Dry January a Triumph!
Happy to report that after a late start dry January has been lovely and I’ve decided to just keep going into February and see what happens. It’s always nice to stop using alcohol entirely for a while.
I’m a beer-only person but admittedly drank a bunch of blanco Tequila while in Mexico six months ago, which I believe is the reason I did not get sick. Anyway - time to take a break!
Speaking of beer, after an initial period of abstinence I decided to buy some non-alcoholic stuff and regretted it immediately. It was just as expensive as regular beer. The checker asked for I.D. and to be fair Athletic Run Wild IPA contains less than .5% ABV, which is about the same as Kombucha. But nobody asks for my I.D. when I buy kombucha.
I suspected Athletic Brewing Co. was a corporate beer as soon as I got in the car. Could just feel the bad energy.
I won’t bore you with the details but basically the founders are business guy entrepreneurs who can’t even come up with a sincere origin story. They are registered as a B-corporation - a private certification with no tax advantages that is good for marketing your brand as being wholesome. In this case the wholesomeness comes from Athletic donating 2% of sales to trail restoration. My worst nightmare is being on a hike with the founders of Athletic, drinking beer without alcohol and chatting about forestry.
Their venture has been a success and in order to expand they have taken on giant corporate food/beverage concerns and investment groups as partners, including Keurig Dr. Pepper.
Worst. Beer. Ever.
I’m a lager/pilsner kind of guy and Athletic Brewing has a bunch of different products but I thought I’d try their Run Wild IPA because it would have some hoppiness. Was hoping to get some flavor out of this experience but more importantly some bubbles - there’s nothing more satisfying than a beer burp. Run Wild smelled like a hoppy beer and there was decent foam and carbonation but it quickly went flat. Athletic claims that unlike other NA beer producers they don’t re-carbonate their product after the alcohol is removed.
Did not have a bad mouthfeel or taste but during and after swallowing is when I realized that this is not beer. Horrible taste of watery chemicals. Beer burp not satisfactory.
There are oats and wheat on the ingredients list. That has been a crime for over 500 years.
German beer: 500 years of 'Reinheitsgebot' rules
Apparently there are a bunch of good no-alcohol beers out there but I’m not in a hurry to try them.
—Alex
I drank one of my brother's 0.0 beers. It was similar in flavor to a fortified IPA.