Let’s cut to the chase — if you’re here, you’re probably exploring how to remove alcohol from your beverage while keeping it delicious, shelf-stable, and scalable. Maybe you’ve heard terms like vacuum distillation or reverse osmosis thrown around. Or maybe you’re just trying to figure out the best way to launch a non-alcoholic product that won’t fall flat — literally or figuratively.

Whatever brought you here, we’ve got you covered.

At BevZero, we’ve been doing this for over 30 years. From winemakers to entrepreneurs with bold ideas, we’ve helped brands around the world remove alcohol without removing what makes their drink special. Here are the most common questions we get about alcohol removal services, answered directly and honestly.

1. What Are the Main Dealcoholization Methods, and What Are the Trade-Offs?

There’s no one-size-fits-all method. Different beverages and brand goals require different approaches. Here’s a quick breakdown of the top methods — and what you need to know about each.

Vacuum Distillation (Low Temp) — Our go-to method at BevZero

• Low Heat: Uses temperatures around 30–45°C under high vacuum. Product only touches heat for a few seconds.
• Fast Processing: No matter the size of your batch, you can remove a small amount of alcohol for adjustment, or remove alcohol down to <0.5% abv for low or no alcohol beverages in a single pass.
  • For alcohol adjustment, only 10% of the total wine is needed
• Flavor Preservation: Excellent — we can capture and return delicate aromas.
• Scalable: Yes — from small runs to 3000 L/h.
• Downside? Higher cost, if planning to purchase equipment but it pays off in quality and yield. For service only, cost can be comparable.

🔄 Reverse Osmosis (RO)

• No Heat: Uses membranes to separate alcohol and water.
• Gentle on Flavor: But some aroma loss is hard to avoid.
• Moderate Output: Better for smaller operations or batch work. Takes multiple passes to remove more alcohol.
• Downside? Can require blending and recovery steps, increasing complexity. Cost can add up with multiple passes.

At BevZero, we exclusively use very low temperature vacuum distillation — not because it’s trendy, but because it works. It’s how we preserve quality, minimize waste, and scale with you.

2. How Do You Keep Aroma, Flavor, and Mouthfeel?

Here’s the truth: alcohol carries a lot of the aroma and body in a drink. So when you remove it, you’ve got to know how to put that magic back in.

What you typically lose:

• Fruity esters
• Floral and citrusy terpenes
• Structural compounds that give body

What we do:

• Capture aroma compounds first, before removing alcohol.
• Return them to the final product after the alcohol is gone.
• Use sweet spotting techniques to dial in just the right ABV for balance.
• Help you add structure back with blending strategies or natural mouthfeel enhancers.

Bottom line: if your product doesn’t smell great or feel right on the palate, it won’t sell. We make sure it checks all the boxes.

3. What Are the Key Process Parameters?

If you like to geek out on specs (we do too), here are the basic parameters we work with for vacuum distillation:

• Temp: ~30–45°C (way below boiling)
• Vacuum Pressure: Ultra-low, creating ideal conditions for gentle alcohol removal
• Contact Time: Seconds, not minutes
• Flow Rate: we scale to your production
• ABV Outcome: Anywhere from slight reduction to <0.05% or <0.02%

It’s a clean, controlled process — designed for consistency and flexibility. And yes, we handle it all so you don’t have to become a vacuum engineer overnight.

4. How Does Dealcoholization Impact Shelf-Life and Stability?

Dealcoholization impacts shelf-life more than most people think.

Here’s the deal: alcohol is a natural preservative. So when you remove it, your beverage becomes more sensitive to microbes and oxygen.

But we plan for that. Depending on your product, we’ll recommend:

• Storage Conditions: Product should be kept at less than 40F, and above 33F prior to bottling.
• Production:
  • Wine should be packaged as soon as possible (within 2 weeks of dealcoholization)
  • Sterile filtration (e.g., 0.45 micron crossflow)
  • Flash pasteurization or dimethyl dicarbonate, DMDC (velcorin) is highly recommended be used prior to bottling. Packaging without one of these options can lead to fermentation in the bottle.
  • Nitrogen blanketing to reduce oxidation risk
• Airtight Packaging: yes, we’ll help you choose the right closure too

With the right approach, your non-alcoholic product can have a safe, long shelf-life without loading it with additives.

Let’s Be Straight: You Need a Real Partner

We’re not just another service provider. At BevZero, we’re engineers, enologists, food scientists, and creators — and we’ve been shaping this space since the ‘90s.

✔ Want to lower alcohol just a bit?
✔ Looking to launch a zero-proof wine or spirit?
✔ Need help with compliance, bottling, or flavor recovery?

We do all of that, and more.

Let’s make your next product exceptional — and commercially viable.

👉 Contact BevZero Online now or reach out to us at [email protected]