What Is Craft Beer (And Why Does It Cost More)
There is no legal definition of craft beer in Europe. No EU regulation governs what the term means. What most people actually mean when they say it is a philosophy: small-batch production, independent ownership, and a brewer who makes decisions based on flavour rather than cost efficiency.
A Philosophy, Not a Label
Craft · Independent · Flavour-Driven
Every European country frames it differently. The Dutch say "speciaalbier." The French distinguish between "brasseries artisanales" and "brasseries craft." Germany has the Reinheitsgebot, a purity law with legal force since 1516, restricting beer labelled "Bier" to water, barley, hops, and yeast. It guarantees a quality floor by banning cheap adjuncts, but also rules out fruit beers, experimental sours, and styles that define craft elsewhere.
Underneath the vocabulary, the principles are consistent. Craft brewers use named hop varieties instead of commodity extract. Specialty malts instead of rice or corn syrup fillers. They brew in smaller batches, ferment longer, and accept shorter shelf lives because they skip pasteurisation and preservatives.
These same principles determine whether an alcohol-free beer is worth drinking. Remove the alcohol from a well-brewed beer and you taste the craft behind it. Tropical hops, roasted malt, a clean dry finish. Remove it from an industrial lager and there is nothing left to taste.
Where It Started
Britain · 1971 · Real Ale
The craft beer movement began in Britain, not the United States. By the early 1970s, most British pubs served the same mass-produced lager under different names. Regional breweries were disappearing into conglomerates. In 1971, four men founded the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) to fight for traditional cask ales. It reshaped what British pubs served and proved consumers would pay more for beer made with care.
That idea crossed borders. Throughout the 1980s, European brewers trained in England and returned home with small-scale techniques. The first French craft brewery opened in 1985 in Brittany. The American craft wave came later, building on these foundations with characteristic scale and marketing. Britain also became an early pioneer in alcohol-free craft, developing dealcoholisation methods that preserved the complexity of full-strength recipes.
Across Europe
Four Countries · Four Traditions
Belgium. The country that never needed a craft revolution. Trappist ales, lambics, gueuze, witbier, saisons. These styles predate the modern movement by generations. Belgium's mastery of complex fermentation translates directly into producing alcohol-free beers with genuine depth and character.
Germany. Nearly 1,500 breweries and one of the deepest regional traditions on earth: Kölsch in Cologne, Rauchbier in Bamberg, Weizen across Bavaria. By most definitions, these have always been craft. Small, independent, quality-driven. For alcohol-free brewing, German technical precision shows. Some of the most accomplished alcohol-free lagers and wheat beers on the market come from German brewers who have been perfecting these styles for generations.
Netherlands. For most of the twentieth century, the Netherlands was a lager monoculture. The craft revival started in 1981 with the first new brewery since World War II. By 2015, the country had one of the highest brewery-per-capita counts in Europe. No dominant tradition, just a willingness to experiment. Breweries like VandeStreek and Uiltje now apply that same ethos to alcohol-free IPAs and hop-forward pale ales.
France. The latecomer that caught up fast. Fewer than 200 breweries in 2010. Over 1,600 by 2020, a sevenfold increase giving France the highest brewery count in Europe. Hotspots include Paris, Lyon, Brittany, Montpellier, and Alsace. The alcohol-free segment is growing in step, with consumers seeking bières sans alcool that match craft quality.
Why It Costs More (And Why It's Worth It)
Ingredients · Scale · Process
Craft beer costs more because it costs more to make. Specialty hops like Citra, Mosaic, and Galaxy run several times the price of commodity varieties. Brewing in small batches absorbs fixed costs across a fraction of the volume of an industrial operation. No pasteurisation means shorter shelf life. No preservatives means tighter logistics.
For alcohol-free craft beer, add dealcoholisation on top. An additional process that requires specialised equipment and expertise. Removing alcohol while keeping flavour is technically harder than brewing with it.
Put differently: nobody hesitates to pay fifteen euros for a bottle of wine. A craft beer at three euros thirty per can is cheaper per serving than most wines, spirits, or coffees. The real question is not why craft costs more. It is what corners were cut to make the cheap beer cheap.
What We Look For
This is what guides how we curate. Every beer in our selection comes from an independent European brewery that treats alcohol-free as a craft discipline, not an afterthought. We taste before we stock. We look for brewers who use the same ingredients and processes for their alcohol-free range as for their full-strength beers.
The result is beer that tastes like beer. Hop aroma, malt body, a finish that makes you want the next sip. That is what craft means, whether the ABV reads 5% or 0.0%.
Sources & Links
1. Beer Studies. "The Craft Beer Revolution in Europe." beer-studies.com, 2023. (CAMRA founding 1971, Peter Austin, first French craft brewery 1985)
2. Swinnen, J. & Emmers, R. "The Craft Beer Revolution: An International Perspective." Choices Magazine, AAEA, 2017. (Netherlands 1981, brewery-per-capita data, global timeline)
3. Wikipedia. "Reinheitsgebot." (1516 origins, Vorläufiges Biergesetz, 2005 court ruling on labelling)
4. Fortune. "Reinheitsgebot, Germany's Purity Law, Still Shapes Global Beer." 23 Apr. 2016. (Innovation debate, craft brewing response)
5. All About Beer. "Drinking Dutch." allaboutbeer.com. (Netherlands lager monoculture, 90% pilsner market share, Belgian influence on Dutch craft revival)
6. Oxford Companion to Beer. "Belgium." Via Beer & Brewing, beerandbrewing.com. (Belgian brewing traditions, Trappist heritage)
7. ByFood / TripAdvisor. "A Hoppy Walk! Craft Beer in Montpellier." 2024. (Montpellier as craft beer capital of southern France)
Note: European brewery counts vary by source and definition. The figure of 1,600+ French breweries by 2020 and 1,500 German breweries are widely cited but depend on whether brewpubs, contract brewers, and gypsy brewers are included. We used the most conservative estimates available.