Editing Low-alcohol beer (section)

==History==
Low-alcohol brews such as [[small beer]] date back at least to [[Middle Ages|medieval Europe]], where they served as a less risky alternative to water<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-19 |title=What is Small Beer & When Was it Brewed? |url=https://theoriginalsmallbeer.com/blogs/small-beer-news/what-is-small-beer |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=Small Beer |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Why Everyone In England Drank Beer For Breakfast |url=https://www.lancasterbrewery.co.uk/news/why-everyone-in-england-drank-beer-for-breakfast |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=Lancaster Brewery}}</ref> (which often was polluted by faeces and parasites<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Graff |first1=Anna |last2=Bennion-Pedley |first2=Emma |last3=Jones |first3=Ariadin K. |last4=Ledger |first4=Marissa L. |last5=Deforce |first5=Koen |last6=Degraeve |first6=Ann |last7=Byl |first7=Sylvie |last8=Mitchell |first8=Piers D. |title=A comparative study of parasites in three latrines from Medieval and Renaissance Brussels, Belgium (14th–17th centuries) |journal=Parasitology |date=2020 |volume=147 |issue=13 |pages=1443–1451 |doi=10.1017/S0031182020001298 |issn=0031-1820 |pmc=7677898 |pmid=32741422}}</ref>) and were less expensive than higher-quality, higher-alcohol brews like stouts, porters, and ales.<ref name="Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library 1996 m726">{{cite web | title=A Most Wholesome Liquor: A Study of Beer and Brewing in 18th-Century England and Her Colonies | website=Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library | date=April 30, 1996 | url=https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/DigitalLibrary/view/index.cfm?doc=ResearchReports%5CRR0364.xml&highlight= | access-date=March 10, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Young 1999 g481">{{cite web | last=Young | first=Thomas W. | title=Beer: Types of Beer | website=Encyclopedia Britannica | date=July 26, 1999 | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/beer | access-date=March 10, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Tom 2018 q415">{{cite web | last=Tom | first=Michelle | title=A Brew-O-Rama with John Gaylord's Extemporaneous Small Beer | website=Windsor Historical Society | date=February 6, 2018 | url=https://windsorhistoricalsociety.org/a-brew-o-rama-with-john-gaylords-extemporaneous-small-beer/ | access-date=March 10, 2024}}</ref>

More recently, the temperance movements and the need to avoid [[alcohol (drug)|alcohol]] while driving, operating machinery, taking certain medications, etc. led to the development of non-intoxicating beers.

In the United States, according to John Naleszkiewicz, non-alcoholic brews were promoted during [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]]. In 1917, President Wilson proposed limiting the alcohol content of malt beverages to 2.75% to try to appease avid prohibitionists. In 1919, Congress approved the [[Volstead Act]], which limited the alcohol content of all beverages to 0.5%. These very-low-alcohol beverages became known as ''tonics'', and many breweries began brewing them in order to stay in business during Prohibition. Since removing the alcohol from the beer requires just one extra step, many breweries saw it as an easy change. In 1933, when Prohibition was repealed, breweries simply omitted this extra step.<ref name=John>{{cite journal |last=Naleszkiewicz |first=John |title=Low alcohol beer |journal=Brew Your Own |date=October 1995}}</ref>

By the 1980s and 90s, "light" beers became more popular. Declining consumption has also led to the introduction of mass-market non-alcoholic beverages, dubbed "near beer". Low-alcohol and alcohol-free bars and pubs have also been established to cater for drinkers of non-alcoholic beverages.

In the UK, the introduction of a lower rate of beer duty for low-strength beer (of 2.8% ABV or less) in October 2011<ref>{{cite book |last=Leicester |first=Andrew |title=Alcohol pricing and taxation policies. IFS Briefing Note BN124 |url=https://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn124.pdf |publisher=Institute for Fiscal Studies |location=London |year=2011 |pages=1 |access-date=16 April 2020 |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922080630/https://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn124.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> spurred many small brewers to revive old styles of small beer and create higher-hopped craft beers at the lower alcohol level to be able to lower the cost of their beer to consumers.

At the start of the 21st century, alcohol-free beer has seen a rise in popularity in the Middle East (which now makes up a third of the market).<ref>''The Economist'' explains: [https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/08/economist-explains-3 "Why are sales of non-alcoholic beer booming?"]</ref> One reason for this is that Islamic scholars issued ''[[fatawa]]'' which permitted the consumption of beer as long as large quantities could be consumed without getting drunk.<ref name="Sin-Free Ale">''The Economist'': [https://www.economist.com/news/business/21582531-non-alcoholic-beer-taking-among-muslim-consumers-sin-free-ale "Sin-Free Ale"]</ref> By 2022, craft [[hop water]] has become a market unto itself in the United States, with one [[Southern California]] brewer regarding it as not being beer at all.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/best-hop-waters-non-alcoholic-beer-alternative-11661439474|title=Don't Care for Non-Alcoholic Beer? Try This Zero-Calorie, Full-Flavored Alternative|first=Aaron|last=Goldfarb|newspaper=Wall Street Journal |date=25 August 2022|via=www.wsj.com}}</ref>