Anheuser-Busch beer sales are down. Its non-alcoholic options are on the rise

Growing demand

Nonalcoholic beer has gone mainstream. Budweiser Zero is the official beer of the seventh-inning cutoff time at baseball games in Canada, and Corona Cero will be featured as a leading global Worldwide Olympic Partner brand.

But A-B recently reported that it would not meet its 2025 target of 20% of the company's total beer volume being no- and low-alcohol beer, a plan it announced almost a decade ago.

In 2023, less than 7% of its global beer volume was brands with less than 3.5% alcohol by volume. A-B brands Michelob Ultra and Bud Light each have an ABV of 4.2%.

Local bartenders have found that nonalcoholic cocktails are gaining popularity and say such options are becoming fixtures on bar menus.

"It's here to stay," said Giselle Brooks, manager of Hidden Gem, a disco bar on Locust Street in Midtown St. Louis. "I wouldn't even call it a trend."

The Vandy, a craft cocktail bar on South Vandeventer in St. Louis, has a cocktail menu that includes a gimlet made with zero-proof gin and an old fashioned with zero-proof bourbon and spiritless Kentucky 74. Most people aren't exclusively opting for nonalcoholic beverages, but an increasing number of customers are ordering a mix of both alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks, said Patrick Gioia, the bar's beverage director.

"The demand is only increasing. More people are coming in and asking for nonalcoholic cocktails," Gioia said. "Restaurants or bars that don't have some form of nonalcoholic option are leaving money on the table."

Gioia said nonalcoholic beer is more familiar to customers than alcohol-free spirits or wine because it has been around for almost three decades, while mocktails were almost unheard of five years ago.

Courtney Cothren, an associate teaching professor in the marketing department at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said health-conscious consumers are normalizing nonalcoholic beverages.

"People are thinking about their bodies and what goes into them," Cothren said. "I think if people continue to focus on health and they like the taste, (nonalcoholic) beverages will continue as a trend. It may drop or plateau, but it will be a larger share than when it started."