‘Healthy’ low-alcohol beers could be packed with sugar – with some containing as much as 10 times the amount as full-bodied versions, study finds

For anyone who’s been nursing a sore head over the past few days, the thought of low-alcohol beer may be a more enticing one than usual.

However, while sales of the drinks have been booming among increasingly health-conscious consumers, a survey by the Mail has discovered that they might still leave a sour taste in the mouth as far as their ‘benefits’ are concerned.

For while low-alcohol and zero-alcohol drinks typically contain less than half the calories of their full-bodied versions, some contain up to ten times the sugar.

Our study found that, while a regular can of beer such as BrewDog IPA contains negligible amounts of sugar, alcohol-free versions from the same brewery can have 6g per 330ml can or bottle – the equivalent of a teaspoon and a half of sugar.

Old Speckled Hen Low Alcohol, meanwhile, contains 2g of sugar per 100ml, compared with just 0.2g in its regular equivalent. 

Faye Thompson, a nutritional therapist, said: ‘Reducing alcohol is great, but the pay-off in switching to non-alcoholic beer is the higher sugar content.

‘Sugar is the real culprit, not fat, when it comes to weight gain.’

Ms Thompson, of Lift Nutrition in Manchester, said drinkers should check the labels for sugar content. 

Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5 per cent, for example contains just 0.1g of sugar per 100ml, she said, while Big Drop Paradiso has less than 0.5g. Brewers said the varying sugar contents were the result of the different processes used to produce low alcohol beer.

Johnny Clayton, of Big Drop, said: ‘In a full strength beer, the alcohol is formed by the yeast eating the sugar extracted from the malted barley. This turns into alcohol via fermentation. With some low alcohol beers brands an excess of sugar does not get converted and remains after fermentation. We do it differently.’