Carbonation, hops and pH: The science behind safer non‑alcoholic beer
July 6, 2026
By John Lovett
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Fast Facts
- A combination of moderate carbonation, low pH and hops can improve food safety protection when alcohol is absent
- Carbonation is not a stand-alone food safety measure for non-alcoholic beer
- Kettle souring reduced all tested pathogens to or below the laboratory limit of detection in two weeks
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Download PHOTOS of researchers and non-alcoholic beer
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — With careful recipe and process design, non-alcoholic beer can be made more resistant to foodborne pathogens, according to a new study that provides practical guidance on pH, carbonation and hops.
The non-alcoholic beer market has experienced double-digit growth in both sales and volume for at least the past four years, according to the Brewers Association. However, removing most of the alcohol also removes an important food safety protection.
Addressing these concerns, a team of food scientists with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station evaluated prevention methods for five common foodborne pathogens. They found that the most robust protection for non-alcoholic beer came when a moderately acidic pH of 4.2 or less was combined with a moderate level of hops and moderate carbonation.
“If intentionally designed, non-alcoholic beer can be safe,” said Scott Lafontaine, an assistant professor of food chemistry for the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. He is also co-director of the Center for Beverage Innovation.
Jennifer Acuff, an assistant professor of food microbiology and safety, joined Lafontaine on the study published in Frontiers in Microbiology under the title “Effects of Combinatorial Hurdles on a Non-Alcoholic Beer Matrix Challenged with Salmonella Javiana, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Bacillus cereus.”
The truth about carbonation
One of Lafontaine’s biggest takeaways from the study was a clearer understanding of carbonation’s contribution to the food safety of non-alcoholic beverages.
“A common assumption is that any CO₂ means a product is food safe, and this study shows that simply is not true,” he said. “Lower carbonation levels may still permit growth, and carbonation does not affect every pathogen in the same way.”
At pH 5.0 and without other protective hurdles, Listeria monocytogenes, for example, was able to grow in the presence of 1.5 volumes of carbonation. A hurdle is a food safety factor that helps prevent pathogen growth or survival.
As a point of reference, Champagne typically has a carbonation level of about 6 volumes, while most commercial beers have carbonation levels of 2 volumes or more.
“The distinct responses of the pathogens were quite interesting and not completely what we expected,” said Acuff, who is also a faculty member in the Division of Agriculture’s Center for Food Safety.
Acuff noted their research indicated that carbonation of at least 1.5 volumes was important for controlling Salmonella Javiana and Escherichia coli in the model non-alcoholic beer.
While not all bacteria were equally susceptible to carbonation, Acuff found the results reassuring that hurdles such as pH, carbonation and hops can work together to prevent the growth of several pathogens. It also became clear to her that “the extent to which these hurdles actually prevent growth or kill the bacteria is variable.”
Andrew Maust, the study’s first author and a Ph.D. student in food science, said food safety hurdles should be selected based on the specific organisms they are intended to control rather than treated as interchangeable protections.
“The main lesson is that different hurdles are effective against different organisms,” Maust said. “In our system, carbonation was especially important for controlling Salmonella and E. coli, while hop acids provided additional control against gram-positive bacteria such as Listeria. Lower pH provided broader protection and increased the effectiveness of the other hurdles. Because no single factor controls every organism, non-alcoholic beer should be designed using a combination of hurdles.”
The Arkansas findings complement a 2026 study led by Grzegorz “Greg” Rachon at Campden BRI in the United Kingdom and published in the Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists. Rachon’s team found that Escherichia coli O157 and Salmonella Enteritidis were inactivated in fully carbonated non-alcoholic beer, but they could grow when carbonation was low or had been lost. Added sugars also enhanced pathogen survival at some carbonation levels, reinforcing that carbonation must be considered alongside a beverage’s nutrient content and other food safety hurdles.
Rachon spoke on the topic at the Center for Beverage Innovation’s Non-Alcoholic Beer Research & Innovation Meeting in February 2026.
Wonders of kettle souring
The study also evaluated kettle souring, a brewing technique that lowers pH through lactic acid fermentation.
Commonly used to produce tart beer styles such as Berliner Weisse, kettle souring was the most promising strategy evaluated in the Arkansas study. By day 14, it had reduced all five tested pathogens to, or below, the laboratory limit of detection, meaning their populations were too low to be detected using the study’s standard culture methods.
For the study, the researchers inoculated wort, the sugar-rich liquid produced during mashing, with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, a lactic acid bacterium used in food fermentation. Over the course of 36 hours, the bacterium produced lactic acid and lowered the wort pH to 3.3. The wort was then boiled to inactivate the bacterium.
“This technique had basically never been proven out as a food safety strategy,” Lafontaine said of kettle souring. “A lot of work has been done using acetic acid, but not lactic acid.”
Sungil “Sun” Ferreira, an assistant professor in the department of food science and a co-author of the study, said the results demonstrate the potential value of kettle souring as one component of a broader food safety strategy.
“As more producers move toward non-alcoholic beer products, having data to understand the impact of alternative hurdles becomes critical, especially approaches like kettle acidification for sour beers,” Ferreira said. “This helps ensure safety while maintaining product quality in a rapidly growing segment of the beverage industry.”
Although pasteurization was not evaluated as an experimental variable in this study, Lafontaine said thermal pasteurization is commonly used to control vegetative pathogens in packaged non-alcoholic beer. Concerns about equipment costs and potential effects on flavor have led some brewers to explore additional or complementary preservation strategies.
Draft-line quality: the next research question
Cold storage is standard practice for kegged beer served on draft, Lafontaine noted, but more research is needed to understand how the microbial quality of draft lines affects non-alcoholic beer. Residual sugars, and potentially free amino nitrogen may, provide nutrients that support microbial survival or growth if contamination occurs within the keg, tubing, faucet or other parts of the dispensing system.
“How much sugar can you actually leave around before causing risk? How does that impact foodborne pathogens? That’s a little bit about the future research that we’d like to get into,” Lafontaine said.
Future research could examine how beverage composition, cold storage, draft-line cleanliness, sanitation frequency and dispensing practices influence microbial survival and growth. The goal would be to characterize the risks associated with draft-line quality and identify where contamination may occur as non-alcoholic beer moves from the keg to the consumer.
While bars and breweries commonly follow draft-line cleaning and sanitization protocols, Lafontaine said more work is needed to determine whether existing practices adequately address the composition and potential food safety risks of non-alcoholic beer.
About the authors and funding
Co-authors of the non-alcoholic beer food safety study included food science program associates Karina Desiree and Peter Rubinelli, Ph.D. The researchers recognized graduate students Samantha Perez, Vera Arthur and Travis Sananikone for their work in plating and enumerations.
The American Society of Brewing Chemists Research Council contributed funding for this work through grants in 2025.
To learn more about ag and food research in Arkansas, visit aaes.uada.edu. Follow the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station on LinkedIn and sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Arkansas Agricultural Research Report. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 22 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three system campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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Media Contact:
John Lovett
U of A Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station
(479) 763-5929
jlovett@uada.edu