Regional brewers collaborate on 2.5% ABV beers

Today’s adults are looking to consume less alcohol. 

According to a 2025 report from data analytics company Circana, nearly half of adults aged 21+ aim to reduce their alcohol consumption. 

As a result, some regional craft brewers are responding by creating a lower-alcohol beer.  

Philadelphia-based Soul Tone is collaborating with Pottstown’s Sly Fox Brewing Company and Pivo Nova Brewing, a Lehigh Valley beverage innovation company owned and operated by the Kester family.  

This spring. Soul Tone is launching 2.5% ABV beers that it said utilize traditional ingredients and brewing techniques, resulting in flavor profiles comparable to beers with significantly higher alcohol content. 

 According to a press release, the Pivo Nova team has dedicated more than a decade of research to develop a proprietary technique for precisely controlling a beer’s ABV while retaining the body, flavor and drinkability of craft beer.   

Soul Tone aims to offer beers that deliver an alternative to both non-alcoholic beers and “session” beers that typically fall around 4-5% ABV. 

 “Craft beer lovers shouldn’t have to sacrifice real beer flavor when limiting alcohol intake by resorting to NA beers. Now there is a true alternative,” said Greg Kester, who spearheads Pivo Nova’s development team. “We’ve created something truly different. Soul Tone delivers the complex character and body of a world-class beer with a much lower alcohol content than most craft beers – and without the dilution, mechanical alcohol-stripping, artificial processes, non-conventional yeasts or fermentation blockers used in production of most NA beers or other mid-strength brews.” 

Soul Tone is launching with two styles of beer: a hoppy West Coast–style IPA and a German–style pilsner, both landing at 2.5% ABV.  

Recent research from the United Kingdom indicates that 50 percent of consumers prefer two mid-strength drinks over one full-strength option, and 13% are choosing to “coast” their evenings by only drinking mid-strength beverages.   

 While overall beer sales have declined gradually in recent years, peer-reviewed forecasts and industry evidence indicate that low-alcohol beer (including 2-3% ABV ‘mid-strength’ products) is a structurally expanding segment in the United States, with a forecasted 8-9% compounded annual growth rate, mirroring the growth witnessed internationally the beer makers said.  

 “We’ve seen the rise of mid-strength beer and consumers choosing lower alcohol options in the UK and Australia over the last several years,” said Peter Giannopoulos, president of Brewery Operations at Sly Fox. “Across the pond, NA beers have been a popular choice for a much longer time than the recent boom in the U.S., and we’re anticipating a similar rise in popularity of lower-alcohol options in the American craft beer market, as well.”