Best Non-Alcoholic Craft Beers
Craft non-alcoholic beer is where the shelf gets interesting: hop aroma, wheat-beer foam, crisp pilsner bitterness, dark roast, and cans that still taste good halfway through.
Start with the beer style you already like
Craft NA beer is not one thing. A hazy IPA, dry IPA, pilsner, wheat beer, stout, and light lager do not solve the same craving. Start with the style you already reach for when alcohol is not part of the question.
The best craft NA beers have a first impression and a finish: aroma when you open it, flavor on the sip, and enough bitterness, malt, or roast to make another sip sound good.
Where to buy
For craft NA beer, I would build a small style flight: hazy IPA, dry IPA, pilsner, wheat beer, and dark beer.
IPA and hazy IPA
Athletic Free Wave and Run Wild are still the first two craft NA beers I would compare. Free Wave is softer, citrusy, and closer to hazy IPA. Run Wild is drier, more bitter, and better with food.
Sierra Nevada Trail Pass IPA and Best Day West Coast IPA are the next cans I would put next to them. That gives you a quick read on whether you want soft hop aroma or a sharper finish.
Pilsner, lager, and wheat beer
Bitburger 0.0 gives you a crisp German pilsner reference point. It is not a small craft brand, but it belongs in this conversation because it shows what dry, cold, clean NA beer can do.
Erdinger and Weihenstephaner are better when you want wheat-beer body, foam, grain, and a softer finish. They are not IPA substitutes, and they should not be judged like one.
Dark beer
Guinness 0 and Athletic All Out show why dark NA beer matters. Roast, coffee, cocoa, and creamy foam give you something different from the IPA shelf.
Dark NA beer can still drink lighter than regular stout, but it gives you a better winter or dinner option than another pale lager.
A first craft NA beer flight
If I were introducing someone to craft NA beer, I would pour Athletic Free Wave, Athletic Run Wild, Bitburger 0.0, Erdinger or Weihenstephaner, and Guinness 0. That is not one style; it is a fast tour of the shelf.
After that, it is much easier to know whether the next order should be hazy, bitter, crisp, wheat-heavy, or dark.
Bottom line
For a first craft NA beer order, buy Free Wave, Run Wild, Bitburger, one German wheat beer, and one dark beer. That tells you more than chasing one trendy can.