![]() I don’t care if anyone else drinks, even if they have a problem. The amount of people that have felt the need to rationalize their drinking to me over the years is astounding. Second, I think often they feel judged, like I think everyone has a problem. “First, they feel like they could be making me uncomfortable, which I understand for a newer person in recovery, but I’ve been sober since 2005, so it’s not an issue for me. “I think that drinkers often are uncomfortable about me not drinking for multiple reasons,” said Mason. ![]() The fact is that, in a group that’s drinking, the non-drinker can feel ill at ease, and can make others in the group feel self-conscious about their own drinking. Hidden within social norms and the realities of group interactions, though, there’s a real benefit to non-alcoholic beers that lies beyond these use cases. “They have a small amount of alcohol content and can be triggering for people that aren’t as stable in their recovery.” “I actually think that for most people in recovery, it’s a bad idea to drink them,” said Justin Mason, a fantasy baseball writer and podcaster as well as a sobriety consultant with 15 years of experience. And those who are trying to quit substances completely might find NA beers a bridge from past behaviors to newer, healthier ones - though for some in that situation, that doesn’t come without pitfalls. For those who made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, swapping some regular beers for NA beers is a great way to reduce calories, since alcohol content is the main driver of caloric values in drinks like these. There’s the obvious appeal to the designated driver. The hallmark should be, is it a decent beer? Not a decent NA beer.”īut the incentives are there for brewers to keep trying, and improving. “It’s mimicry, it’s Beyond Beef for booze. “You’re trying to get something that tastes like something that it’s not,” said Bendily. The main problem, generally, is that brewers are attempting to mimic something that people love in its current form. That’s a lot of extra work, but at least the sector seems to be growing. “That means adding cleaning cycles, more acids to clean with, and even changing out gaskets, any parts that are not steel between NA and regular runs.” “Because you are producing sugar water, your everyday yeast you use is a potential contaminant,” pointed out Bendily. This also leads to issues in the brewery, because they must keep the NA systems separate from beers with alcohol. “That’s how you get the stewed and cooked flavors.” “You can’t really be sure without pasteurization, which is a function of time and temperature,” said Bendily. Filtering the alcohol out, described by Tweet as the ‘golden goose’ of figuring out the style, requires expensive machinery, and even that machinery still - at least currently - involves heating the beer. Other Half tests any non-alcoholic beverages they ship along their distribution pathways as if it was still fermenting to try and avoid contaminants, but not every brewery has that ability. ![]() It’s also possible to get a NA beer by diluting a low-ABV beer, but that still leaves the problem of trying to can something that could turn bad at some point. Most often, that means boiling the beer at some point. “This isn’t something to take lightly as you are now in the world of food-borne illness.” ![]() “Unfermented maltose with no present alcohol can create a breeding ground for bacteria and contaminants,” says Tweet. The main problem from a brewer’s perspective is that, without alcohol to kill any potential contaminants, the beer needs to be pasteurized. It’s a tough thing to do, for a few reasons. “It’s never going to be a beer, let alone a beer as good as its style predicates.” “Making an NA beer usually feels like trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear,” Tweet added later. “All of them underwhelm me,” said Alex Tweet, head brewer at Fieldwork Brewing in Northern California. “I have yet to meet someone doing NA work that said, ‘yep, nailed it,'” laughed Bobby Bendily, the head brewer at the Philadelphia outpost of Other Half brewing. But while the demand is there, and options are increasing in stadiums across sports, the reality is that the product hasn’t quite caught up. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |