Alcohol-free beer is gaining popularity, even at Oktoberfest

Associated Press

MUNICH (AP) — Alcohol-free beer has been gaining popularity in recent years as beer consumption shrinks. At Weihenstephan, the world’s oldest brewery in Germany, non-alcoholic wheat beer and lager now make up 10% of volume. The increase over the last few years, since they started making alcohol-free drinks in the 1990s, mirrors the statistics for the rest of Germany’s beer industry. At Oktoberfest this year, all but two of the 18 large tents at the festival offer the drink.