The Radeberger Group, Germany's largest brewery group, is sacrificing one of its last principles in view of the difficult situation on the beer market. For decades, Radeberger, the group's flagship brand, was a mono-brand. All the innovations and trends in the beer market were unable to harm Germany's oldest Pilsner beer from near Dresden.
In recent years, other former mono-brands and competitors, such as Krombacher, Bitburger, Becks, Jever and Veltins, have been launching new beer varieties under the umbrella of the main brand, in some cases already for decades, and have been very successful. For the main brand of the Radeberger Group, however, this approach has so far been sacrilegious.
For 150 years, and even more so since the brewery was purchased by the Oetker Group in the early 1990s after the fall of the Iron Curtain, there exists only one Pilsner beer under the Radeberger brand name, and this was also dominantly communicated in advertising.
This is now a thing of the past. From January 2022, there will be also a non-alcoholic Radeberger. To make things less worse, this will be a non-alcoholic Pilsner beer.
Udo Schiedermair, headbrewmaster in Radeberg, is proud of the new beer: "We developed Radeberger Alkoholfrei from scratch, with many trial brews and different hop varieties. What we are presenting today is a non-alcoholic beer with a genuine Pilsner taste and Pilsner appearance: a pleasant Pilsner-typical hop note, a fine, bright white head with a full-bodied finish. As brewers, we're particularly proud of that."
A special highlight is the Callista aroma hops added late in the brewing process, which give Radeberger Alkoholfrei a fruity, fresh note. And another special feature distinguishes the new non-alcoholic Pilsner: The young hop variety is now newly grown by hop farmers in the Elbe-Saale region especially for Radeberger Exportbierbrauerei, which attaches great importance to increasingly sourcing its selected raw materials from the region.
Authentic beer flavor is very important to lovers of non-alcoholic beer. To achieve this, the brewers led by Udo Schiedermair have not only opted for the process of particularly gentle thermal dealcoholization, but also against a 0.0% by volume variant. This is because even the small traces of alcohol in Radeberger Alkoholfrei contribute to the typical Pilsner taste experience, according to a brewery’s press release.
