Most people do not drink beer for its health benefits, but that could soon change with the growing market of non-alcoholic beer. One Massachusetts man is betting on it.
Former South Hadley High School culinary arts and hospitality instructor Ezra Bleau is all in on the non-alcoholic beer trend. He recently left behind a career in education to pursue one in the craft beer industry after a medical suggestion from his doctor.
“I decided to stop drinking based off of my doctor’s medical advice,” said Bleau.
The Holyoke resident says his doctors thought he might have Multiple Sclerosis and suggested he cut out dairy and animal proteins from his diet. Still having issues, they suggested cutting out alcohol next.
It turns out Bleau doesn’t have MS, but cutting out alcohol from his diet has improved the symptoms he was experiencing and his life overall, he says.
But he quickly realized there was a void left behind from the role a beverage such as beer plays in people’s lives — like socialization, for instance — and he wanted to figure out how to fix it.
“As a home brewer and enjoyer of craft beer, the biggest thing I was missing was that kind of beverage,” he said. “Not the sodas, not iced tea, not the water — that beverage that you have with a meal that complements it really nice — that’s what I was missing.”
So, Bleau decided to give non-alcoholic beer a try.
After trying many of the alcohol-free beers, Bleau began to notice a trend: the beers were often expensive and not very good.
He looked at non-alcoholic beer’s market performance in the U.S. — in 2016, it was $26 million in sales and just three years later, $151 million in 2019 — and decided he was going to hop into the business of alcohol-free beer.
With experts predicting that the market for non-alcoholic beer is going to surpass $5B by 2023, that seems to have been a good idea.
But Bleau wants to take a different approach to the non-alcoholic beer business. He wants to shift the way consumers think about beer and how they drink it.
Bleau says there are plenty of health benefits to drinking beer, albeit the kind without the alcohol.
“When we just look at the beer itself, beer has so many good health benefits behind it,” said Bleau. “You have potassium, magnesium, you have all the antioxidants. You have a fermented beverage, so you have these kind of like kombucha aspects of it, but in a different kind of flavor compound. Non-alcoholic beer’s full of health benefits that are great for you in general, and it’s hydrating, rather than the alcoholic version which is really dehydrating.”
Along with the physical side effects of alcohol, there are many mental side effects, too, says Bleau.
“Alcohol is technically a depressant,” he says. “So when we’re ingesting a depressant all the time, we aren’t our best persons. We don’t have the best feelings about ourselves, so that’s a big issue, too. But with a non-alcoholic beverage, you’re adding more hydration into your life, you’re adding more antioxidants, magnesium, potassium, electrolytes. It’s really more of a health benefit that way.”
With all of this in mind, Bleau decided to launch Na Brews, an online e-commerce marketplace for non-alcoholic beers. While the company is online only right now, Bleau and an intern are running the show from an office located at 120 Front St. in Holyoke.
The company is currently selling non-alcoholic beers from popular breweries including Athletic Brewing Co., Grüvi, Partake, Brewdog and more. But Bleau has ambitious goals to design mobile systems that will allow the company to go to independent brewers and convert its alcoholic beer to non-alcoholic beer through a reverse osmosis process. The brewery would sell that new beer on tap and Na Brews would sell cans of it on its website.
The company launched a Kickstarter campaign to acquire capital to purchase the equipment needed to build the mobile de-alcoholization systems. As of the writing of this article, it’s reached $3,371 of its $43,561 goal.
“Our Kickstarter is both marketing, and actually funding for our investment into our design and production of our de-alcoholization system,” he says. “And with that, we’re trying to raise $43,561 to be able to give us that boost of capital so we can start producing with independent brewers.”
But Bleau says Na Brews will go ahead with the purchasing of equipment to build the systems if they achieve that Kickstarter goal or not. Depending on if they hit the goal or not, Bleau says they plan to have at least one truck with the mobile de-alcoholization system up and running in time for spring or summer.
Next, the company would find independent breweries to collaborate with to create non-alcoholic beer.
“Alcohol is a very interesting substance,” said Bleau. “It disperses differently on your tongue, so it does affect the taste a little, but what happens is we work with the breweries to create different recipes that lend themselves very well to non-alcoholic products. For instance, like sours, IPAs are really great for non-alcoholic beers. So, you’re looking for beers that have that bite already to it. And that gives you that kind of a bite in the finished product.”
Non-alcoholic beer has the ability to change our social paradigm and re-think our relationship with alcohol, Bleau says. And with more beverage options, instead of people feeling obliged to drink an alcoholic drink for the sake of socialization, they might be more likely to choose a non-alcoholic drink that they prefer taste-wise, he says.
“By having all of these different options, now you can choose very easily and not have any kind of negative connotation because they’re still having a really good quality craft beverage without that penalty box feeling of, “Oh, I’m drinking this because I don’t want to drink rum or beer or I have a problem or I have a medical issue.”
More options can make more situations inclusive, too, Bleau says.
“There’s a large portion of the United States that only drinks two alcoholic drinks a week,” he said. “So, we’re thinking about every kind of occasion that they’re at. Where they’re not choosing to drink an alcoholic beverage but they’re choosing to drink soda, tea, or water. Now, we can give them an option that will also increase sales for a restaurant or a bar or brewery, so that they’re still feeling included.”
As COVID restrictions are lifting and people begin to come out of quarantine, the transition to non-alcoholic beer for a lot of people will be easy and make sense, Bleau says.
“I think we’re gonna have a lot of individuals, taking onto a non-alcoholic beer scene a lot faster ... just based off of the metrics of how everyone’s been kind of purchasing non-alcoholic beer at home and off-premises sales,” he said. “So, I think we’re gonna see that happening in the restaurants and the bars and the weddings, and the recreational aspects.”
Na Brews is currently offering $20 buy-in pledges for folks to be part of the world’s largest collaboratively brewed beer, Bleau says. Folks that buy-in will have the ability to vote in polls online to weigh in on everything from the hops and style of the beer to the design of the can, which will also feature everyone’s name.
Bleau says he’s in contact with Guiness World Records to confirm the beer will be the world’s largest collaboratively brewed beer.
“It’s pretty exciting stuff,” Bleau said. “So, that’s kind of like our kind of showcase in the world that non-alcoholic beers are here, and we’re starting this revolution that a lot of individuals are going to be able to partake in.”
Ezra Bleau of Holyoke has started the e-commerce business Na Brews to revolutionize the craft beer industry with non-alcoholic beer. (Submitted photo)
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Ezra Bleau and his Holyoke company Na Brews want to start a non-alcoholic beer revolution; Here’s how they’re - MassLive.com
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