Björt launches in UK as low-carb lager for keto drinkers

Björt is entering the UK as one of the more serious attempts to make beer work for keto drinkers. Each 330ml bottle carries just 0.3g of carbohydrates, 115 calories and 4.2% ABV, while the company says an average 330ml lager usually lands somewhere between 8g and 13g of carbs. At £2.85 a bottle, it is not being sold as a bargain fridge filler. It is being positioned as a premium low-carb pour for people who want a pint-shaped drink without blowing up the day’s carb count.

The pitch comes from Hrefna Bachmann, who developed the idea after returning to Iceland during the pandemic and tightening her own diet to 22g of carbohydrates a day. That is the kind of number keto readers will recognize immediately: one standard beer can eat a meaningful chunk of a daily cap, even before dinner is on the plate. Björt’s answer is simple, if commercially shrewd. It is marketed as low-carb, naturally gluten free and “born in Iceland, brewed in England,” a line that gives it both Nordic cachet and UK production credibility.

The brewing happens under licence at Hepworth Brewery in Sussex, through Hepworth & Company Brewers Limited, which was incorporated on 13 September 2000. CAMRA says Hepworth started brewing in Horsham in 2001 and moved to its purpose-built site in 2016, so this is not a fly-by-night contract plant dressing up a fad beer. The brewery pedigree matters here because the low-carb beer category lives or dies on whether the liquid tastes like beer, not like a thin compliance exercise.

For keto drinkers, the real question is whether Björt meaningfully supports staying in ketosis or mostly offers lifestyle branding with fewer carbs. On paper, 0.3g is tiny, and it sits comfortably within the broad low-carb framework used by Diabetes UK and Heart UK, which defines ketogenic eating at under 50g of carbs a day. NHS-linked guidance still treats beer as a high-carbohydrate alcohol choice to limit, which is exactly why a product like this has room to sell. The catch is unchanged: the carbs are almost negligible, but the alcohol and calories are still there.

Björt is already being pushed beyond niche health-food positioning. It has been listed on several high-end restaurant menus and served to VIP guests at a world-first cinematic screening of Sir David Attenborough’s A Gorilla Story, with PR, social media and sampling set to do the rest. That is the real play here: not just a keto beer, but a premium beer that wants to look at home anywhere a standard lager would, while taking far less out of your carb budget.