsCan. At the same time, the Canadian non-alcoholic drinks market grew 12 per cent to become a $222 million industry. Zero-proof beers make up 70 per cent of those sales, according to Nielsen research.
Toronto’s Bellwoods Brewery can’t keep its beloved Stay Classy and Jelly King zero-proof beers in stock. “The demand is greater than what we can make,” says co-founder Mike Clark, who says they’re adding production capacity. “We’re turning away people looking to purchase it from us all the time.”
Who’s drinking 0.0 beer?
At Bellwoods, which also brews and serves a range of full-proof beers, Clark has seen demand for non-alc beer brewing over the past few years. “It’s gotten really common now for people to order non-alc beverages. It’s been very normalized. Only a few years ago, people might ask you why you’re having a non-alc beer,” he says. “There’s obviously been a cultural shift, and nobody is going to question why you’re drinking a non-alc beer. That’s good and healthy.”
So who is typically cracking open a booze-free cold one? “It’s a really diverse group of people that spans a wide age range,” Clark says. “We see the former IPA lover who’s maybe cut down on alcohol or they don’t drink anymore, and we see them walking away with a case of Stay Classy. On the other hand, it’s maybe somebody that doesn’t even drink beer and they’re talking about how much they love the fruit Jelly King non-alc seltzers.”
What’s notable is that zero-proof beer isn’t just the tipple of the non-drinker anymore. “People have moved on from that,” says Kate, pointing to research showing that as of 2025, 92 per cent of non-alcoholic drinks buyers also purchase alcohol. “Consumers don’t want that binary choice, where you have to be sober or be a drinker. Most consumers are looking at more of a balance.”
This has led to a phenomenon called “zebra-striping,” otherwise known as alternating drinking alcoholic and non-alcoholic beers over a day or evening. Kate has noticed people using non-alc beer to extend an occasion without partying too hard. “If you’re watching a football game at 9 o’clock and you’ve had two beers, you don’t want to have water for the rest of the night,” she says. “That non-alcoholic beer lets you stay present and social without escalating further.”
Zero beer is getting better
These days, you’re much more likely to enjoy the zero-proof beer you’re sipping, points out beer expert and historian Jordan St. John. “Non-alcoholic beer has gone leaps and bounds over the last five to 10 years,” he says. “There was not a lot of great choice for grocery store brands. Instead of being a style of beer, there would be a colour. At this point, we have major brands making very competent non-alcoholic versions, and we have craft offerings; incredible versions of IPAs and other styles.”
To be clear, he’s not a fan himself — “I hate them,” to be precise — citing the texture that beer loses in the absence of the calories from alcohol. “What you tend to have are thin-bodied things that don’t taste quite right,” he says. “That’s the problem with things that are an imitation of the things that you want to drink.”
Beers with a distinctive flavour profile — the tang of a sour, the roast of a Guinness stout — tend to be more successful without alcohol, he says, than lagers like Sapporo or Peroni. “They have very few moving parts, and one of those is the texture and fermentation character that comes with alcohol,” St. John says. “When you remove one of the three things that make the product work, you can almost guarantee it’s not as good as the real thing.”
Still, non-alc beer drinkers are more likely to be drinkers looking to cut back (“people who buy a 2-4 of beer and it goes in the fridge in the garage”), St. John posits, as opposed to healthmaxxing Gen Zs who are more likely to drink a matcha than a pale ale. “There is no attraction to a non-alcoholic beer to somebody who has never had beer. Why would you? It’s an acquired taste.”
He’s observed among his fellow beer judges and writers that as they get older and become more health and bloat conscious, they’re no longer interested in drinking the number of beers their alcohol tolerance requires to get a buzz, so they’re making the switch. “Realistically, it’s an itch people are scratching as their lifestyle changes.” Though it’s worth noting that while non-alc may have fewer calories, all beers can bloat, courtesy of a gut-bubbling combination of carbonation and grains present in both styles.
For those who can’t abide — or afford — a day-long hangover, going out and drinking full-strength beer all night isn’t appealing, St. John says. In fact, in 2026, “it’s practically nostalgic.”
Five of the best non-alcoholic brews
Bellwoods Brewery Non-alcoholic Jelly King Dry Hopped Sour
This non-alc version of one of the Toronto brewery’s classic beers is locally made fan favourite: Smooth, peachy and pretty close to the real thing.
$4.42, bellwoodsbrewery.com
Guinness 0
This non-alcoholic stout is made the same way as the original (until the alcohol is removed with cold filtration), meaning it retains the signature chocolatey notes and creamy body with 0.5 ABV.
$12 for 4, LCBO
Harmon’s Jack Pine Non-Alc Pale Ale
This offering from a dedicated non-alc brewery in Toronto is a favourite among pale ale lovers.
$15.50 for 6, harmonsbeer.com
Sober Carpenter Non-Alcoholic Irish Red Ale
If you’re a fan of malty beers like Rickards Red, chances are you’ll like this caramel-inflected brew from a Canadian dedicated non-alcoholic brewery.
$40 for 12, sobercarpenter.com
Michelob Ultra Zero
Ubiquitous at the World Cup, this non-alc version of the classic Ultra is praised for its citrus freshness and a “crispiness” compared to a McDonald’s Diet Coke.
$16 for 12, The Beer Store
