For a variety of reasons, including a lack of options that are promoted as alcohol-free or a fear of criticism from friends and peers, many people might decide against going the low- or no-alcohol route.
But according to a recent University of Bristol study, increasing the beverages’ visibility and convenience of purchase in bars increased the amount of non-alcoholic beer sold.
In order to gather data for the study, the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group at the university enlisted the help of Bristol City Council and 14 taverns and pubs in Bristol, none of which had ever served alcohol-free beer on draft.
Over the course of eight weeks, the venues then performed two “control” and two “intervention” periods at random. During the first, one draft alcoholic beer was swapped out for an alcohol-free alternative, and during the second, business as usual was carried out.