Cristal Alcohol-Free Beers

Cristal is a pilsner from the Alken brewery in Limburg, Belgium, owned by Heineken through Alken-Maes. Its alcohol-free version, Cristal 0.0%, came out at the end of 2021, La Libre reported.

Who make Cristal?

Edouard Boes set up the Alken brewery with Jozef Indekeu, The Brussels Times reported, and it celebrated its centenary in 2023; the Boes family had owned a brewery in Alken since 1881, according to a company history on encyclopedia.com. Cristal followed about five years after the brewery opened: L’Avenir and Gault&Millau date it to 1928, while the encyclopedia.com history gives 1929. The Brussels Times called it “the first Belgian pilsner, brewed using the Czech pilsner method”, which is the brand’s own claim.

Cristal was long confined to its home province, La Libre said in 2022, and Alken-Maes launched it across Belgium in 2017, L’Avenir reported.

Who owns Cristal?

BSN (Danone) bought Alken in 1978, and Brouwerijen Alken-Maes was created in 1988, the encyclopedia.com history says; Scottish & Newcastle bought Alken-Maes in 2000. When Carlsberg and Heineken agreed to buy Scottish & Newcastle, La Libre reported in January 2008 that Heineken would take the Belgian business; Wikipedia dates the deal to 2007. Alken-Maes is now wholly owned by Heineken, the Belga news agency reported, and in 2019 Heineken merged its Belgian beer, malt and cider businesses into it, Inside.beer reported.

Kenny Willems became chief executive on 1 October 2025, VRT reported. Alken-Maes’s brands include Maes, Affligem and Mort Subite as well as Cristal, and the Alken site also brews Maes and Grimbergen, among others, The Brussels Times reported.

What Cristal brews

Classic Cristal is 5%, La Libre says, and in February 2022 Alken-Maes added Cristal Xtra, a stronger pils at 5.2%. Xtra won gold in the lager category at the World Beer Awards 2024 and the standard Cristal won bronze, the competition’s own site shows. Those medals are for the full-strength beers.

How big is Cristal’s brewery?

“Two million hectolitres of beer are produced there”, The Brussels Times reported of Alken in 2023 (L’Avenir gave 1.7 million hectolitres a year in 2017), and some 600 people work for Alken-Maes, about a third of them at Alken, it reported. In January 2026 VRT reported a new 12,000 m² warehouse at the brewery, costing €13 million, to store Cristal and 0.0 products, mostly in kegs. “Cristal is Alken en Alken is Cristal,” Kenny Willems told VRT.

Cristal’s alcohol-free beer

Cristal 0.0% came out at the end of 2021, “près de 4 ans après Maes”, nearly four years after Maes, La Libre reported in 2022; we found no brewer announcement. It’s 0.0%, brewed from water, barley malt, hop extracts and natural flavouring, and the Belgian label gives 20 kcal (83 kJ) per 100ml, with 4.7g of carbohydrate, of which 2.2g sugars, as Albert Heijn lists it. In Belgium it’s sold in 330ml cans; the UK shops sell bottles but don’t give the size.

We found nothing from Alken-Maes on how the packaged beer is made. Its draught 0.0 beers came out in April 2025, at about 100 customers at first, VRT reported. For those, the brewing process is the same as for regular beer and the challenge is stopping alcohol forming afterwards, VRT and The Brussels Times reported: Alken-Maes found the method with Heineken, and keeps the kegs for two weeks after brewing “om te monitoren of er geen alcohol gevormd is”, to check that no alcohol has formed.

About 4% of all beer sold in Belgium in 2024 was alcohol-free, VRT reported. Alken-Maes also makes Maes 0.0, which won bronze in the no and low alcohol category at the World Beer Awards 2024; we found no award for Cristal 0.0%. It isn’t the same beer as the Portuguese Cristal in the Carlsberg range.

How Cristal 0.0% compares

Alcohol-free Belgian lagers in our directory, with Heineken 0.0 from Cristal’s owner. Calories as published; checked 31 October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

The Cristal beer in our directory

Checked 31 October 2026. Calories are from the Belgian label. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

Where to buy Cristal 0.0%

On 30 October 2026 The Alcohol Free Co and Dry Drinker each had six for £14.23 (affiliate links). For more, see our guide to the best Belgian alcohol-free beer.

Facts checked against The Brussels Times, VRT, La Libre, L’Avenir, Gault&Millau, Belga, Inside.beer, encyclopedia.com, Wikipedia, the World Beer Awards, Albert Heijn, Carlsberg Group, The Alcohol Free Co and Dry Drinker, 31 October 2026.