When most people are considering the calories in non alcoholic beer, they tend to want to know what is the lowest and how does that compare to an alcoholic beer. However, it is worth considering what the full range is and what is the highest calorie non alcoholic beer.
By looking that the top few highest calorie non alcoholic beers we can see just how amazing the low ones are but also why some non alcoholic beers are higher calorie and exactly what that adds to the beer.
What Is The Highest Calorie Non Alcoholic Beer?
The highest calorie non alcoholic beer in the world is Henry And His Science by the Danish brewery, Mikkeller.
Henry And His Science has an absolutely gobsmacking 89kcal per 100ml and 316kcal per 12fl oz
What type of beer is Henry And His Science?
Henry And His Science was the first in a new series of non alcoholic beers from Mikkeller. They called them “Flemish Primitive”.
A Flemish Primitive is defined as…
- Having typical body, taste and aroma coming from alternative micro-organisms (fx. Coffee beans)
- Alcohol between 0 and 5 % volume
- Maximum 10 EBC (color range)
- Maximum 10 IBU (bitterness range)
- Made of only water, yeast, malt and hops as ingredients
- Brewed at De Proefbrouwerij by a gypsy brewer
Another key part is the yeast they use, their own one called Mikkellenis. It is suppose to add farmyard and passionfruit flavours to the brew.
This is the base beer for their popular “Limbo” series where they add in additional fruit flavours.
These include…
Controversy surrounding Henry And His Science
Henry And His Science has been around for a few years and seems to have had a different formula. A few online reviews as well as merchants have this as a low sugar beer!
I had got into a conversation with someone on social media who works at Mikkeller and didnt think my can was correct so looked at one he had at home and low and behold, a new sticker with the increased values had been put over his beer.
Determined to get to the bottom of this and see if this really was the highest calorie non alcoholic beer, i emailed Mikkeller directly.
I had a reply from Tone Xenia Borring, an Executive Assistant, who confirmed ” They are correct 🙂 Have a great day”.
So these really are the values, confirmed by the company, making it the highest calorie non alcoholic beer in the world!
What makes Henry And His Science so high in calories?
So just how exactly does it get to have this astonishing calorie load, where does it come from?
| | Values per 100ml or 100g |
| Alcohol | 0.3% |
| Calories | 89kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 20.8g |
| Sugars | 9.9g |
The answer is a whopping 20.8g of carbs per 100ml which comes in at 73.8g per 12fl oz.
The average non alcoholic beer has 4.75g of carbs per 100ml so this is x4 the average. The highest amount of carbs in a beer i have reviewed other than this is 9.8g per 100ml from Leffe 0.0 so it is x2 more than than on carbs alone.
When you consider the average added sugar load in a non alcoholic beer, my average is 2g per 100ml so Henry And His Science is nearly x5 more sugar than average.
How does Henry And His Science compare to other non alcoholic beers?
From a data set of well over 100 non alcoholic beers i have reviewed, i calculated the average non alcoholic beer has 22.6kcal per 100ml and 80.1kcal per 12fl oz.
That means that Henry And His Science has x3.94 (294%) more calories than the average non alcoholic beer. Just let that sink it, quite extraordinary indeed.
| Beer | Calories per 100ml | Calories per 12fl oz |
| Henry and His Science | 89 | 316 |
| Average non alcoholic beer | 22.6 | 80.1 |
How does Henry And His Science compare to other alcoholic beers?
The USDA state the average alcoholic beer has 43kcal per 100ml and 153kcal in a 12fl oz serving. This mirrors my own finding from a sample of 35 alcohol beers whereby i found an average of 43.2kcal per 100ml and 153.3 in a 12fl oz serving.
So comparing this to Henry And His Science, it has x2.07 (107% more) of the calories of even the average alcoholic beer, which is some going.
What does Henry And His Science taste like?
So with this huge amount of carbs, sugar and calories you would hope they have produced the greatest non alcoholic beer ever, right? Wrong.
In my review, here, i found it to be a flat, bland, mildly citrus flavoured, completely underwhelming beer. Add in the calorie load and i gave it 3.5/10, which in hindsight was generous. Other than novelty, i do not know why you would buy this.
What is the second highest calorie non alcoholic beer?
I did a lot of research to find the highest calorie non alcoholic beers so i’ll include this as a “respectable” 2nd place.
Ive not actually been able to order any as its been out of stock for ages.
Nyponsoppa is a non alcoholic fruit beer which is also brewed at De Proefbrouwerij in Belgium, just like Henry And His Science. They must like a high calorie beer there!
Omnipollo is a Swedish company and this beer is flavoured with a Swedish childhood favourite, rosehip soup.
Omnipollo Nyponsoppa has 62kcal per 100ml and 220kcal per 12fl oz. As such, its isn’t too far away from the Mikkeller effort but still far enough away to show just how ridiculous Henry And His Science is.
What is the most available highest calorie non alcoholic beer?
The third highest calorie non alcoholic beer i have found is the most popular by a long way. None other than Leffe Blond 0.0
Leffe Blond 0.0 comes in with 40kcal per 100ml and 142kcal per 12fl oz. This is one of the closest to an equivalent alcoholic brand beer as Leffe itself is 60kcal per 100ml so only 50% more or 33% saving in calories.
At 40kcal per 100ml it has 77% more calories than the average non alcoholic beer.
I did really enjoy the Leffe 0.0, it comes in 250ml bottles which is probably good as it doesn’t get too sweet on you for that amount. I gave it an 7.5/10 in my full review here.
| | Values per 100ml or 100g |
| Alcohol | 0.0% |
| Calories | 40kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 9.8g |
| Sugars | 1.1g |
| Non Alcoholic Beer | Kcal per 100ml | Kcal per 12fl oz |
| Henry And His Science | 89 | 316 |
| Omnipollo Nyponsoppa | 62 | 220 |
| Leffe Blond 0.0 | 40 | 142 |
| Shallow Passion Pool | 38 | 135 |
