Zeroing in on 0.0% beers NO. 211 // THEME 01 // WEEK 35 // AUGUST 26, 2019 THEME 01 Zeroing in on 0.0% beers ALCOHOL SOCIO-CULTURAL RITE DE PASSAGE CHANGE Non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beers are becoming increasingly mainstream, finally breaking their social stigma and general disdain. Although a seemingly insignificant fashion in our drinking behavior, the rising popularity of these beverages reflects changing consumer practices and social norms. As such, we need to understand the deeper social and cultural foundations that explain the appeal of non-alcoholic beer. Our observations • Non-alcoholic beer is the fastest-growing segment of the U.K. drinking market, up by 27% this year, and 58% last year. This trend of growing non- and low-alcohol consumption is mirrored in other countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands, China, and the U.S., while the Middle East already has a long tradition of non-alcoholic beers, given the strict stigma on alcohol in the region. • Heineken and Carlsberg owed their record sales in 2018 to non- and low-alcohol beer sales, while AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, wants to increase its share of this segment from 8% in 2017 to 20% of its total sales by 2025 • This growth is not confined to beer alone, as the U.S. market for non- and low-alcoholic beverages will grow by 32% in the coming years. In Western countries, there is a trend of younger generations consuming significantly less alcohol compared to previous generations, such as in the U.S., Netherlands, U.K., and Germany. • Last year, researchers have published a review of 700 scientific studies on the burden and benefits of alcohol consumption. It found that no level of alcohol improves health, and that alcohol was the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years for those aged 15-49. However, the burden of alcohol spreads beyond doing harm to the individual consumer. A 2010 study found that of all the drugs and intoxicants available in the U.K., alcohol is the most harmful overall (followed at a significant distance by heroin and crack cocaine). The study distinguishes in the overall harm of the substances between the harm to the user and to others, and it is in the latter category that alcohol scores extremely badly. • Alcohol consumption is often a social activity, and high alcohol consumption is significantly related to particular life phases as well as temporary moments. For example, students tend to consume alcohol in large quantities because they think it is an integral part of their identity as a student and that it is a socially accepted practice. Similarly, most people consume the highest quantities of alcohol at the onset of or early in the weekend (from Thursday to Saturday) and state that their alcohol consumption is mostly related to social expectancies (instead of tension reduction expectancies, which is mostly related to weekday drinking). • In 2015, the U.K. government started the “Dry January” campaign, encouraging Britons to stop drinking. In 2014, 17,000 Britons abstained from alcoholic beverages during the 31 days of January, which increased to 4.2 million in 2018. In the U.S., one in five people planned to participate in Dry January this year, showing that its popularity is not contained to the U.K. Abstinence from alcohol has deeper, religious, roots in the U.K. and U.S.; Anglican and Evangelist leaders claimed that alcohol desecrated the individual’s soul and free the body from restraint, giving way to unwanted pleasures. This led to the “temperance movement” which sought to ban all alcoholic consumption, leading to the prohibition of alcohol between 1920 and 1933 in the U.S. • This practice of “teetotalism” has many other cultural exponents, as most religions prohibit the consumption of alcohol on spiritual and religious grounds, such as Buddhism (abstaining from intoxicating substances such as alcohol or drugs is one of the Five Precepts), Hinduism (it does not forbid, but denounces tamasic food and drinks, such as alcohol and meat, that bring the soul out of balance), and Islam (most Islamic jurisprudence prohibit khamr, the Arabic word for wine). >> see next page THEME 01 Connecting the dots Eating and drinking are intimate issues for most, as particular consumption products, exemplified by the they are an everyday practice and closely related to rise of veganism and eating less meat or drinking culture and tradition. In many countries, especially decaf coffee. Technological rationalization creates a in the West, the consumption of alcohol is deeply “risk society” according to the modernization theory ingrained in social, cultural and even religious prac- of Giddens, as well as a society that is less willing to tices (e.g. the transubstantiation of Jesus Christ’s permit socially harmful behavior and practices. As blood into wine during the Eucharist). Of these alco- data on alcohol consumption tends to have a will of holic beverages, beer is the most prevalent. However, its own, unveiling that alcohol consumption renders non-alcoholic and low-alcoholic beers are becoming the highest socially detrimental effects and costs, increasingly popular. There are various reasons why social norms are increasingly biased against alcohol consumers are choosing non- or low-alcoholic beer and thus in favor of non-alcoholic beer. over regular beers (containing 5% of alcohol). More fundamentally, consuming beer is also an Beer companies are playing into the growing thirst important cultural practice, especially when it isn’t for non- and low-alcoholic beers and invest heavily related to tension reduction, but to societal expec- in R&D in order to unbundle the taste of alcoholic tancies. As such, drinking beer can be considered a beer, at the molecular level, and then rebundle this rite of passage: these are rituals or ceremonies that into beer without alcohol but with the same taste. inaugurate the individual in the world through the Combined with lower prices because of lower taxes three-step process of separation, transformation (because it does not contain alcohol), non-alcoholic or liminality, and finally incorporation back into the beers thus become more attractive from a utilitarian world. There are numerous social activities – espe- perspective. However, there are deeper reasons, driv- cially in the West – in which one is supposed to con- en by more fundamental social and cultural trends sume alcohol that have the characteristics of a rite of that explain the appeal of these non- and low-alco- passage (e.g. champagne on New Year’s Eve, “vrijdag- holic substitutes. middagborrel” as the inauguration of the weekend or The first is that no- and low-alcoholic beer ties in “hazing” at fraternities and sororities). From this per- with the rising “wellness mentality”, in which con- spective, non-alcoholic beer enables those who want sumers want more control over their physical and to abstain from alcohol, but want to be included in mental health. This holds more for younger gener- these socio-cultural rites of passage without subpar ations, who increasingly spend their time in virtual experiences. habitats, and thus place higher value on their phys- This also points to the most fundamental element: ical and biological constitution and wellbeing. As our experience of consuming beer and alcohol. Phe- such, many of them no longer find that the pleasure nomenologically, these are substances that “numb” of consuming beer or alcohol in general outweighs or “anesthetize” us, blurring our experience of the the costs (e.g. a hangover, reduced concentration, world. However, consuming alcoholic substances worse sleep), and instead focus on those activities does not befit our digital living world that continu- and refreshments that actually increase physical ously stimulates our senses (e.g. social media, ads) wellbeing (e.g. sports, healthy food). and invites us to act in the real as well as in virtual Furthermore, digital technology empowers consum- worlds. One could even claim that other types of in- ers to critically examine the effects of our consump- toxicating substances, such as XTC or weed, fit better tion and practices to ourselves and others. Gener- with the markets emerging around hyper experiences ally, we are living in a time in which traditions and and spirituality. Indeed, other intoxicating substances habits are increasingly challenged, and consumers besides alcohol could actually help fulfill our longing are applying this mindset to the health aspects of to find holiness and meaningful experience. Implications • Non-alcoholic beer could also become another “culture war phenomenon”, like LGBT rights, eating meat, vaccinations, drug legalization, stem-cell research, euthanasia, or sexual education. More radically, beer and alcohol could even come to have a new social stigma, given their harmfulness to health and society. Untangling this discussion and providing a meaningful narrative for understanding this polarization makes the tradition of hermeneutics all the more relevant in our times. • Non-alcohol beer is another exemple of a trend in which food (e.g. meat) and beverages (e.g. milk) are unbundled into their fundamental tasteful (or (un)healthy) components, and then rebundled into new tastes. Combined with 3D-printing technology, this could lead to wholly new designs for food and drinks, such as squared tomatoes for efficient transportation, food >> see next page.