The Best Protein Beers You Can Actually Buy in 2026
Beer / Functional
The Best Protein Beers You Can Actually Buy in 2026
Most “best protein beer” lists are museums. They rank products that stopped being made years ago and quote press releases from 2016. So I went through the category and checked which protein beers are still alive, what is actually in them, and whether any of it makes sense.
By Vim, Editor of 12×75
The short answer
- Best overall, and the one Americans can actually buy: Optimum Nutrition ChampionSips. 10g protein, 90 calories, under 0.5% ABV, about $15.99 a four-pack.
- Best in the UK: Lifted, 10g plant protein per 330ml can, alcohol-free, sold direct and through sports-nutrition retailers.
- Most protein: JoyBräu from Germany, 20g a can on its current Lemon and Grapefruit products. Availability varies a lot by country.
- Not a current buy: Barbell Brew, the 21.8g product everyone still cites. It launched in 2016 and availability has been inconsistent ever since. Treat it as history.
- The honest framing: a protein beer is a functional soft drink with a beer flavour, not a protein source. Ten grams is a snack, not a shake.
There is a specific problem with searching for protein beer, which is that the internet remembers it better than the shops do. The most famous product in the category, the one with the biggest protein number, effectively stopped being a reliable purchase years ago, and half the pages ranking for the term still lead with it. Meanwhile three genuinely current products exist, in three different markets, and almost nobody lists them together.
So this is a short list rather than a padded one. I have written about the ChampionSips launch and about the non-alcoholic beers worth drinking, and this sits between the two: the functional end of a category that has spent three years being reinvented. Everything below is checked against the brand’s own current product page, and I have flagged where those pages disagree with each other.
The best protein beers in 2026
Current products, compared
JoyBräu Protein BeerProtein 20gABV Alcohol-freeCalories Check current SKUMarket Germany, varies internationally
Optimum Nutrition ChampionSipsProtein 10g per 16ozABV Under 0.5%Calories 90Market United States
LiftedProtein 10g per 330mlABV Alcohol-free, verify SKUCalories About 55 to 73, verify SKUMarket United Kingdom
Barbell Brew (historical)Protein 21.8g claimedABV 3.6%Calories About 92 claimedMarket UK, 2016, availability inconsistent
Nutrition is as stated by each brand on its current product pages. Protein beer SKUs change often, so check the can in front of you.
1. Best overall, and the easiest to buy in the US
Optimum Nutrition ChampionSips
Protein10g, from pea and rice proteinCalories90Carbs11gFat0gABVUnder 0.5%Size16 fl oz canBrewed byWisconsin Brewing CompanyPriceAbout $15.99 per four-packStyleNon-alcoholic American pils
The most significant thing about ChampionSips is not the protein. It is who made it. Optimum Nutrition is the biggest sports-nutrition brand on earth, and when the company that sells the tub in every gym bag decides beer is a category, that is a different scale of signal from a startup with a crowdfunding page.
It is also a real brew rather than a flavoured drink: made with Wisconsin Brewing Company from water, malted barley and hops in an American pilsner style, with pea and rice protein worked in without wrecking the clarity. Reviewers describe it as recognisably beer-like, crisp and citrusy, with the protein not announcing itself the way it does in a shake. Men’s Fitness called it a crisp non-alcoholic pils that drinks like one.
Two precision points. It is under 0.5% ABV, not 0.0%, and the official wording matters if you avoid alcohol entirely; the difference is explained in non-alcoholic versus alcohol-free. And it is sold online through Optimum Nutrition with shipping restrictions in some US states, so check before you order.
The one to buy if you are in America and curious. Good beer, modest protein, sensible price.
2. Best in the UK
Lifted
Protein10g plant-based per 330mlCaloriesAbout 55 to 73, depending on SKUCarbsAround 7gABVAlcohol-free, verify the SKUDietVeganStylesLager and IPAWhereDirect from the brand and UK sports-nutrition retailers
The British answer, and the reason the UK has had protein beer longer than America has. Lifted is alcohol-free, vegan, 10g of plant protein a can, and unambiguous about who it is for: the marketing is aimed squarely at athletes and post-workout drinking. The lager is the one to start with, and there is an IPA in the range if you want more hop character.
Check the can, not the listing. Lifted’s own product pages and its retailers currently show slightly different calorie and alcohol figures across SKUs. That is not unusual for a small brand iterating on recipes, but it means the number on the page you are reading may not be the number on the can you are holding. The 10g protein claim is consistent; the calories are not.
The default choice in Britain, and leaner than the American option on calories.
3. The most protein in a can
JoyBräu
Protein20g on current Lemon and Grapefruit productsProtein sourcePlant-basedABVAlcohol-freeOriginGermanyAvailabilityVaries considerably by country
Germany got here first and went furthest. JoyBräu puts 20g of plant protein in a can, double what ChampionSips and Lifted manage, on its current Lemon and Grapefruit products. If the protein number is the only thing you care about among products you can actually buy, this is the answer.
The catch is distribution. JoyBräu sells across parts of Europe and the Middle East, but availability varies a lot by market and it is not a straightforward US purchase. Check before you plan around it.
Twice the protein of anything else current. Half the chance of finding it, depending where you live.
Historical benchmark, not a current buy
Barbell Brew
Protein21.8g per 330ml, as claimed at launchABV3.6%Launched2016, by MuscleFood in the UKStatusAvailability has been inconsistent; treat as historical
Every protein beer article still leads with this one, and it is the reason the category’s search results are so misleading. Barbell Brew launched in 2016 with a 21.8g protein claim and 3.6% alcohol, picked up a wave of novelty coverage, and has not been a dependable purchase for years. It belongs in the story as the product that started the conversation. It does not belong in a list of things to buy today unless you have independently confirmed current stock.
Half the internet’s best protein beers are out of production. The category’s biggest number belongs to a bottle from 2016.
What is protein beer?
A beer-style drink formulated or fortified to contain materially more protein than ordinary beer. That is the whole definition, and the word “formulated” is doing the work: this protein does not come from the malt. It is added, usually as pea or rice protein in the current alcohol-free products, and the technical achievement is getting it into a clear, carbonated, beer-textured liquid without producing something cloudy and heavy.
Most of the current products are alcohol-free, and that is not a coincidence. A drink aimed at people who train makes more conceptual sense without alcohol in it, and the non-alcoholic brewing techniques that improved so much over the last five years are what made these drinks palatable in the first place.
How much protein is in normal beer?
Very little, which is the point. Mainstream beers generally carry only small amounts of protein: nutrition databases commonly show figures around 0.3 to 0.5g per 100ml for large commercial brands, which works out at roughly one to two grams in a pint. Those are illustrative rather than universal values, and they vary by style, but the order of magnitude is what matters.
So a 10g can is delivering something like five to ten times what a normal beer does, and a 20g can considerably more. That is a genuine difference, and it is also why nobody can market an ordinary lager as a protein drink. The gap has to be engineered.
What about Guinness? Stout has a bit more body than a pale lager, and the folklore about Guinness being nutritious is very old. It is still beer: a pint contains a couple of grams of protein at most, nowhere near a purpose-built product. If you want the stout without the alcohol, that is a different guide.
Is protein beer alcoholic?
Sometimes, but the strongest current products are not. ChampionSips is under 0.5% ABV, Lifted is alcohol-free and JoyBräu is alcohol-free. The one famous alcoholic example, Barbell Brew at 3.6%, is also the one you cannot reliably buy.
That pattern makes sense. The audience for a protein drink overlaps heavily with the audience for no-alcohol options, and it is the same shift that has changed how younger drinkers approach the whole category. Building a protein beer with alcohol in it means selling a recovery product that works against recovery, which is a difficult brief for a marketing department and a worse one for a nutritionist.
Does protein beer taste like a protein shake?
No, and that is the main thing the current products get right. The old fear about this category was a chalky, cloudy drink with protein texture, and the reason ChampionSips and Lifted are worth taking seriously is that they are clear, carbonated and crisp.
ChampionSips reads as an American pilsner: citrus, light hops, a clean finish, with the protein staying out of the way. Lifted describes a crisp lager profile, with an IPA in the range for more bitterness. Neither will be confused with a great craft beer, and neither is trying to be. The bar they need to clear is “this tastes like beer,” and they clear it. If you want to know why a lager is the sensible base for this rather than an ale, that difference is here.
Is protein beer good after a workout?
Here is where I want to be careful, because this is the claim the category leans on hardest and the one that deserves the most scrutiny.
Protein intake after exercise is nutritionally relevant, and nobody disputes that. But 10g is roughly a protein bar, or a third of a typical scoop of whey. Anyone training seriously is aiming at something like 1.6g of protein per kilo of bodyweight a day, which for an 80kg person is around 130g. One can is about 8% of that. Nobody hits a macro target with beer, and the companies selling these drinks know it, because most of them also sell the tub that does.
What the alcohol-free versions genuinely offer is the absence of alcohol, which at any meaningful dose works against the things people train for. Swapping a real beer for one of these after the gym is a sensible trade: fewer calories, no alcohol, a little protein. Calling it a recovery product is a stretch.
This is general information and not nutrition or medical advice. If you are building a training diet, the protein in your food matters considerably more than the protein in a can of anything.
Protein beer vs protein shake
Two different jobs
Protein beerProtein 10 to 20gCalories 55 to 90Alcohol None or under 0.5%Best for A social drink with a nutritional upside
Protein shakeProtein 20 to 30g typicalCalories Varies widelyAlcohol NoneBest for Actually meeting a protein target
A protein beer is not a substitute for a dedicated protein food or supplement. It is a better can than the can it replaces.
The honest comparison is not shake versus beer. It is protein beer versus the thing you would otherwise be drinking. Against a regular lager, the alcohol-free protein version wins on calories, on alcohol and marginally on protein. Against a shake, it loses on every nutritional measure and wins only on the fact that you can hold it at a barbecue without explaining yourself.
Can you trust the numbers on the can?
In the United States, more than you might think. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has official methods for validating nutrient statements on alcohol beverage labels and advertising, with protein measured by a Kjeldahl-based method, and published tolerance rules governing how close the stated figure has to be to the measured one. A protein claim on a US label is not just a marketing number.
That is worth knowing in a category whose most-quoted figure comes from a 2016 press release for a product you cannot buy. Verified labelling is the difference between a nutrition claim and a headline, and it is the reason I have stuck to brands’ current official product pages throughout rather than repeating old coverage.
Where to buy protein beer
United States. ChampionSips is sold online through Optimum Nutrition, with shipping restrictions in some states. It is not a supermarket product.
United Kingdom. Lifted sells direct and through sports-nutrition retailers rather than the beer aisle, which tells you how the category is positioned here: this is sold next to whey, not next to lager.
Europe and elsewhere. JoyBräu is the established name, with distribution that varies considerably by country. Check local availability before assuming.
The common thread is that protein beer is largely a direct and specialist purchase rather than a grocery one. That is a young category doing what young categories do, and it is also why so many of them quietly disappear.
Protein beer FAQ
What beer has the most protein?
Among products you can currently buy, JoyBräu, with 20g a can on its Lemon and Grapefruit products. Barbell Brew claimed 21.8g at launch in 2016, but availability has been inconsistent since.
Is there a beer with 20g of protein?
Yes. JoyBräu’s current alcohol-free protein beers are stated at 20g per can.
How much protein is in ChampionSips?
10g per 16 fl oz can, from pea and rice protein, alongside 90 calories, 11g carbs and no fat.
Is ChampionSips real beer?
It is a real brew, made by Wisconsin Brewing Company from malted barley and hops in an American pilsner style, with protein added. It contains under 0.5% alcohol, so it is sold as non-alcoholic rather than as beer in the usual sense.
Does beer naturally contain protein?
Only a little. Mainstream beers commonly show around 0.3 to 0.5g per 100ml, roughly one to two grams in a pint. Purpose-built protein beers add five to twenty times that.
Does Guinness contain protein?
A small amount, like any beer. The nutritional reputation is folklore rather than fact; a pint has a couple of grams at most.
Is protein beer alcoholic?
Most current products are not. ChampionSips is under 0.5%, Lifted and JoyBräu are alcohol-free. The best-known alcoholic example, Barbell Brew at 3.6%, is historical.
Is protein beer good after the gym?
It is a better post-workout can than a regular beer, mainly because it removes the alcohol and some calories. The protein is modest, about 8% of a serious daily target, so treat it as a drink with an upside rather than a recovery product.
Does protein beer contain whey?
The current alcohol-free products use plant protein: pea and rice in ChampionSips, plant-based in Lifted and JoyBräu. None of the three is whey-based.
Is protein beer gluten-free?
Not automatically. ChampionSips is brewed with malted barley, so it is not gluten-free. Check each product individually.
Can protein beer replace a protein shake?
No. A shake typically delivers two to three times the protein with no alcohol and no carbonation. Protein beer replaces a beer, not a shake.
What happened to Barbell Brew?
It launched in the UK in 2016 through MuscleFood with a 21.8g protein claim and generated a lot of coverage. Availability has been inconsistent since, and it should be treated as a historical product rather than a current buy.
The verdict
Protein beer is a small, genuinely interesting category with a serious credibility problem, and the problem is other people’s articles. The products that exist are decent: ChampionSips is a real brew from a real brewery with a real sports-nutrition company behind it, Lifted is leaner and has been doing this longer, and JoyBräu has double the protein if you can get it.
Buy one because you want a good alcohol-free can with a nutritional bonus, which is a perfectly sensible thing to want. Do not buy one because you think it is a protein source, because ten grams is a snack. And do not buy the famous one with the biggest number, because it is from 2016 and it is probably not for sale.
It is a better can than the can it replaces. That is the honest case for protein beer, and it is enough.
Sources
- Optimum Nutrition: ChampionSips product page
- Lifted Brewing: product pages
- Protein Package: Lifted alcohol-free protein IPA listing
- JoyBräu: protein beer flavours
- JoyBräu international
- TTB: alcohol fact labeling methods
- TTB: nutrient statement tolerance procedure
- Men’s Fitness: ChampionSips review
- Eater: Barbell Brew, 2016
Nutrition figures are each brand’s own current published statements and change between SKUs and reformulations; check the can before relying on a number. Barbell Brew is included as a historical product, not a current recommendation. Nothing here is nutrition or medical advice. Correct as of September 24, 2026. Please drink responsibly.
