The founder who quit drinking for his health, then built Canada's leading non-alcoholic beer

From a Crohn's diagnosis to a non-alcoholic bottle shop

Ted Fleming was 25 when he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2005. To keep the condition under control he made a hard call and gave up alcohol. What surprised him was not how much he missed the beer itself, but how much he missed everything around it: the beer after a game of hockey, the round with colleagues at the end of a long day, the toast at a celebration. The non-alcoholic options on the shelf at the time were, in his words, almost universally bad.

So he went looking. Around 2013, Fleming built what he describes as one of the first dedicated non-alcoholic beer shops and e-commerce platforms in North America, importing the handful of genuinely good non-alcoholic beers being made in Europe. That business did not make him rich, but it did something more useful. It put him face to face with thousands of customers who wanted the same thing he did, and it taught him everything about a category almost nobody was taking seriously yet.

“If you're solving a problem someone genuinely has, you're 90 per cent of the way there.”

In 2017, Fleming stopped importing other people's beer and started brewing his own, launching Partake Brewing with a Kickstarter campaign. He bootstrapped the early days on purpose, avoiding outside money so the operation stayed lean and disciplined, something he later credited as an advantage rather than a constraint. The first hero product was an India Pale Ale engineered to deliver real hop-forward flavour at just 10 calories a can. As demand grew, he raised a 4 million dollar Series A in 2020 led by CircleUp Growth Partners to push into the United States, and a larger round in 2022 to keep scaling.

What they actually make

The IPA: The signature is a non-alcoholic IPA brewed with Cascade, Amarillo, and Citra-style hops. It is 10 calories, less than 0.5% ABV, with 2 grams of sugar and 0 carbs, and it is the beer that has won the brand most of its medals.

The lineup: Beyond the IPA, Partake brews a Blonde, a Pale Ale, a Red, a Stout, a Hazy IPA, a Peach Gose, and rotating seasonals. Every beer sits under 0.5% ABV and most land between 10 and 30 calories, which is a fraction of the 150 to 250 calories in a typical full-strength craft beer.

The variety packs: Most people meet the brand through a variety pack, which is the smart entry point into a category where taste varies a lot from brand to brand. Partake leans on the fact that its beers are brewed as full beers rather than dressed-up flavoured water, which is why they hold up in blind tastings.

How it compares to other non-alcoholic beer brands

Non-alcoholic beer is one of the fastest-growing corners of the drinks aisle, and Canada has quietly produced several strong independent brands. Here is where Partake lands next to other non-alcoholic beers you might find on the shelf:

Categories and positioning reflect publicly listed information on each brand's site as of June 2026. Pricing intentionally omitted because it varies materially by retailer. See the live product links below. For another founder-led Canadian beverage built around a health story, see our Maple Made edition on Benny.

Why people love it, beyond the beer

Partake earns loyalty for two reasons that reinforce each other. The first is simple: it tastes like beer. Fleming has said the brand has won close to a dozen World Beer Awards and a stack of other medals, judged purely on taste against beers many times its calorie count. For people who are skeptical that non-alcoholic beer can be good, the awards are the proof and the 10-calorie number is the hook.

The second reason is the mission underneath it. Partake is a certified B Corporation, and the whole brand is built around giving people who cannot or choose not to drink a real seat at the table. That covers people managing a condition like Crohn's, people in recovery, expecting parents, athletes, and anyone driving home. It is a brand that started as one person solving his own problem, and it kept that empathy as it scaled. Customers feel it, and they tend to bring friends into it.

What the press is saying

Where to actually buy it

Each link below goes directly to a Partake product page or the brand's live store locator, not just a homepage, so you can add a real item to your cart or find a shop near you without hunting:

Across Canada, Partake is also carried at Sobeys, Loblaws, Whole Foods Market, Walmart, and London Drugs, and is available for same-day delivery on Instacart Canada. Use the store locator to find the nearest shelf.

Frequently asked questions

Bottom line

Partake Brewing is what happens when a founder builds the product he personally needed. Ted Fleming lost the ability to drink, refused to lose the ritual, and turned a niche nobody respected into one of the best-selling non-alcoholic craft beer brands in North America, all from a base in Calgary. The beer is genuinely good. The reason it exists is better. If you have never tried it, the variety pack is the simplest place to start. For another Canadian beverage worth knowing, read our Maple Made profile of Sapsucker.