Dry January 2022

[The Crumb]

Rheinbacher 0 and magic mushrooms are making this a breeze. Albeit one that has lasted several infinities.

[pancreas]

Faced down gecko and got on the wine. I'll be drinking this weekend too. Fuck this bullshit.

[Ferris]

Decent effort.

I bottled 40 litres of homebrew last weekend. It's just sitting in the cupboard, waiting for me to go bonkers in February.

[kngen]

This probably belongs more in the 'Dry Forever' thread (if there is one. I'll move this post across there, if so.). Was diagnosed with a rare genetic aberration that affects my liver a few months ago. Long story short - can't drink booze, eat red meat or fresh fruit.

So I've been off the booze since about July (I'll spare you the smug stats about how much weight I've lost, but it's enough for people to not recognise me, which is an added bonus!)

In my quest to recreate my more enjoyable, relaxed drinking-era life, I seek out pubs (well, bars over here in the US) that sell NA beers. I find a 0% beer in a pint glass on a quiet afternoon in the boozer while I read CaB and a few fitba boards on my tablet satisfies nearly 90% of the whole pub experience, even more so if they can offer a bit of food that isn't verboeten. I've found that, if I'm in the right headspace, I'll have duped myself enough to think: 'Better slow down here. I'm driving. Haaaaang on ....'

Anyway, these are the beers (that you can possibly get in the UK, too) that do the job of tricking my brain into thinking I'm having a nice relaxing pint, like in the old days.

Best IPA: Brewdog Hazy AF - yes, they're cunts, but their NAs are so far ahead of most of the rest of the market, what other option do I have?

Best 'what sorcery is this' lager: Sun-Tory All-Free 0% alcohol, 0 calories 'beer-style' beverage. Fuck knows how the Japanese do it, and - while it may not be the most convincing NA beer out there – it's pretty good, and - perversely - you can drink it during a workout, or a break from a big run, walk, cycle, and feel like you're fucking with the laws of nature. I've heard that it's sometimes available in SE Asian supermarkets in the UK. Worth searching out.

Hands down the best 'I'll be buggered if this is non-alcoholic. It's clearly labelled wrong' NA beer: Stella Artois Liberte (0.0%): Tastes exactly like a nice crisp European lager. Exactly. None of that sweetened nonsense like Becks or Heineken. I have to drink it out of the bottle to stop myself from skulling them in pint glasses. No doubt they'll make it in the UK and bugger it up, but if you can get the proper Belgian stuff, it's a revelation.

Yet to find a decent pilsner as they seem to replace alcohol content with an unpleasant eggy aspect. And stouts have been a bust so far, but I hear Guinness 0.0% is good. Can't find it over here though.

Any tips welcome.

 

[shiftwork2]

Guinness 0.0 is excellent but there seems to be another supply issue.  Galactic Milk Stout from Big Drop is a very good alternative, Waitrose do it alongside the same brewery's pretty good Paradiso Citra IPA.

Lots of progress in this market.  A few years ago ice-cold Becks Blue seemed tolerable, then Nanny State.  Both now rancid compared to the recent entrants.  Brewdog's Punk AF and Hazy AF are tolerable but are being left behind.

[imitationleather]

Is there any reason other than naked profiteering why the alcohol free spirits are the same price as their boozy equivalents?

[shoulders]

So the artisanal quality and future improvements can be passed on to you, the customer.

[shoulders]

Guinness 0.0 is excellent but there seems to be another supply issue.  Galactic Milk Stout from Big Drop is a very good alternative, Waitrose do it alongside the same brewery's pretty good Paradiso Citra IPA.

Lots of progress in this market.  A few years ago ice-cold Becks Blue seemed tolerable, then Nanny State.  Both now rancid compared to the recent entrants.  Brewdog's Punk AF and Hazy AF are tolerable but are being left behind.

Was pleasantly 'yeah okay' surprised by Brooklyn Special Effects last week. Probably only a can's worth before the inherent vacancy, lack of any body and wateryness catches up, but until then it's a nice hoppy, dry amber lager with enough bitterness and malt character to just about disguise it.

[Ferris]

Is there any reason other than naked profiteering why the alcohol free spirits are the same price as their boozy equivalents?

Are they?! Robbing bastards.

(Sounds like they're luxury/Veblen goods and it's psychological - if they were selling them for 3 quid a bottle you'd think they were likely shit. Because they're the same price, you feel like they're more "proper" and a better direct replacement for spirits, plus the target audience is middle class waitrose mums doing a dry January so price isn't what determines purchase behaviour.)

[kngen]

Is there any reason other than naked profiteering why the alcohol free spirits are the same price as their boozy equivalents?

They do seem ludicrously over-priced. I did buy a bottle of fake rum for Xmas day so I could have my traditional dark and stormys. Wasn't a million miles away from the real thing, but, unsurprisingly, didn't alleviate the stress of a long and busy day cooking and dealing with relatives. Going out for Xmas dinner next year. If I can't be busy in the kitchen while climbing inside a pleasant boozy bubble while the world goes mad around me on Christmas Day, I'll be fucked if I'm cooking again.

[pancreas]

Lowtide brewery do the best NAs I've tried.

[paruses]

Guinness 0.0 is excellent but there seems to be another supply issue.  Galactic Milk Stout from Big Drop is a very good alternative, Waitrose do it alongside the same brewery's pretty good Paradiso Citra IPA.

Lots of progress in this market.  A few years ago ice-cold Becks Blue seemed tolerable, then Nanny State.  Both now rancid compared to the recent entrants.  Brewdog's Punk AF and Hazy AF are tolerable but are being left behind.

Was coming here to ask if anyone had tried the Guiness 0,0 so now I am asking if anyone knows who sells it. I couldn't find it in Tesco. Stout is the one thing I properly miss about drinking. I did find another one - not sure if it was Big Drop though. 

[The Mollusk]

Last I remember, the basic supermarket weissbier (Hoegarden, and/or Erdinger I think?) did a good NA version. My basic ass scientific findings were that those things are high enough in the fructose flavour to disguise/compensate the lack of booze.

[shiftwork2]

Was coming here to ask if anyone had tried the Guiness 0,0 so now I am asking if anyone knows who sells it. I couldn't find it in Tesco. Stout is the one thing I properly miss about drinking. I did find another one - not sure if it was Big Drop though. 

Co-op definitely had it and it comes up in a search for all the big supermarkets but I haven't seen any since November.  They'd had a recall soon after it originally launched so I'm guessing it's the same sort of thing.  They're onto an absolute winner so it will be back.

[paruses]

Co-op definitely had it and it comes up in a search for all the big supermarkets but I haven't seen any since November.  They'd had a recall soon after it originally launched so I'm guessing it's the same sort of thing.  They're onto an absolute winner so it will be back.

Thanks - will keep an eye out. If it's Co-op that's ideal. I only knew about it in December after I saw the Chuckle Brother's nephew drinking it on Gogglebox.

[kngen]

Lowtide brewery do the best NAs I've tried.

The South Carolina one? Can't find any in Virginia even though it's only two states away. Hopefully that will change.

[Dex Sawash]

The South Carolina one? Can't find any in Virginia even though it's only two states away. Hopefully that will change.

NC is unwilling to be annexed by VA or SC. I really don't see a common border happening.

[kngen]

NC is unwilling to be annexed by VA or SC. I really don't see a common border happening.

We'll start a phony war over BBQ sauce and it will fall into place eventually.

[JaDanketies]

oh shit that would've been a good idea. Maybe next year. I've got high blood pressure and high cholesterol and I can be almost certain that it's because I drink too much. Dry January ain't enough tbh - I did it last year - I need a total new lifestyle.

Yknow them alcohol free beer adverts. They're just a way to advertise alcohol at you without breaking any ASA guidelines. You look at the handsome man drink a freshly-poured Guinness, and your brain is quite happy to ignore the text at the bottom about it being alcohol-free and instead tells you "a Guinness would be nice."

[Ferris]

Ended up turning this month into a super calorie controlled workout bonanza. The plan is to make life so awful that it feels like it drags on forever, thereby making me sort of immortal. If it's going to be a tedious month, might as well go all in.

I do feel healthier though.

[pancreas]

The South Carolina one? Can't find any in Virginia even though it's only two states away. Hopefully that will change.

It is in Bath, England.

https://www.lowtidebrewingco.com/

[Blue Jam]

Best 'what sorcery is this' lager: Sun-Tory All-Free 0% alcohol, 0 calories 'beer-style' beverage. Fuck knows how the Japanese do it, and - while it may not be the most convincing NA beer out there – it's pretty good, and - perversely - you can drink it during a workout, or a break from a big run, walk, cycle, and feel like you're fucking with the laws of nature. I've heard that it's sometimes available in SE Asian supermarkets in the UK. Worth searching out.

When I lived in Japan I got through quite a lot of alcohol-free beer. None of it was quite nice enough to drink alone but it was very pleasant with food, something I had never experienced before the rest of the world started catching up. I guess mutations in the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene, which are more common in SE Asia, have driven the demand somewhat:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_flush_reaction

[Ferris]

As we look back on the momentous month of sobriety we shared together, what have we learned?

As per usual, I feel much healthier after a heavy December on the piss. In conjunction with a pretty aggressive calorie counting and weight lifting regimen, I've dropped 8lbs and look in better shape. My evenings are much more productive work-wise, and I'm able to stay up much later and enjoy better quality sleep so there are more hours in the day. Also saved enough cash to buy a couple of new watches and still finish ahead. Nice one.

Overall then, very positive and a hard reset of my drinking and how I approach alcohol has been very welcome. I intend to only get on the sauce once a week and keep up the diet and exercise, so when that falls apart you can throw this post back in my stupid face.

Ok cheers.

[imitationleather]

I haven't learned anything and I never will.

[Ferris]

Legend Imi!

[AllisonSays]

I've more or less done a sober January, I had a few beers at a thing in the middle of the month but nothing other than that. I don't feel any better at all but I do have a six-pack again which is nice, although possibly the product of playing football two days a week as much as being off the booze. I think I'll keep up the thing of just having an alcohol-free beer when I want a beer in the house, it definitely worked as a kind of ritual work-is-over thing. Maybe also in the pub sometimes - it was nice to go to the pub and get the kind of social energy from that without needing to drink, and maybe reminded me that it's that which I enjoy more than the beer, sometimes at least.

I've had to come up to London unexpectedly today for work and I am absolutely going to have a few pints of Guinness in the Dolphin before I leave so I guess this is the end of my sober streak.

[AllisonSays]

What I would say is that having four pints of Guinness and listening to Johnny Cash in the pub feels like taking E after a month of sobriety, so I guess you do enjoy it more after a wee bit of abstinence.

[Crenners]

Beautiful. This is living.