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▲ mmaunder 4 hours ago

Just going to throw out a follow-up here since I own a bar and work barman to fill shifts from time to time:

Athletic IPA or hazy IPA are my favorite NA beers. Athletic does a spectacular job of NA in general. Also Guiness NA - the can with the blue stripe on top - absolutely delicious. Also Bitburger 0.0% is pretty good. Really don't like Heiniken or the other mainstream beer brands that have checked the NA box.

As far as NA cocktails go I really like anything with Cayenne in it or a bit of spicy or sour. Kombuchas are also great for sipping I find. I must warn against Pathfinder NA spirit - I don't know what they put in it and if you read the ingredients I'm not even sure they know - but I've noticed a mental fuzziness the next day that I don't care for.

Also if you are bar staff and someone orders an NA they may want it in a glass even if you serve cans, so that others don't realize they're not drinking. As a non-drinker it's super nice to be able to stand in a group with a glass of beer without any questions. This works particularly well if it's a trade/industry event where the group doesn't know you and they're all using booze as a social lubricant. I'm a little sneaky in this respect because I'll go to the bar solo, grab myself a NA beer in a glass and I've been in groups where they're exchanging drinking stories and I'm just like "uh, yup, cool man."

If you're curious how one can work bar while being a non-drinker i.e. how do you know what you're serving? In Washington state it's illegal to drink while serving bar, so our team tastes and spits when needed. I do the same - so I'm basically tasting drinks for customers e.g. making sure wine isn't corked, making sure a cocktail is made well - but spitting and after 3 years just have absolutely no inclination or desire to swallow any alcohol anyway. But as I said, any barman in this state has to be a non-drinker on the job so it works out.

I've never found a NA wine I care for. Would be great if an Athletic-like brand emerges in that space. LMK if you're aware of one.

▲genocidicbunny 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't know how easy it is to find in the US, but I tried French Bloom while visiting Marseille and found it to be a great NA wine.

Edit: it's a sparkling wine, but imho that makes it more versatile. Gives you a NA option when everyone else is breaking out the bubbly.

▲mmaunder 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Thanks!

▲cf100clunk 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Its almost 2027... where's my synthohol?

▲Animats 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It exists, but isn't very popular.[1][2] It produces some buzz, but more of it doesn't produce more effects. Can't get drunk on it.[3]

[1] https://gabalabs.com/

[2] https://sentiaspirits.com/

[3] https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/food-drink/spi...

▲bigfishrunning 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I left it in the trunk of my flying car