Low and no-alcohol beers have increased in popularity in recent years, with Britons consuming a record 18.2 million liters in this category over the past year. Sales in the past 12 months across the category are up by 20% in value and 17% in volume, according to figures from Nielsen.
The upcoming launch was made as part of AB InBev’s eighth annual Global Be(er) Responsible Day, which promotes smart drinking among the brewer’s staff and its consumers.
The brewer has already pledged for low and no alcohol beers to make up 20% of its global beer volumes by 2025. The launch of Budweiser Prohibition marks the continuing expansion of this portfolio in the UK, which already includes alcohol-free beer Beck’s Blue and Bud Light (3.5% ABV), America’s number one beer brand, which arrived in the UK in March 2017.
The name ‘Prohibition’ comes from US brewing history, with the first batches produced during the US Prohibition era in the 1920s, where a nationwide constitution ban was imposed on the production, transportation and consumption of alcoholic beverages.
“The alcohol-free beer is brewed to the same recipe, Beechwood-aging process and exacting standards as Budweiser, only without the alcohol,” says AB InBev.
Prohibition was initially introduced in Canada in May last year, and is also available in Ukraine.