Since it’s dry January and there’s no untappd for NA spirts and drinks. I figured I start something here!
My gf and I have been exploring NA beers, mocktails, and spirits for the better part of 2 years now. We decided to do 6 months no alcohol for the transformation challenge but one of the issues is we are in Louisiana. I’d would argue my state has one of the largest drinking and party cultures especially right now because it’s Mardi Gras. Given that almost every event involves alcohol down here, I do like to have something “special” for social events and things like that.
So let’s get to tracking and reviewing some NA stuff:
This has been my most recent venture into alcohol alternatives. Specific teas. Smelling the loose tea, this very much smells of bourbon. Steeping to the standards of the instructions yields something more mezcal adjacent rather than a “bourbon” alternative. It is still pretty good and has a strong smoky taste. I want to find a way to get this up to a similar viscosity to alcohol and use it in mocktails.
Over the holidays, I had been getting into Campari and other related Italian aperitif’s. I tried this one on the rocks and it tasted exactly like Campari without the burn. I then put it into a spritz with soda water and orange to get what tasted like a NA Americano. This stuff is pretty tasty and being on the cheaper side ($25) will be a common thing to use during the summer
I do love some beer and this one did not disappoint. I’ve had a few other athletic products and they are extremely hit or miss. The first thing you taste is very much the cardamon and ale flavors. I enjoyed it. It’s hard to put an exact flavor to the rest of the taste but it’s very much a winter ale
This is like literally Guinness without the alcohol. I get more coffee flavor from these and the best description is a “slightly watered down normal Guinness”. I’d give my left arm for a NA foreign extra stout at this point. This is my holy grail for NA stouts
This is the most expensive NA option we have tried. It does not disappoint. It is super ginger forward and makes an excellent mixer for the recipes listed on the website. I also enjoy this neat, in ginger beer, or with soda water. We got this for last Mardi Gras as something nice to have will waiting for parades and it might just be coming back for this year.
Hi, great thread idea!
I am doing a year of no booze.
I havent found a replacement for single malt scotch, but i also find that i dont miss it.
I miss good beer, and good wine.
Im in Australia (not sure where you are), and altina drinks makes a killer NA rose, and a half decent red. The white is a bit weird.
The Guiness 0.0 are life savers. They are close enough, pour them into a glass and sip slowly by an open fire.
There are quite a range of craft NA beers but honestly the best are Heaps Normal. Everything else tastes like its trying too hard.
I like this thread. I quit drinking about a year and a half ago. I was really enjoying the NA drinks but gave them up for the liquid calories. I do think it would be nice to indulge every now and again though, so i look forward to getting some ideas here. The Guinness is on the list now. I do love a good stout.
How long did it take before you didn’t really want it? Or do you find yourself wanting it sometimes?
Yep, I try to limit them for this reason. I normally bust them out when others are on the adult bevvies to feel like I’m “part of it”. And honestly, with the Guiness, no one would have a clue if its poured out.
I would say it was a couple of months that I would reach for a beverage. My husband would say, “you sure you want that?” Then I would walk away. I don’t think about it anymore really. But every now and again my husband will have a really good stout and I just love the smell. The last time I had anything NA was when we were hanging out on a boat at a lake last summer. I had a virgin daiquiri and it was pretty yummy. I think I might have one of the Guinness NA sometime soon.
I don’t miss the anxiety and 3 days of depressed mood following one lousy drink. Lol.
Interesting. Im at 109 days and I still want the occaisional bevvie. Mostly when I am mentally and physically thrashed. When just mentally tired (e.g. after work), i like to go workout hard. Alcohol revs me up before dumping me, i get very extroverted.
So yes, when hanging out with people i like a drink.
However not drinking over Christmas made me realise:
how many people i know that are just not interesting.
how much i repied on alcohol as a crutch to enjoy their company
how much alcohol lowers my energy for a few days after
how much drinking is normalised in Australian culture (and in the niche “sect” i belong to at present)
how hard it is to create truly great flavoured beer and wine without alcohol
I have also found this to be true. I am very capable of hanging out with drunk people at a party… To a point. There is always the tipping point where it goes from entertaining to annoying. That’s when it’s time to leave.
I have this too. It does the same thing to my mood. And it really messes up my sleep.
I have not heard of Altina but it looks like an Australia only brand. I do like a good NA rose though
Same! The really unfortunate thing is you can’t really find seasonal stouts of the NA variety like you can normal stouts at local breweries
I’ve seen them before but never had it. I’ll have to give it a shot!
Mine has turned into any minor injury I obtain while drinking turns into like a weeks worth of inflammation or worse. It might be some autoimmune disorder but I just recognize this pattern after reading through the thread lol
This happens to me too. Problem is I’m already pretty extroverted. I know we follow a lot of the same threads, so you’ve probably seen that I am at least a bit inappropriate, and that is with all of my filters fully functioning. Put some lubricant in me and now my vocabulary drops to about 2 cuss words, my mind drops even further into the gutter, my volume goes to 11, and now I have no filter to tell me that I probably shouldn’t say whatever the hell is tooling around in my brain. Normally I end up feeling like an idiot the next day and my social anxiety ratchets up another notch.
I stopped drinking (with a handful of exceptions) about a year and half ago. In general, I don’t like replacement things. Meaning, I don’t want healthy cake, cookie dough, pancakes, alcohol, etc. If I’m going to do something, I just want the full effect. One exception has been ninja creami and that’s because the protein ice cream is actually really good. Previous attempts at ice cream were all a waste and not tasty or good texture.
When it comes to drinks, I really love a cold beer. Either IPA at a BBQ, porter/nitro at night or light beer at sporting event. I also really love whisk(e)y straight or cocktails.. The enjoyment comes from sitting and drinking a few over hours while hanging out. I’ve never found a good replacement.
From the beer side, I like nitro coffee as a replacement.. but I can’t drink 3 in 3 hours. So, I just drink soda water. Up until recently, I had given up on even having a drink substitute, but just started drinking hemp CBD drinks. They have a little bit of THC depending on your stance on that, but not nearly enough to get high. It’s like drinking a beer, imo. The local place to me makes a few that are cocktail flavored (Paloma, Whiskey Sour, etc.) I really enjoy these, because I can have 2-3 over 3-5 hours and just be relaxed and not have any body high.
I did hear that November of this year they are banned, as part of a bill that was passed. Simply because it exceeds like .4mg of THC. If you live in a recreational state, you can still get them however.
I prettymuch only drink in social situations now (which are pretty much limited to poker nights). I have crippling social anxiety. I drink to calm that, not because I like to drink. A double dose of igniter actually seems to help, though.
For me, I like the taste of beer but I don’t like the side effects. For example, I like going to a bar or brewery but if I have something to do the next day early, instead of water, have a NA beer. It fulfills like a weird part of my brain
For gummies, it would depend on drug testing. For me and gummies, I haven’t found a strain or blend that doesn’t leave me feel baked over the next day. It’s either such a microdose I don’t feel it and don’t get it or it’s groggy the next morning. Also because of my states legality and what not, you have to get stuff made delta 8 or 9, which I just don’t enjoy for the most part
Caffeine super late tanks my sleep even more than alcohol so thats off the table
Honestly it’s a super good question and I’ll think about it more while I walk the dogs and add some more tomorrow morning when I’m on my laptop
I experimented with this over the holidays. Only tried one kind, so I can’t rule it out completely, but it certainly wasn’t like the gummies I get in Vegas.
I found my drinks and they are 4mg THC, 12mg CBD. They’re the perfect mix. No high, but nice calming effect. Eventually you get a slight buzz, if you have a few.
In social occasions I do drink alcohol, or just swap it to sparkling water, or coffee etc (I despise the aroma of energy drinks). I probably would use some CBD/THC stuff too occasionally, but it’s strictly illegal here and getting caught would give me massive problems (work and family related). So it’s not worth it.
I know alcohol is a poison and just use it moderately when I use it. Purposes are strictly social and culinary (I kinda hobby wines).
Anyway. I do drink NA beers at times. Sometimes when I’m eating out and don’t want to drink alcohol, but most often when I’m in sauna. It’s kinda something we do here. Have a one beer when sitting almost naked in cold yard after steaming hot sauna. And it feels awesome. But I do it at least weekly and don’t want to drink alcoholic beverage every time I’ll do it. I don’t really like sugary drinks, so sodas aren’t an option (and not healthy either).
Luckily there’s very high quality non alcoholic beers today. You can’t really taste the difference, specially if it’s hoppy ale. They are usually very low in calories too, so they’re smart choice if you want to drink something else than water. Most best ones are Finnish brands, so you don’t really find them in US, but *Brooklyn Brewery’s Special Effect -*series beers are all good.
I agree with @SepCalla on the food part. I’m very much into BBQ and smoking meats. Beer pairs amazingly with that and when I have BBQ I always think “Damn I could go for a beer”.
For me, lots of family events and events in general (keep in mind I’m still in college and in the south) involve alcohol. People can get weird when you say you aren’t drinking. While yes why do I care what others think, I’d say that having a NA option at an event or bar makes me feel less like I’m sticking out like sore thumb especially since the bottles look very similar to their counterparts. This is obviously easier with mocktails but most the mocktails I’ve seen are combinations of fruit juices while I like a more spirit forward cocktail so most mocktails aren’t my thing (except a NA mojito).
I think there’s something about sitting around having a beer with family or friends that having a can’t gummy replicate. I think the NA options still allows for the social aspect and aesthetic/ritual (for lack of a better term).
Also, I do enjoy low ABV beers but they seem to be getting harder to find with all the craft beer that’s out there. For example, one of my favorite breweries, Martin House Brewing, produces the majority of their beers over 5%. For some reason, it seems it’s either a higher ABV or non-alcoholic beers
