Non-Alcoholic Beer Prices in India: What a Can Costs and Why

A fair question we often hear is why SOMA costs ₹149 when it is under 0.5% ABV. If alcohol were the expensive part of a beer, a beer with very little alcohol should cost less. Here is why the opposite is true, and what the money pays for.

A complete beer, made with a specialist yeast

SOMA is not a beer with something taken out. It is a complete craft beer, made with everything that goes into a ₹300 beer at a taproom: a full mash, real malt and hops, and a real fermentation. The difference is the yeast. We ferment with a maltose-negative strain, which is a brewer's yeast that cannot eat maltose, the main sugar in beer wort. It ferments the simple sugars, creates the esters and the full flavour of a real beer, and leaves the alcohol under 0.5% ABV. This yeast is a specialist ingredient rather than a standard one. The recipe has to be built around it, and if a batch does not turn out as planned, we will not ship it. So SOMA has every cost of a regular craft beer, and it also uses a rarer ingredient and leaves less room for error.

Small batches cost more per can

The big international brands of non-alcoholic lager are brewed in enormous volumes, and that scale lowers their cost per can. We do not have that scale yet. Our first batches will be small. Every fixed cost, such as lab time, tank time and canning runs, is shared across fewer cans. It is the same reason that an IPA at your favourite taproom costs more than a mass-market lager. Non-alcoholic craft beer is an even younger category than craft beer.

Every batch is tested in a lab

Every batch is pasteurised and then tested. The lab confirms that the alcohol is under 0.5% ABV and that the beer is microbiologically safe, and a taste panel compares it with a reference sample. For a non-alcoholic beer, this testing is not paperwork. It is how we keep our main promise, which is the alcohol figure printed on the can. We would rather pay for this testing on every batch, for as long as we make beer, than guess.

Keeping the beer fresh costs more

Non-alcoholic beer keeps its hop aroma best when it stays cold and reaches you soon after it is canned. We plan to keep SOMA cold until it reaches you, which costs more than storing it in a warm warehouse. Delivery in Bangalore will cost a flat ₹29.

What the price pays for, and when it will come down

At our scale, a 500ml can of SOMA costs ₹149, a 6-pack costs ₹894, and SOMA Club subscribers pay a further 10% to 20% less. Most of that price goes on the specialist yeast and the small batches. As our batches grow, our costs per can will come down, and you will see that in our list price.

How ₹149 compares

Compared with a ₹120 mass-market lager, ₹149 is a premium price. Compared with the ₹250 to ₹400 you pay for a pint of craft beer at a bar, ₹149 is lower. That pint also comes with a trip home, and the alcohol in it can leave you with a hangover the next day. A can of SOMA in your own fridge is a craft beer you can drink on a Tuesday evening and still get up for a 7am start. Seen that way, it is the cheaper option.

The short version

The ₹149 price pays for a full craft brew, a specialist yeast, small batches, and keeping the beer cold until it reaches you. When larger batches bring our costs down, we will lower our price as well. Our plan is for SOMA to become the beer that people in Bangalore keep in the fridge as a habit, and a beer like that cannot be priced as a luxury.

SOMA makes five beers: Sundowner, Juice Riot, Sunday Wit, Dark Arts and Dark Arts Espresso. A 500ml can costs ₹149 at launch (MRP ₹189), a 250ml can costs ₹99 (MRP ₹149), and a 6-pack of 500ml cans costs ₹894. Every SOMA is under 0.5% ABV, and every batch is lab-tested. You can pre-order at shop.getsoma.store. Production starts after December 2026, and nothing ships before then.