The Best Non-Alcoholic Beer to Drink Right Now (Yes, Even the One Brewed in Milwaukee)

Is non-alcoholic beer finally good? Yes, and it stopped being a punchline a while ago. The current crop of N/A beer tastes like beer because most of it is brewed like beer first, then has the alcohol pulled out or capped before it ever gets there. That includes a brand new lineup brewed a few miles from wherever you’re reading this if you’re in Milwaukee.

Fast take: Athletic Brewing, Guinness 0.0, and Heineken 0.0 remain the safest bets for someone who wants something that tastes like the real thing. Eagle Park Brewing’s new Solid State line is the one worth tracking down locally, since it’s the first non-alcoholic beer actually brewed in Milwaukee. Skip anything that tastes like carbonated bread water. That’s still out there.

Non-alcoholic beer, N/A beer, alcohol-free beer, zero-proof beer. Same category, four names, and people search all of them. Here’s what’s actually worth drinking, where a Milwaukee brewery just entered the game, and where to find any of it without driving to three different stores.

Nobody needs a reason to order one. Maybe it’s a Tuesday, and you’re driving. Maybe it’s the whole month. Maybe it’s just what sounded good. The category has finally caught up to that reality, and the beer is better for it.

What “Non-Alcoholic” Actually Means on the Can

In the US, a beer labeled non-alcoholic has to come in under 0.5% ABV. That’s not zero. A ripe banana or a bottle of kombucha can land in a similar range. It’s low enough that it won’t get you buzzed, high enough that brewers can still use real fermentation instead of just stripping flavor out of near-water.

“Alcohol-free” gets used more loosely in the US than it does in Europe, where 0.0% often means an actual zero on the label. For most purposes, treat non-alcoholic, alcohol-free, and N/A beer as the same thing when you’re shopping in the US. The bigger difference is how the beer got to that ABV: brewed and dealcoholized, or brewed to stay low from the start. The second method is why the current generation tastes so much better than the stuff from ten years ago.

The Best Non-Alcoholic Beers to Actually Buy

Every style has a solid N/A version now. Hazy IPA, pale ale, lager, stout, even sours. Here’s a working list, pulled from what’s actually getting poured and reviewed right now.

A few notes on the list. Athletic Brewing and Guinness 0.0 are the two you’ll find at almost any grocery or liquor store with a decent selection, which makes them the reliable default. Eagle Park’s Solid State line is the one that’s actually news right now (more on that below), and it’s worth seeking out specifically because it’s local.

Skip anything that only lists “malt beverage” with no brewery name attached and no style on the can. That’s usually the giveaway for the bottom tier of the category.

Stout and dark beer drinkers have it good too. Guinness 0.0 still pours through a widget for a real cascading, creamy head, more engineering than most people realize goes into a can. If you want something sweeter, look for a dark N/A beer built around chocolate or peanut butter notes rather than a straight stout clone. Wheat and golden ale fans should start with WellBeing Brewing, which built its whole reputation on the style before most breweries had an N/A line at all.

Milwaukee Just Got Its Own Non-Alcoholic Beer, and It’s Not a Gimmick

Eagle Park Brewing launched Solid State, its first non-alcoholic line, in January 2026. Four styles: a hazy IPA, a pale ale, a Mexican lager with lime, and a cran-orange sour, all under 0.5% ABV and all in 12-ounce cans.

Co-owner Jake Schinker put it plainly: “All of these beers are brewed like beer, because they are beer. We didn’t want to make something that felt like a compromise.” That’s the whole pitch, and it tracks with the reviews so far. The Solid State beers were brewed with the same hop bills and fermentation approach as Eagle Park’s regular lineup, not dealcoholized after the fact.

Initial distribution covered Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington counties through Beer Capitol Distributing, with wider distribution planned to follow. If you haven’t seen it on a shelf yet, it’s worth asking for by name at a Milwaukee-area liquor store or grocery with a real craft beer section.

This is exactly the kind of thing worth naming specifically instead of writing around. A Milwaukee brewery making a genuinely good non-alcoholic beer, brewed here and not shipped in from somewhere else, is a better story than another national roundup.

Where to Actually Find It in Milwaukee

Grocery stores and liquor stores with a real craft beer aisle are your best bet for the widest selection (think somewhere that already stocks a lot of Eagle Park, Lakefront, or other local breweries, since those are the same shelves picking up Solid State). Big-box grocery is more hit or miss and tends to stop at Athletic Brewing and maybe Heineken 0.0.

For where to drink it on tap or find it poured somewhere specific, that’s where MockTale is built to help. It’s a searchable directory of bars and restaurants in Milwaukee with a community review layer on top, not a promise that every venue in town has its N/A menu mapped out down to the can. Some spots are fully documented with drink-by-drink detail. Others are still filling in. If a listing looks thin, that’s honest, not broken.

Same goes for mocktails, alcohol-free cocktails, and everything else in the zero-proof lane. A Solid State on tap or a bartender’s own alcohol-free creation gets the same answer here: nobody needs a reason.

FIND IT NEAR YOU WITH MOCKTALE!