Budvar Budejovicky B:FREE

The only way you can tell that this isn’t the ‘real’ Budweiser is because you won’t be effected by the alcohol content. Deliciously crisp and tasty lager that’s full of the original Budweiser flavours. Love it!

This is my favourite non-alcohol beer!

Great alternative when drinking alcoholic beer is not appropriate

As close to the original as you can get!

Tasted like a very light beer... was pleasant enough.

So, a confession first up. The full strength Budvar is my absolute number one beer of all time. I love it so much, I've even travelled to České Budějovice to drink it from the source at the brewery. Its magnificent stuff. From the start, the non-alcohol version has enormous shoes to fill. Probably not unexpectedly, on first taste I was a tiny bit disappointed. There's not the same fizz and gas content so the mouth feel is immediately different. The taste is also not quite the same as the "real thing". Its not bad, but when your expectations are so high, it was slightly deflating. However as you continue to drink this beer, you realise it has its own character and as a stand-alone beer, is also worthy of a drink or three. Its flavour is a bit more subtle than a "real" Budvar, perhaps leaning more towards the ale end of a lager. It definitely benefits from drinking it as cold as you can and an ice cold version is a really refreshing and a nice drop. While it probably doesn't quite get as close to a true Pilsner or Lager style as say the Clausthaler Original Pilsner or the Schloss Eggenberg Freibier Pilsner its still a great drink so long as you don't expect to be drinking a complete clone of the full alcohol version. A beer I'd be happy to buy again and would highly recommend.

Had high hopes after reading previous review but...

First this is advertised as non- alcoholic (i.e zero alcohol) but it is technically a low alcohol (<0,5%).

As for taste, a lot of low/zero alcohol beers have problems with the worty and cardboard taste and I'm afraid so does this one which is a real surprise and disappointment from such an accomplished brewery which should have the expertise and kit to do a lot better in my opinion.