Brooklyn Brewery Alcohol-Free Beers

Brooklyn Brewery is the New York craft brewery Steve Hindy and Tom Potter started in 1988. In the UK its alcohol-free beer is Brooklyn Special Effects, a 0.4% hoppy lager brewed in Sweden and canned in the UK by Carlsberg Marston’s, the label says; in the US the range was renamed Brooklyn Brewery Non-Alcoholic in April 2026.

Who are Brooklyn Brewery?

Steve Hindy and Tom Potter delivered their first batch of Brooklyn Lager, a 5.2% amber lager, to a bar in Williamsburg in 1988, Brooklyn says. It opened its own Williamsburg brewery and tasting room in 1996, and in August 2026 it left that building for a new home at 1 Wythe Avenue, four blocks away, which it calls its global research and development centre; when we checked in October, its website said the new tasting room would open “very soon”. Its brewmaster is Garrett Oliver, and Brooklyn says its beer is sold in more than 30 countries.

Who owns Brooklyn Brewery?

Brooklyn doesn’t publish its ownership. In 2016 Japan’s Kirin bought a stake of about 24.5%, Brewbound reported, which kept Brooklyn under the 25% limit the US Brewers Association uses to define an independent craft brewer; we found no change since. Carlsberg has distributed Brooklyn in the UK since the end of 2016. That year Brewbound also reported that the two had worked together on distribution in Europe and Asia for more than a decade, and jointly owned a Stockholm brewery, Nya Carnegiebryggeriet.

We show Brooklyn as independent on that basis, though the Special Effects sold in the UK is brewed and distributed by Carlsberg.

How Brooklyn makes alcohol-free beer

Special Effects launched in Sweden in December 2018, came to the UK in 2019 and reached select US markets that autumn. At the UK launch the Morning Advertiser reported that it was brewed using “a specially developed fermentation method that limits the amount of alcohol created”, and Brooklyn dry-hops the beer with Mosaic, Citra and Amarillo, “a technique rarely used in alcohol-free brewing”, it said in 2018. Garrett Oliver said the aim was “a recipe where the drinker might not know that it was an alcohol-free beer unless someone told them”.

The alcohol-free beers

Brooklyn Special Effects is the one sold in the UK: a 0.4% hoppy amber lager with 29 kcal per 100ml, brewed in Sweden and canned in the UK by Carlsberg Marston’s, the label says. Brooklyn says it’s vegan, it isn’t gluten-free, and we score it 7.6 out of 10.

In the US, Brooklyn renamed its alcohol-free beers Brooklyn Brewery Non-Alcoholic in April 2026. Special Effects became Non-Alcoholic Brooklyn Original, with Sabro, Saphir and Cascade hops, and there are three more, all under 0.5%: Brooklyn East IPA, Playa de Brooklyn Grapefruit IPA and Brooklyn Pils. We didn’t find any of them on sale in the UK.

The Brooklyn beer in our directory

Nutrition from the UK label as listed by Tesco, Ocado, Waitrose and Morrisons, checked October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

Where to buy Brooklyn Special Effects

Tesco, Waitrose, Ocado and Morrisons listed four-packs of cans at £5 to £5.50 on 27 October 2026, and Sainsbury’s sells them too. Wise Bartender had single cans at £2.60; that link is an affiliate link. Dry Drinker lists it, but it was out of stock. For other American beers, see our guide to American alcohol-free beer.

Facts checked against Brooklyn Brewery’s website, Brewbound, Good Beer Hunting, drinks-intel, the Morning Advertiser, 6sqft, Carlsberg Britvic, Tesco, Ocado, Waitrose, Morrisons, Dry Drinker and Wise Bartender, October 2026.