Stella Artois Alcohol-Free Beers

Stella Artois is AB InBev’s lager from Leuven in Belgium. It traces its roots to the Den Hoorn brewery, first mentioned in 1366, and the beer itself turned 100 in 2026, the Belgian broadcaster VRT reports. Its alcohol-free version, Stella Artois 0.0%, has been sold in the UK since 2020, and in December 2025 AB InBev’s UK business opened a dealcoholisation plant in south Wales to make it, The Caterer reported.

Who makes Stella Artois?

Stella Artois belongs to AB InBev. In the UK its beers are sold by AB InBev UK Limited, which trades as Budweiser Brewing Group: AB InBev gave its UK business that name in 2019, City AM reported. It isn’t independent.

Stella Artois’s history in Leuven

The 1366 on the logo, VRT says, doesn’t mark the launch of the pils, but the first mention of the Den Hoorn brewery. Wikipedia adds that Stella’s own heritage site gives the first clear reference as 1466. Sebastiaan Artois bought Den Hoorn in 1717, VRT reports, and the name Stella comes from the Latin for star.

The beer is much younger. Stella Artois was first sold in 1926, VRT says, marking its 100th anniversary in 2026. AB InBev says it “was born as a Holiday gift to the people of Leuven from the brewery”, but the historian Roel Mulder, who went through Artois’s brewing records in the National Archives in Leuven, found it was first brewed in June 1926 and went on sale that September. “I have seen nothing from 1926 to suggest a Christmas theme for Stella Artois,” he wrote on his site, Lost Beers, though he says that doesn’t rule one out. Wikipedia gives another date: first brewed in October 1925, as a Christmas beer.

In the 1970s sales of the pils reached 4 million hectolitres, VRT says, and today’s Leuven brewery was built in 1991. You can visit only on a guided tour or by group appointment, Visit Leuven says: the tour is about 1.3km, from the malted grain to the bottling plant, “With a delicious Stella to finish”.

Stella Artois in the UK

According to Wikipedia, Whitbread got a licence to brew Stella Artois in the UK in 1976, and the UK strength, at first 5.2%, was cut to 4.8% and then to 4.6% in 2020; we found that only on Wikipedia. AB InBev describes Stella as a 5% pilsner. Its UK business brews Stella Artois, Budweiser and Corona at Magor in south Wales, the Morning Advertiser reported in 2026. The Welsh Government’s Trade & Invest Wales says the brewery was set up in 1979, employs more than 500 people and brews more than a billion pints a year, making it Budweiser Brewing Group’s largest UK brewery.

Stella Artois’s alcohol-free beer

Stella Artois 0.0% launched in UK pubs early in 2020 as Stella Artois Alcohol Free and reached shops that spring, in four-packs of 330ml bottles at a recommended £3.50, the trade press reported. Ali Humphrey, director of Stella Artois Europe, said: “Our Brewmasters have taken 600 years of Belgian brewing heritage and combined it with our best, all-natural ingredients to create an alcohol-free lager”. It now also goes by Stella Artois 0.0%, and comes in 440ml cans as well as bottles; we found no announcement of either change.

How is it made? Budweiser Brewing Group doesn’t describe the method. In December 2025 it opened its first UK dealcoholisation unit, at Magor, and The Caterer reported that Stella Artois 0.0 and Corona Cero would be produced there; Drinks Intel put the investment at US$3.9m and said the technology avoids long exposure to heat, to keep flavour and aroma. In June 2026 the Morning Advertiser called Magor a hub for alcohol-free beer, including Stella Artois 0.0. Neither The Caterer nor Drinks Intel says where the UK’s Stella 0.0 was made before. The labels differ by pack: the 330ml bottles say InBev Belgium, with Leuven as the origin, and the 440ml cans give the United Kingdom; no label names Magor.

The label lists water, malted barley, hops, sugar and natural flavours, and Morrisons’ copy says it’s brewed with Saaz hops. Budweiser Brewing Group describes “a pronounced hoppy bitterness, a crisp, clean and refreshing finish” and “a pleasant round, fruity hop aroma, with hints of ripe pineapple”, and suggests the Stella chalice. The UK label gives 18 kcal and 0.8g of sugars per 100ml: 60 kcal a 330ml bottle and 80 a 440ml can.

It went on draught in July 2025, the Morning Advertiser reported, with what Budweiser Brewing Group called “an innovative dispense solution” and a roll-out to pubs “through this year and next”.

It won gold in the low and no alcohol category at the Drinks Business Beer Masters 2020, as the published results confirm. The pack also claims a highly commended at the Imbibe No & Low Taste Awards in July 2020 and silver at the Global Beer Challenge in May 2021; we haven’t confirmed those independently.

In the US the alcohol-free Stella is called Stella Artois Liberté. It launched there in September 2021, Beverage Industry reported, in 11.2oz glass bottles, first in New York, Washington DC, Miami and Philadelphia, Brewbound reported. We found no other alcohol-free Stella on sale in the UK.

How Stella Artois 0.0% compares

0.0% lagers in our directory, including Jupiler 0.0, also from Belgium, and Corona Cero, which The Caterer said would also be made at Magor. Calories per 100ml as listed on each beer’s page; checked 31 October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

The Stella Artois beer in our directory

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

Where to buy Stella Artois 0.0%

On 29 October 2026 The Alcohol Free Co and Dry Drinker each had six bottles for £11.86, and Wise Bartender single cans at £1.80; those are affiliate links. The supermarkets were cheaper for cans: four for £4.50 at Sainsbury’s, and ten for £8 on offer at Morrisons. Tesco’s bottles were out of stock.

Looking for something like full-strength Stella? Our Stella Artois swap guide has more alcohol-free lagers in the same style, and our guide to the best Belgian alcohol-free beer covers the rest of Belgium.

Facts checked against Budweiser Brewing Group, AB InBev, VRT, Lost Beers, Visit Leuven, Wikipedia, City AM, Trade & Invest Wales, The Caterer, Drinks Intel, the Morning Advertiser, Wholesale Manager, Convenience Store, Better Retailing, The Drinks Business, Beverage Industry, Brewbound, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, The Alcohol Free Co, Dry Drinker and Wise Bartender, 31 October 2026.