My Dad and I Tried Tom Holland’s Nonalcoholic Beer—Here’s Our Honest Review

There was a time when the mere mention of a nonalcoholic beer would send whispers of judgment and confusion across the bar. I remember serving a customer once who ordered a Clausthaler. When I collected it from the bartender, she said derisively, “Here’s your fake beer,” before plopping it onto my tray. I certainly scoffed at the idea then too.

But I have changed my tune on “fake beers” in the decades since, and I’m not the only one. There has been a new boon of nonalcoholic beverages hitting shelves, as well as a full-blown mocktail renaissance. So, when Tom Holland decided to enter the nonalcoholic beer game, I was intrigued. And, unbeknownst to me, so was my father.

What is Tom Holland’s nonalcoholic beer brand?

In 2024, Tom Holland launched BERO. He was inspired to do so after his own journey with sobriety. “I don’t think I realized how big a problem I had when it comes to alcohol until I gave it up,” he said in an interview with Food & Wine.

I understand this mentality completely, and I actually spent 15 months sober in my late twenties. Fed up with the intensity of my hangovers (not to mention the dollars I was pouring into food delivery and Ubers!) I wanted to prove to myself that I could spend a full year navigating everything without alcohol. That meant holidays, dating, work events, weddings and everything in between. It totally renewed my relationship with drinking, as I’m sure many people who participate in Dry January can confirm.

When my dad, Ted, had a heart attack in 2023, his doctor told him to cut back on alcohol. He said what he missed the most was the ritual of cracking open a cold one, especially after mowing the lawn or sitting down for the first football kickoff on Sundays. He told me that Tom Holland launching BERO was the first time he seriously considered giving a nonalcoholic beer another try. Of course, in typical dad fashion he didn’t tell me this at the time. He mentioned it a year later when I asked him if he wanted to try BERO’s new flavor, Double Tasty.

What does Tom Holland’s nonalcoholic beer taste like?

Hayley Schueneman for Taste Recipes

Double Tasty is a West Coast IPA, and it’s the newest addition to the BERO lineup. My dad and I chilled a 6-pack in the fridge before settling in for a game night. I figured the best way to try out the NA beer was by doing something we would normally do with regular beer.

We decided to drink the first one out of the can, and then pour the second one into a chilled pint glass. Right after cracking one open, I was immediately hit with that distinctively citrus smell of a classic West Coast IPA.

The first sip tasted exactly like regular beer. It was actually a little weird! The flavor was phenomenal: crisp, hoppy and bitter. My dad loved it too. “I’m not normally a fan of this style of beer, but it’s refreshing,” he said. The first can went down incredibly smoothly. “Well, it certainly burps like an IPA,” he said after finishing one can with a belch.

Next, we moved on to pouring the beer into a chilled pint glass. This is when we really started to go a little crazy, because it both felt and tasted like we were drinking a real beer. We kept marveling at it as we drank. “I feel like there is beer in here. But there’s not, right?” Ted said, picking up the can to inspect the label. “Nope, guess not.”

Another place where BERO stood out to us was how well it was able to keep a head when poured into a glass. “It pours with a nice head,” Ted remarked. “Other nonalcoholic beers never kept a good head, and aesthetically that always bothered me.” It might sound small, but it’s actually pretty important—who wants to keep drinking a beer that looks like its gone flat?

Would we buy Tom Holland’s nonalcoholic beer again?

The answer is a resounding yes! I was shocked at how good this beer was, and my dad was as well. Not only did it taste and look good, but it also tasted and looked like real beer. This is a remarkable breakthrough for the NA industry, in my opinion. I would seek this out to have on hand for days when I don’t want to feel the after-effects of drinking beer, but am sick of drinking sparkling water or soda.

I don’t think of my dad as a particularly harsh judge of anything, but I do think it takes a lot to really impress him. This is the same man who once said in all seriousness, “Soda does nothing for me.” So obviously there’s a high bar to clear in Ted’s beverage world. I asked him for his final thoughts on the tasting experiment, and this is what he had to say:

“This tastes like a real beer to me. Certain days I have a taste for a beer, like if it’s hot out or I worked up a sweat. But I don’t always want the alcohol buzz, because then I have two beers and I feel like I want to lie down. I have sampled many nonalcoholic beers. I’d rank this as the best one.”

Well, there you have it folks. The official dad seal of approval. If you haven’t had a chance to try out BERO, you might just want to add it to your cart.