Life in Germany: Drinking Alcohol-Free Beer

Note: If you want to head to the conclusion, see the last 2 sections of the article "Should I drink Non-Alcoholic Beer or Not" and "Which NA Beer Should One Opt For".  

Forewords

Being a practicing Muslim, I totally refrain from Alcohol and even strictly keep an eye on the ingredients of various edible products. Now there was a case, when I came across this Alcohol-free Beer. It seemed really interesting. So I tried it once and kind of liked it. Then, one fine morning, I came to know that this kind of beer, sometimes called "Near Beer" or "Low Alcoholic beer" is made in a manner that you make alcoholic beer or wine first, and then remove the alcohol. This is done by simply distilling the beverage as if you were going to make liquor but instead you extract a beverage by distilling the fermented liquor. 

There are two way to remove Alcohol out of the beer. The first process is called Vacuum Distillation. The beer or wine is put under a vacuum. The change in atmospheric pressure allows the producer to boil the liquids at a lower temperature, or in some cases with no heat at all, and distill off the alcohol.
The second way is called Reverse Osmosis which is the actually the same method which is used to purify drinking water. Here, rather than heating, the wine or beer is passed through a filter with minute pores, so small that only alcohol and water can pass through.

Having said that, these, so called “Non-alcoholic”, beverages still contain some traces of alcohol, because it is difficult to get every single bit of Alcohol out of it. Although there are certain other ways but these are too expensive for commercial use. For that reason, there has been a legislation around the world, for instance, under US federal laws, a beverage containing up to half a percent of alcohol by volume is called a Non-Alcoholic beer.  

So the fact of the matter is that the people, like us, who opt not to consume alcohol, cannot even go for  non-alcoholic version of beer. Since 10 glasses of such beer would be equal to the normal beer. Likewise, it may not help prevent Alcoholism. 

Now after that I needed to see a Fatwa i.e. Islamic law, as well, that would clarify this matter. For Shia Muslims Ayatollah Sistani has a very clear stance on that     

"Question :What is your opinion about the beer (Maa al-Sha'eir) which is sold on the market normally with a label that reads "alcohol free".

Answer :The drink that is made from barley and called "Fuqa' in Arabic is definitely forbidden and ritually impure as an obligatory precaution. This drink is not intoxicant normally but it makes one feel tipsy; that is a state of slight drunkenness caused apparently by low percentage of alcohol in the liquid.

Therefore, if a drink is produced alcohol free in the first place and it is not called "Fuqa" (beer), there is no problem, or else, it is forbidden even if alcohol is separated from it. God knows best!"

The last part of the response, makes it further clear that if the Alcohol content is distilled in the later process, even then beer is forbidden.  

Non-Alcoholic Beer in Iran and Saudi-Arabia

Well my research did not end here. Since to my knowledge, in 2003, the non-alcoholic version of Baltika No. 0 i.e. Russia's most popular beer, was specially certified by Iranian officials for sale (which actually raised many eyebrows in Pakistan). Secondly Iran itself has a version of Non-Alcoholic beer. Thirdly, I also came to know that in large general stores of Saudi Arabia, non-alcoholic beer is also sold which is actually quite popular among the youth.  

So I started to probe further that how this beer is different from the distilled beer. Here the following video makes it clear. Just watch from 3:50, it is said that here the beer is made without the fermentation.  

So according to my naive conclusion, if the later process of fermentation is not performed on the beer then it is non-alcoholic. In fact it should not be called "beer" at all since it does not qualify for being a beer. Have a look at brewing process if you are still interested. 

Should I Drink Non-Alcoholic Beer or Not:

As I mentioned earlier that the Alcohol-free beer is not fermented in the first place, therefore, it does not need to be distilled. Such a non-alcoholic beer contains 0% Alcohol content which makes it a permissible drink by Islamic laws as well.

Which NA Beer Should One Opt for?

Now the million dollar question of which NA Beer to choose and which to avoid.  For that I came across certain brands that are often available in stores and restaurants that cater to the needs of public in Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran. Holsten (also now known as Carlsberg) is one such brand that produces the beer in this manner and I think one can think of trying Holsten's Alcohol-free beer as it is also available in Germany. Other brands are Barbican and Moussy. Such types of beer are often available with added flavors such as apple, strawberry, and peach.

Finally I would like to quote a verse from Quran i.e. from Chapter 2, verse 168:

 يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ ۚ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ

O ye people! Eat of what is on earth, Lawful and good; and do not follow the footsteps of the evil one, for he is to you an avowed enemy.