Drinks | Alcohol-free beer took the market of mild beers

Non-alcoholic the selection of beers in stores has grown year by year, and the same phenomenon is also visible in restaurants. Instead, the drinks named number one in the public’s mouth and pilsners have ended up on the bottom shelves of stores or have been left out of the selections altogether.

This change is also clearly visible in Panimioliitto’s statistics. Non-alcoholic alternatives already overtook mild, at most 3.5% beers during the corona crisis, and in the last couple of years that lead has only grown.

Last year, more than 7.8 million liters of non-alcoholic beers were sold. The sale of light beer, i.e. beer containing more than 0.5, but no more than 3.5% alcohol by volume, was just over 6.7 million liters.

The sales of traditional medium and four-wheelers have also fallen at a steady pace in recent years. The trade still runs smoothly, and the sales are in a completely different category than with mild beers. Almost 307.5 million liters of beers containing more than 3.5 percent but less than 5.5 percent alcohol were sold last year.

Ykkösolu no longer has an official definition, but in the vernacular it means a mild beer that contains about a couple of percent alcohol.

from Iisalme Olvi has been producing number one beer for decades, and in the 1950s it was even the company’s main product. Power changed only in 1969, when middle beer entered grocery stores.

In recent years, the number one cell phone sales have been declining in Olvi, and the same trend seems to continue. At the same time, sales of non-alcoholic products are increasing.

I was the marketing director Antti Airaksisen according to He bases his knowledge on recent figures from the retail trade.

This product category also includes Olvin’s number one, although Airaksinen does not reveal its exact sales curves.

“Ykkösolut will remain in the product repertoire in the coming years as well. It still has a loyal customer base,” says Airaksinen.

According to him, the taste and consumption habits of the younger generation prefer zero and special beers instead of the traditional number one. The background is a megatrend emphasizing well-being and health, which can be seen in all products.

“Alcohol-free alternatives are an important focus area for us, and we will continue to introduce new products there,” says Airaksinen.

Also The sales manager of S group’s convenience store Mikko Kovalainen according to the mild number one cells remain on the shelves of grocery stores, even though their sales have been declining for a long time.

“Measured in liters, the development of sales has been slow, but mild beers still have their place in the selection”, says Kovalainen.

Like Airaksinen, he points out that the decline in number one cells could have been even steeper without special products like IPA and NEIPA beers.

“Not everyone may find their favorite non-alcoholic options and want the beer to have a slightly stronger flavor profile. Even a small amount of alcohol is enough for that,” says Kovalainen.

Even at the end of the last decade, there was even a small boom in the sale of low-percentages. According to Kovalainen, however, it quickly froze with the ever-growing selection of zero-free beers. In the S group, the sale of non-alcoholic beer passed the number one cell already in 2021.

“Alcohol-free alternatives are now driving the beer market, and it seems that the brewing industry is also investing in them.”

In many in restaurants, the sale of traditional number one cells has been completely stopped. This has happened, for example, in the S group and in the restaurants of the Teerenpeli chain.

“Ykkösolut was the only almost alcohol-free option for us for a long time. In recent years, however, its sales were weak,” states Teerenpeli’s chain manager Nora Kaakko.

In addition to the chain’s hometown Lahti, Teerenpeli restaurants are located in Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Lappeenranta, Jyväskylä, Kuopio and Oulu.

“At most one basket per month was used in the restaurants, so it’s not worth keeping such a product in the selection. Instead, we buy non-alcoholic beer. Last year, the sales of all non-alcoholic drinks increased by about 30 percent, Kaakko states.

S group’s tourism and catering product and selection manager Tuomo Keskinen the comments are similar.

“Ykkösolut has left our restaurants due to low demand. The sale of non-alcoholic beers, on the other hand, has grown at an annual rate of about ten percent and continues to this day.”