The Move
BERO, the premium non-alcoholic beer brand co-founded by Tom Holland and John Herman, is launching its Kingston Golden Pils in a signature glass bottle — the first craft non-alcoholic beer in the US to do so — priced at $20 per 6-pack direct-to-consumer and through select restaurant and bar accounts in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Format & Market Context
Glass currently accounts for just over a quarter of non-alcoholic beer volume by consumer demand, a distant second to cans but a format that carries outsized weight in on-premise settings where placement alongside full-strength beer has historically been the norm. The launch positions BERO to compete more directly for draught-adjacent listings in bars, restaurants, and hotels — channels where packaging presentation directly influences menu placement and perceived price positioning. With U.S. non-alcoholic beer volumes projected to grow 18.0% annually through 2029, according to global beverage alcohol data cited by the company, operators in the hospitality segment face growing pressure to broaden their zero-alcohol offering beyond a single token SKU.
What It Means for Operators
"There's something distinct about the experience of glass: how it feels in your hand, how it pours, and even how refreshing the beer feels to drink," said John Herman, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of BERO. "We developed this bottle for the places we believe the category is going next — bars, restaurants, hotels and beyond." That on-premise ambition reflects a broader shift in non-alcoholic beverage strategy across the industry, as brands seek to close the experiential gap between alcohol-free and traditional beer at the table. For food and beverage operators, the arrival of a glass-format non-alc SKU from a brand with celebrity backing and existing retail distribution may simplify the case for adding a premium zero-proof option to the bottle list without requiring a dedicated non-alcoholic section.
The Kingston Golden Pils glass bottle is available immediately through berobrewing.com. The dual US-UK retail footprint suggests the brand is prioritising English-speaking markets where non-alcoholic beer penetration is already measurably higher than the global average, and where on-premise premiumisation trends have proven receptive to above-average price points for alcohol-free alternatives. At $20 per 6-pack — roughly $3.33 per bottle — BERO is pricing the glass SKU at a meaningful premium to most non-alcoholic can formats, a positioning consistent with its stated intent to occupy the top tier of the category.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
