Health by stealth: the rise of drinkable no- and low-alcohol beer
As the last of the liqueur bottles are consigned to the recycling and the festive hangovers subside, even those of us who scorn the very concept of Dry January (no booze at all? In the gloomiest month of the year? Are they mad?) tend to take our feet off the alcohol pedal and give our livers something of a rest.The Guardian’s journalism is independent.We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.Learn more.Water, of course, is the easiest, cheapest and probably most effective way to detox; it’s also the most boring.
We can zap our inner organs with herbal infusions, turmeric/kale/spirulina shots and smoothies, or with the fermented goodness of kombuchas and kefirs, but sometimes the mindful drinking halo of virtue can become too heavy to bear and we want something that feels like a “real” drink,You know, the one at the end of the day when you deserve something cheering, or when you meet your mates in some scuzzy pub or swanky wine bar, and you want a drink for relaxation and pleasure, but still steer clear of the hooch,Booze-free beer is your friend here, and the choice has never been greater,Fortunately, we have come a long way since the days of Barbican, the UK’s first non-alcoholic beer launched by Bass in 1979, and a sad, bitter apology for a lager,Most nolo beer (meaning it has at most a 0.
5% ABV) is brewed to normal strength, and the ethanol is then removed, either by vacuum distillation or reverse osmosis,This dealcoholisation can be brutal, though, because it also strips out alcohol-soluble flavour and aroma compounds, as well as ethanol’s mouth-filling texture,But now, with the popularity of nolo drinks skyrocketing, investment in R&D has led to leaps in both technology and quality,Even so, these new methods are very expensive, which is why most nolo beers have until recently remained in the hands of the big producers,What’s exciting many brewers now, though, especially small-scale craft operations, is the introduction of cheap, hybridised yeast strains that ferment just a small percentage of the sugars in the mash, so leaving a very low ABV.
These, coupled with new biotech products that add aromas, flavours and mouthfeel, make the new generation of nolo beers much more, well, beery.Some new producers such as Impossibrew go a step further, adding so-called “functional” nootropic ingredients designed to recreate the feelings of relaxation and “beer buzz” that we get after a pint or two.Who cares if their efficacy is merely auto-suggestive? The beers taste good and are at the very least a stimulating topic of pub chat.Having said that, be aware that nolo beers are susceptible to bacterial contamination, so it’s best to stick to cans or bottles, rather than on draught in a grubby bar.Bottoms up, Britain, boozy or not.
Happy 2026.Yop Rock £3.50 (440ml) Bluntrock Brewery, 0.5%.Zippy, lemony-fresh lager with a whiff of salty sea spray.
Delicious.Cask Reserve Amber £34 (10 x 440ml cans) Impossibrew, 0.5%.Rich and malty with a well-balanced bitterness; wintry and very moreish.Big Drop Brewing Co Pine Trail Pale Ale £1.
80 (330ml) Ocado, 0,5%,Fruity, hoppy, slightly floral pale ale from an award-winning nolo brewery,Guinness Draught 0,0% About £5.
50 (4 x 440ml cans), widely available.Not quite as satisfying as the original, but pretty close.A reliable cornershop option.For more, read the Filter’s guide to the best low- and no-alcohol drinks
Senior Labour MPs urge government to ban cryptocurrency political donations
Downing Street has been urged to ban political donations in cryptocurrency by seven senior Labour MPs who chair parliamentary committees.The committee chairs – Liam Byrne, Emily Thornberry, Tan Dhesi, Florence Eshalomi, Andy Slaughter, Chi Onwurah and Matt Western – called on the government to introduce a full ban in the forthcoming elections bill amid concern that cryptocurrency could be used by foreign states to influence politics.Government sources told the Guardian last year that ministers are looking at ways to ban political donations made with cryptocurrency but the crackdown is not likely to be ready for the elections bill due early this year.Byrne said the committee chairs are concerned political finance “must be transparent, traceable and enforceable” but crypto donations undermine all three.“Crypto can obscure the true source of funds, enable thousands of micro donations below disclosure thresholds, and expose UK politics to foreign interference,” he said
Mandelson praises Trump’s ‘graciousness’ and declines to apologise for friendship with Jeffrey Epstein – as it happened
Laura Kuenssberg asks Peter Mandelson if he liked Donald Trump when he was the UK ambassador to Washington.Mandelson says he did like Trump, listing off numerous reasons why, but said he did not like all of his “language”.I like him, yes, I liked his humour, his graciousness…I liked his directness. You knew exactly what he was thinking and where you stood and what he wanted. And how he was proposing to engage, with you
UK wants any transition of power in Iran to be peaceful, says minister
The UK wants any transition of power in Iran to be peaceful, a cabinet minister has said, after Donald Trump said he could support protesters with military force.As the US weighs the option of military strikes, Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, said she would not be drawn on America’s foreign policy towards Iran, where protests have been met with a violent police response.She told Sky News Iran was a hostile state that posed a security threat in the Middle East and repressed its own people, adding: “The priority, as of today, is to try and stem the violence that is happening in Iran at the moment.”Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, went further in saying she would “not have an issue” with seeing the Iranian regime removed and that it could be right for the US and its allies to be involved in that process.She told the BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “Iran would very happily wipe out the UK if it felt it could get away with it
Sir Patrick Duffy obituary
The former Labour minister Sir Patrick Duffy, who has died aged 105, was one of his party’s foremost experts on defence and disarmament during the cold war and its immediate aftermath. It was his misfortune that 19 years of his quarter of a century as a Labour MP were spent on the opposition benches, although he had the gratification of 13 years as a member of the Nato parliamentary assembly, of which he served as president for two years from 1988.Duffy first stood for parliament in Tiverton, Devon, in 1950, and was successfully elected as an MP on his fourth attempt at a byelection in the Colne Valley, West Yorkshire, in 1963.He was an economist by training and entered the House of Commons in midlife, after an eventful career during the second world war in the Royal Navy and subsequently as an academic in Britain and the US. His experience made him an Atlanticist and a fervent European for most of his life, although in 2016 he supported Brexit on the grounds that the eurozone had made the EU no longer practical
Zarah Sultana’s Your Party membership launch may be ‘criminal’ matter for police, ICO says
Zarah Sultana’s unauthorised launch of a Your Party membership portal may have been “serious criminal activity” and should be referred to the police, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has advised.Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project (PJP), which referred Your Party to the information watchdog last September over a potential data breach, has been advised by the ICO that it should consider “taking further action” regarding the matter, after deciding it was not a matter for them.An extraordinary split opened up between Corbyn and Sultana in September after an email was sent to 800,000 people on Your Party’s mailing list, urging them to become paying members for £55. Sultana revealed the new membership portal on X, urging supporters to “be a part of history”, and reassured her followers that the membership site was “safe and secure”, encouraging them to keep trying to sign up despite “issues due to such high traffic”.Later the same day, Corbyn issued an “urgent message” telling his followers on X to ignore the “unauthorised” site and said “legal advice is being taken”
Reform UK accused of betraying election pledges after council tax rises
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has been accused of betraying election promises to cut council tax after several councils it controls said they planned to increase rates close to the maximum allowed.They include Kent county council – the party’s flagship local authority and one viewed by it as the “shop window” for what a Reform-led government would look like – which has proposed an increase of 3.99%.Four other county councils controlled by the party – Derbyshire, North Northamptonshire, West Northamptonshire and Leicestershire – have also all proposed 5% council tax rises, the maximum permitted by law.Derbyshire county council earlier this week confirmed the rise after predicting a £38m gap in its budget, with overspends in children’s social care and adult social care
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