Big Drop Alcohol-Free Beers

Big Drop is a UK alcohol-free brewer that has never owned a brewery. Its founder calls it the UK’s first alcohol-free-only brewery; it brews everything to 0.5%, and it labels every beer gluten-free. Five of its beers are in our directory, led by Galactic Milk Stout and Poolside DDH IPA, both at 8.6.

Who are Big Drop?

Rob Fink, then a City lawyer, launched Big Drop in October 2016 with his school friend James Kindred, a brand strategist and designer. The brewer Johnny Clayton, formerly of Wild Beer Co, joined as head brewer. Fink has called it the first alcohol-free-only brewery in the UK, and “probably second or third in the world”.

It has never owned a brewery. “From day one, I’ve always said I never want to build or buy or own a brewery,” Fink said in 2024. It launched in Australia in 2020 and the US in 2021, and today has beer brewed in the UK, Sydney and Chicago. In the UK it licensed its brand to In Good Company, the owner of Fourpure, in 2023, and to Keystone, which brewed it at Black Sheep in Masham, at the end of 2024. A year later Keystone moved to appoint administrators, and Big Drop has taken the brand back: “nobody loves your brand as much as you do,” Fink told The Grocer, “and so I’ve decided to take back control.” It now brews with Renegade Brewery in Berkshire and Powderkeg in Devon.

Is Big Drop independent?

Yes. Big Drop is backed by investors rather than a brewing group: the fund Panoramic put £2.5m into a 2021 round, and 448 investors backed a crowdfunding round in 2022. Since September 2025 Companies House has listed no person with significant control, and we found no stake by a larger brewer.

How Big Drop brews

Every Big Drop beer is 0.5%. “We brew to 0.5% from the start rather than making full-strength beer and taking the alcohol out afterwards,” Big Drop says, and it puts that down to using less grain. In 2021 it called the method Reduced Amylase Brewing, and said the beer is “fully fermented”. Across the range it uses “over twenty speciality grains”, and the newer recipes add vegetable glycerine and sodium benzoate, a preservative.

Big Drop says every beer in its range is labelled gluten-free, at under 20ppm, even though they’re brewed with barley, wheat, oats and rye. Most are vegan; the Milk Stout and Brown Ale contain lactose, and so does the Pine Trail label that the shops list.

The range

Big Drop’s main website now uses plain names: Galactic is Milk Stout, Pine Trail is Pale Ale, Paradiso is Citrus IPA and Reef Point is Lager. Its shop still uses the old names, and also sells a Brown Ale and Cloudburst Passion Fruit Lager. Poolside DDH IPA, named World’s Best No & Low IPA at the 2024 World Beer Awards, Brewers Journal reported, is no longer in Big Drop’s shop or current range; a DDH IPA with its description is in the back catalogue of earlier beers.

Big Drop says it has won over 100 international awards, and more World’s Best titles at the World Beer Awards than any other UK brewery; the Brewers Journal put its count at eight by August 2024. We couldn’t check the World Beer Awards’ own records, but the World Alcohol-Free Awards’ results confirm gold medals for Galactic in 2023 and for Pine Trail and Poolside in 2024.

The Big Drop beers in our directory

All 0.5% ABV. Nutrition from Big Drop’s website and the labels as listed by Ocado and Dry Drinker, checked October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

Where to buy Big Drop

Big Drop’s own shop sells cases of 12 (£29.50 for the 330ml beers) and a mixed six-pack for £14.50. Ocado is the only major grocer still stocking Big Drop, The Grocer reports, at £1.80 a can; Tesco’s listing was out of stock and Waitrose’s unavailable when we checked on 26 October 2026.

Dry Drinker had Galactic and Pine Trail in stock, and six-can cases of Reef Point, and Wise Bartender had Galactic, Paradiso and Reef Point at £3 a can, and Pine Trail in bottles. Those two links are affiliate links. For our verdict on the brewery, read our Big Drop review.

Facts checked against Big Drop’s website and shop, Companies House, The Grocer, Just Drinks, the Morning Advertiser, the Drinks Business, Global Drinks Intel, the World Alcohol-Free Awards, Ocado, Dry Drinker and Wise Bartender, October 2026.