In the former wool combing plant from 1885 in Hoboken, on a fire against the wall, there are two more mini versions of the distilling installation: basically just large cooking pots with tubes on the lid. For the rest: a large cold store, a stainless steel table and lots of pallets with cardboard boxes. Those boxes contain 5200 bottles, says Ina Simone Averhals. It is the first production of a new series of non-alcoholic beverages that she has made in recent months together with her partner Ruben Van Aken and partner Alexander Scott Wingfield Jones.

In their distilling installations, the three experimented with lemon geranium, verbena, shiso and huacatay, a herb related to mint. They picked most of the ingredients on their own organic field in Nijlen, near Lier. 'We have also made distillates from fruit,' says Van Aken. 'From cedar lemons, for example, an old citrus variety with a thick, aromatic skin. Our neighbor here in the wool combing plant is a coffee roaster and through him we got cascara, the dried skin of the coffee cherry. That is a by-product of coffee cultivation, but we have turned it into a distillate.'

Distillation is an old process – 'the Egyptians already did it' – and pure. Steam penetrates the herbs and dissolves flavors in the cloud of steam. When cooling, they precipitate and become liquid. In the cold store there are jerry cans full of clear liquids with concentrated flavors.

The dozens of distillates – from herbs and fruit to oak and fresh or roasted jalapeño peppers – form the basis for the non-alcoholic alternatives that the trio will launch in the coming weeks. 'We blend our distillates with verjuice, the juice of unripe grapes, until we get drinks that have so much complexity for us that they can stand next to a good glass of wine as an alternative,' says Averhals.

Van Aken cites an image of the aroma wheel, a tool that wine lovers use to analyze flavors. In the circle there are 88 aromas that we can discover in wine, divided into categories such as fruity, floral, woody and vegetal. 'In a good wine, you may discover spicy aromas, such as mint, but also fruit and sometimes even butter or brioche. 'Our alternatives have the same layering, but we don't achieve that by fermenting grape juice. We do it by distilling and blending. This gives you aromatic complexity, but without alcohol.'

Wine glasses appear on the stainless steel table and the capsule goes from a bottle of 'Alter Cuvée Pétillant', an alcohol-free alternative to sparkling wine. The basis: a distillate of lemon geranium from the company's own organic field, mixed with distillates of thyme and oak, and diluted with the juice of unripe Grüner Veltliner and Ugni Blanc grapes. The result is fresh and soft, with notes of citrus and southern spices. Yet this foam alternative also has length, a rare property in the realm of non-alcoholic alternatives.

The trio also developed an alcohol-free alternative to white and red wine. The 'Cuvée Blanc Cedro' is built on a base of cedar lemon and unfermented juice from grüner veltliner grapes, supplemented with home-grown lemon verbena. For the red alternative, they use the distillate of the husks of coffee cherry, along with the unripe juice of Austrian zweigelt grapes.

These three cuvées form the basis of Alter, the new brand of the trio. For the time being, they work with two distributors and a small selection of catering customers. For example, you can taste their non-alcoholic creations at Bloesem and Bar Misera in Antwerp.

The name Alter immediately holds the promise: an alternative to wine, full of complexity, but without alcohol. At the same time, the trio claims a separate category in the growing non-alcoholic beverage segment. Those who don't want alcohol quickly end up with kombucha, a fermentation with acetic acids and yeasts. Or with a derivative of tea. Or with drinks made with artificial flavors. 'If you read the ingredient list of many non-alcoholic drinks, you will see a lot of E numbers,' says Averhals. 'Artificial colours, preservatives, sweeteners. You may not drink alcohol, but many non-alcoholic alternatives are not a healthy alternative. We only use real, organic raw materials, without E numbers.'

Although they both have different day jobs – she is innovation officer at the Antwerp Management School, he is a graphic designer – Averhals (33) and Van Aken (33) have been working on distillates of plants and herbs for seven years. This stems from a shared preference for pure food and drink. 'We want to know where everything we put in our mouths comes from,' says Van Aken.

When they saw a market for pure alternatives, they began to develop distillates for the hospitality industry. They still do that in their start-up in Hoboken. They brought in mixologist Alexander Scott Wingfield Jones (30) – he previously had his own cocktail bar in Antwerp – and founded A.I.R. Distillations. The name not only stands for the initials of their first names, but also for air and the partial vacuum in which they distill their botanicals. 'In thinner air, you reach the boiling point faster, and so you also get more delicate flavours from plants,' explains Van Aken.

A.I.R. recently distilled kalamata olives for the Villa Lorraine restaurant in Brussels. 'Some customers also want alcohol-free alternatives themselves,' says Van Aken. 'We then supply the raw materials.'

The three are also developing non-alcoholic alternatives in small quantities. For example, they came up with a sparkling wine based on shiso, which is now on the menu at Hertog Jan at Botanic in Antwerp.

The 5200 Alter bottles will be sold in the coming months. After that, they hope to scale up. With lots of ideas and even more jerry cans full of distillates in the cold store. 'We could make new blends,' says Averhals, 'like a winemaker releasing a new cuvée. But first we want to show with our three basic bottles that an alcohol-free alternative can be tasty, complex and healthy.'