Iguana

Iguana is the result. It started from a question that most breweries don't ask: what if the by-products of brewing — specifically the spent yeast — were a resource rather than a waste stream? DRINK ID developed a proprietary extraction process to pull the full set of amino acids from brewer's yeast and reintroduce them into the finished beer. The result is a non-alcoholic lager that contains all 20 amino acids used in protein synthesis, alongside dietary fibre and white mulberry extract.

The process is patented. That matters, because the functional drinks market is full of products that sprinkle in a named ingredient for marketing purposes. Iguana's amino acid content isn't a label claim bolted on to a standard beer recipe; it's the architecture of the product.

In terms of flavour, it's a clean European-style lager: pale, mildly bitter, uncomplicated. It's not trying to win craft beer awards. The point is what it does rather than what it tastes like — and for a growing number of drinkers, that trade-off is completely acceptable.

In the UK market, Iguana arrived primarily through Morrisons, where it's stocked as Gym Beer. The Gym Beer variant pushes the functional angle further, adding branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and caffeine from guarana extract to the base formula. It's positioned squarely at the gym-adjacent consumer: someone who wants to wind down with something that looks and feels like a beer but isn't working against their training.

The NutriScore A rating and certified vegan status give it traction with health-conscious buyers who would otherwise scroll straight past the beer aisle. At the price point Morrisons sells it, it's comfortably the cheapest functional non-alcoholic beer in the UK market.

What's interesting about Iguana is the honesty of the positioning. There's no attempt to dress it up as a premium craft experience. The Gym Beer name says exactly what the product is and who it's for. That directness is refreshing in a category that can tie itself in knots trying to be all things to all people.

The wider Iguana range in Poland is more varied, including a Metabolism BIO variant and seasonal releases, though the UK presence remains concentrated in the Gym Beer format. Whether DRINK ID expands that range into British retail depends on how receptive the market is to the functional lager proposition — and so far, the early signs via Morrisons suggest there's an audience.