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The term "non-alcoholic beer" is actually a misnomer. There are trace amounts of alcohol in non-alcoholic beer. Then again, you can also find trace amounts of alcohol in orange juice and bread, as a result of the fermentation process. Commercial definitions of non-alcoholic beer (otherwise known as "malted beverage") vary between countries, but it usually contains a maximum of 0.1% to 0.5% alcohol. Non-alcoholic beer, or "near beer," dates coincidentally enough to the advent of Prohibition in 1919. President Wilson initially tried to reduce the alcohol percentage of beer to around 2.5%, but the Temperance
Society would have none of it. In a bizarre twist, non-alcoholic beer was often artificially "spiked" with grain alcohol and sold illegally. Non-alcoholic beer is brewed as normal beer, but during the finishing stages of the brewing process the alcohol is removed by vacuum evaporation. This process takes advantage of the different boiling points of water and alcohol. As this feature article by John Naleszkiewicz at Brew Your Own magazine explains, since alcohol has a very low boiling point, it's relatively easy to evaporate most of the alcohol in a batch of home brew by simply heating it in an oven after it ferments. You can also try to shorten the fermenting process, but that tends to take more flavor away. The wonderful resource
Wikipedia notes that while most non-alcoholic beers are lagers, there are also some non-alcoholic ales and bitters. Bottoms up!
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