The 17 Best Non-Alcoholic Beers for Dry January

What We Like: It’s an exact dupe of a real-thing IPA — head retention, taste, mouthfeel and look. Thanks to an impeccable use of Mosiac, Simcoe and Centennial hops, Flying Dog has gotten closer than any other brewery to making an NA beer that can stand side-by-side to a regular one.

Watch Out For: Deep Fake is apparently an NA version of the brewery’s Dog Deep IPA. We haven’t compared the two side-by-side, but it could be a fun blind taste test experiment.

• Calories: 39
• ABV: Less than 0.5 percent

What We Like: One of our best new beers of 2022, Athletic has made a name for itself as one of the best non-alcoholic breweries in the world. Athletic Lite is a crisp light NA beer that combines a rice and malt base with noble hops for a next-to-Pilsner drinking experience.

Watch Out For: It might not be the Athletic NA beer you can find at your local, but it’s readily available online.

• Calories: 25
• ABV: Less than 0.5 percent

What We Like: One of the new kids on the block, Athletic Brewing Co. only makes NAs, and Free Way Double Hop IPA is the best of the bunch. It’s bursting with tropical hop notes and finishes with just the right amount of bitterness.

Watch Out For: Free Way Double Hop IPA is harder to find than Athletic’s other offerings, Run Wild IPA (70 calories) and Upside Dawn Golden Ale (50 calories). It also has more calories.

• Calories: 80
• ABV: Less than 0.5 percent

What We Like: Crisp and refreshing with a great mouthfeel, Al's isn't just a good non-alcoholic beer. It's a good beer, period. If you don't like the IPAs or just want something different in your non-alcoholic rotation, this European-style lager is one to try. Plus, each can only contains 54 calories.

Watch Out For: Al's isn't readily available in stores, so you'll need to order it online when you want a fix. While shipping is quick, it isn't free unless the company is running the occasional promo.

• Calories: 54
• ABV: Less than 0.5 percent

What We Like: It’s not even close. With a good head and subtle notes of sweet chocolate and roasted coffee, Bravus’s award-winning Oatmeal Stout blows every other NA dark beer out of the water.

Watch Out For: Like many other NA beers, this beer is a little watery. If you like Guinness, give it a shot. If you want a full-bodied dark beer to knock you on your ass, you’re reading the wrong list.

• Calories: 105
• ABV: Less than 0.5 percent

What We Like: Special Effects is the complete package: it successfully tightropes the line between malty and hoppy, and it has the best mouthfeel of any NA beer on this list or otherwise.

Watch Out For: The can says “hoppy brew” but don’t mistake it for an IPA. With notes of black tea and caramel, Special Effects tastes more like an amber lager than any sort of ale.

• Calories: 95
• ABV: Less than 0.5 percent

What We Like: This beverage may not taste like a beer, but it doesn’t try to, either; it’s a lightly carbonated black tea made with Simcoe and Citra hops. It’s delicious.

Watch Out For: Drinking at night? Every 16-ounce can has 70 mg of caffeine. (Check out one of HopLark’s other flavors, The Calm One, which has no caffeine.)

• Calories: 0
• ABV: 0.0 percent

What We Like: Another new import from Mikkeller, Drink’in the Sun looks to citrusy wheat ales for inspiration. It’s light in both color and mouthfeel, and you’ll probably want to drink a whole 6-pack when the weather’s right.

Watch Out For: Drink’in the Sun is so light and refreshing, it could pass as a seltzer. Is that really a knock? You decide.

• Calories: 73
• ABV: 0.3 percent

What We Like: Crisp, clean, a little grassy, just a touch spicy — this is no ordinary lager, it's a full-on Pilsner. And proof in a can that NAs can be just as quaffable and elegant as their alcoholic counterparts.

Watch Out For: Like with some of the more refined options on our list, distribution is limited. It’s available for pickup at the brewery, located in the small hamlet of Garnerville, NY, and at select bottle shops online.

• Calories: 80
• ABV: 0.5 percent

What We Like: Credit where it’s due. Compared to other NAs in its weight class — Clausthaller, Heineken, Beck’s — O’Doul’s was crisp, dry and refreshing, not cloyingly sweet and artificially malty.

Watch Out For: Forget about complexity. Old-fashioned O’Doul’s is what you drink when you’re thirsty, not curious.

• Calories: 65
• ABV: 0.4 percent

What We Like: Partake’s brews offer an impressive amount of flavor considering the simplicity of the ingredients (water, barley, hops, yeast) and number of calories in each can. The Pale Ale, at just ten calories, is floral and hoppy with delicate hints of lemon peel.

Watch Out For: This brew really puts the pale in pale ale. If you like your brews hoppy and bitter (think: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale), look elsewhere.

• Calories: 10
• ABV: Less than 0.5 percent

What We Like: It just won the 2022 best non-alcoholic beer at the Great American Beer Festival. If you’re looking for a hazy NA replacement, this is probably the closest beer you’ll find — and find it you should as it’s distributed across the Sam Adams footprint.

Watch Out For: The hazy IPA style has a tendency to sometimes produce off-flavors and hop burn (alcoholic or non-alcoholic). It’s more a testament to Just The Haze hitting the style so damn close than an indictment.

• Calories: 98
• ABV: Less than 0.5 percent

What We Like: Suntory's All-Free is a near beer that's like a seltzer with beer-like properties. It uses hops to give the brew aromas and a bitterness like your favorite beer, but there is absolutely zero alcohol. In essence, All-Free is like a cereal seltzer that's light, crisp and refreshing.

Watch Out For: Don't go into this thinking you're about to have full-beer flavor. Enter All-Free with the expectation that it's a seltzer mimicking a beer and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

• Calories: 0
• ABV: 0.0 percent

What We Like: Unlike Samuel Adams Just the Haze, Two Roots's take on a hazy IPA better balances the tightrope between sweet and bitter. It's a great option when you're craving something juicy.

Watch Out For: Two Roots isn't as readily available as Samuel Adams, so you'll need to head to a specialty store to find it. It also packs 120 calories per can — on the higher end of the NA spectrum.

• Calories: 120
• ABV: Less than 0.5 percent

What We Like: For someone looking for a near-beer that doesn’t taste like a beer, Mango Cart NA should be on your radar. Mango smoothie-like flavors and consistency make this one a nice mix-up.

Watch Out For: Not the easiest to get your hands on.

• Calories: 100
• ABV: 0.3 percent

What We Like: Another worthy offering from Brooklyn Brewery, this West Coast IPA alternative is bright and floral with just a hint of bitter hoppiness.

Watch Out For: It’s up for debate whether this or Special Effects Amber is the best NA offering from Brooklyn Brewery.

• Calories: Less than 100
• ABV: 0.4 percent

What We Like: If you yearn for an NA version of a West Coast IPA then look no further than Karbach Brewing. Utilizing Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe and more hop variants, this one finds a nice balance between the caramel malt base and grapefruit hop notes (without going too bitter).

Watch Out For: Unless you’re in Karbach’s distribution network (they’re a regional brewery out of Houston, TX), you’ll have to try to find it online somewhere.

• Calories: 64
• ABV: 0.5 percent