Consumption of non-alcoholic beers in Helsinki metropolitan area

The trend of non-alcoholic beers has grown during the last years. Non-alcoholic beer is brewed like a beer, but the alcohol has been removed during the process. It may contain up to 0,05 % of alcohol. There are several health issues related to non-alcoholic beers compared to consuming regular beer, such as less calories, increase in sleep quality, decrease in anxiety and enhanced production of breast milk. The trend has grown globally as well. The Finnish alcohol retailer Alko has 17 different non-alcoholic beers in their selection. The research was conducted in the autumn 2018 as a quantitative questionnaire by using the Webropol online tool. The main research question was to find out what kind of people consumed non-alcoholic beers in Helsinki metropolitan area. With that a consumer profile was created to help breweries and restaurants understand their potential customers better. The sub-research questions were why they consumed non-alcoholic beers and what brands and products they preferred. These research questions helped to understand what qualities consumers liked in the non-alcoholic beers, so the products could be developed to fit in better to the consumers’ taste. The responses to the survey were collected through Facebook groups. Originally the survey was thought to be published in six different groups both to each cities’ local Facebook groups as well as groups related to beer. This way both local consumers as well consumers who know about beer could be reached. The survey was only allowed to be published in groups “Helsinki hotelli- ja ravintola-alan sisäpiiri”, “Olutliitto – kuluttajan asialla”, ”Puskaradio Helsinki” and ”Puskaradio Grani”. The survey got 342 responses within few days, from which 313 were qualified to the research. The rest had not tasted non-alcoholic beers nor lived in Helsinki metropolitan area. The average non-alcoholic beer consumer in Helsinki metropolitan area is as follows: a higher educated middle-aged male living in Helsinki city, who has at least one child and he earns quite averagely. He drinks beer on average twice a week, but only takes one or two doses. He consumes non-alcoholic beer at least once a month. He enjoys it best when going to sauna or with food. To him non-alcoholic beer works as a replacement for alcoholic beverages. He trusts his own experiences when choosing the product. He buys non-alcoholic beer from a grocery store if he needs to avoid getting drunk or in general do not want to have alcohol. He would drink more non-alcoholic beers if the variety of selection would be wider and if they tasted more like regular beer. He has not experienced health benefits of consuming non-alcoholic beers, most likely because he is lacking the knowledge on them. Heineken 0,0 % was the most preferred product, and Finnish Lapin Kulta Zero 0,0 % Vaalea the least liked. In general, the product studied were not so much thought to be worth the money. Some did not like the taste, because it did not taste like a regular beer. The variety in the selection of the products were wished to be wider with more different types of beers. For the future the health benefits of consuming non-alcoholic beer should be studied further with longer tracking periods and with larger scale. When more reliable data will be reached, it should be brought to the attention of the consumers. There should be find ways to get females to consume more non-alcoholic beers. That could be done for example by bringing awareness of the health benefits to the marketing of the products