Kris Nelson, cofounder and co-owner of Citizen Cider, left his job at the Pine Street cidery last week to collaborate with Zero Gravity Craft Brewery on a new product: alcohol-free beer.
The beverage, still under development, represents a new brand for Zero Gravity. It will be produced at the brewery on Pine Street, where removal of the alcohol will follow fermentation with hops and barley.
“The idea is to give people something that’s a craft beverage, that has flavor, that’s low in calories, and that’s beyond hanging out with seltzer or juice,” Nelson said. “You’re able to mix it up with a local craft product that happens to not have alcohol.”
Nelson and his partners at Zero Gravity expect the non-alcoholic beer to be available at the Burlington taproom in early 2020. The branding of the product is a work in progress, he said, and its name will be released later.
Matt Wilson, co-owner of Zero Gravity, said production will make use of new technology that renders it possible “to produce nonalcoholic beers of a higher quality than previously available.”
Elaborating on that theme, Wilson said: “We’re trying to apply our level of painstaking detail and craft brewing into a space that’s previously been an afterthought.”
Nelson remains a co-owner of Citizen Cider with Justin Heilenbach and Bryan Holmes.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Comings and Goings”
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2019.
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Thank you for this. I’ve been bugging Long Trail for years to develop a quality local NA brew. They always say, “it’s not in our business plan”. Looking forward to sampling your future beverage and supporting your effort to fill this empty niche!
Check out Athletic brewing out of Stratford CT. Top quality craft NA Gold standard. If you can come close to them you’ll have a winner. They are producing over 2000 cases a week and constantly run out.
I’ve mentioned Athletic to the folks at Beverage Warehouse and they are well aware of the market and have said the Lagunitas HOP (more of a hopped seltzer than a NA beer) is a very strong seller. I hope this becomes a growing trend and I’m happy to have a local option!
PS to the Citizen Cider folks – a drier variety of the All Seasons cider would be a welcome addition to the line-up!