smacked

oh lord.. the NA beer discussion. I need to create an autotext response.

I quit drinking beer when I quit drinking.
NA beer does have alcohol, albeit a small amount. That is important for people to know that are trying to live alcohol free.
I have no reason in sobriety to go to bars or continue to drink alcohol.. or fake alcoholic drinks.

Nevertheless

The thought of going to bars no longer appeals to me either, maybe I'm getting too old. Iduno. I guess I just got out of the habit, because I always got too drunk, plus where I live you just about have to drive anywhere.
I guess I'm lucky because I never really liked mixed drinks. It was either beer or Kamakazi(can't mistake that one).
I am starting to think about testing my sea legs though. Casinos, halloween
Perhaps a real quality evening. "Bowling maybe" I used to get hammered doing that too, but it sure sounds like fun. "sober"
Fred

sailorjohn

No, they have lotsa alcoholic coffee drinks here but the barmaid was about two feet away from me, she knew exactly what I wanted. Rarely go to bars so it's usually a non-issue. Would also add, have had some of the NA beer while I was still drinking-I was the designated driver-and have come to the conclusion that it wasn't the taste, it was the alcohol.

Gypsy Feet

My subconscious has the most fabulous survival mechanism. Just after I quit smoking cigs, the smell repulsed me. Since quitting drinking, I can't touch diet coke (as rum and cokes were my nightly), and both NA beer and NA wine gross me out just to smell.

JohnnyZ

Interesting replies, thank you all.

I am about 2 weeks shy of 90 days, and serious as the atom bomb and totally committed to never ever drink again (I'm 54 years old). The first roughly 6 weeks I was curious about n/a beers so I tried 6 or 7 6-packs of different kinds. I really don't know why since when drinking it was hard alcohol first, then a beer or 2 for the chase, not for the taste (though I did enjoy certain premium, foreign, and micro-brewed beers). In a way though, having a n/a beer did make me feel proud of myself because I "really" wasn't drinking. For instance, I went to a rock concert (Chickenfoot- awesome!) by myself around my 3rd week and bought an n/a beer, and then my wife called to see how I was doing. I proudly proclaimed that I was having a great time and having an n/a beer (as opposed to being trashed like at many many concerts before). So, perhaps that was just a phase as I haven't bought or drank a n/a beer in over 3 weeks now...

As for the virgin bloody mary, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't anything more than simply wanting, actually craving, that spicy tomato juice with the extra horseradish and stick of celery as an appetizer to my seafood dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Honestly, if it was to serve as a reminder of the past dozens of pre-meal bloody mary's with Absolut I've enjoyed, I would not have even considered it...

Also, I go to a restaurant/bar several times a week to pick up my son who works there. When he is not ready to leave, I'll go inside, have a seat at the bar, and order my usual club soda with 2 lemon wedges. It doesn't bother me a bit being around alcohol. In fact, I find it inspiring - sort of like a booster shot for my sobriety. I particularly enjoy Friday nights observing the younger crowd socializing- girls all dressed and made up, and the guys trying to impress them. I do, however, feel sad for the guys and girls who are there for no other reason than to have "fun" consuming vast amounts of alcohol. Reminds me of me 30 some-odd years ago. I almost want to "wake them up" so they don't take the same path as I did as most of them inevitably will. I then take another sip of my club soda and watch whatever ball game is on the tv, happy and proud of how I finally turned myself around, and really knowing and understanding how much better life is without alcohol...

Mark75

Johnny... Love your avatar... So you are 54? I am 52. Like you I like to be around the younger folks and doing things like going to rock concerts....

I have an N/A beer here and there... I'm not resurrecting that argument I hope. Just saying, it works for me when the time is right.... Actually it has been useful in helping me understand my own relationship with beer. Many times I drank it for the buzz... but not always! I rarely get it these days.

Cool about your wife checking in with you... she's supportive?

Mark

JohnnyZ

Thank you, Mark. And yes, my wife is very supportive which I appreciate immensely... :-)

north

If there's non-alcoholic beer on the menu, I'll order it when I am out. While NA beer like Buckler's might have 0.05% alcohol, there are also beers with 0.00% alcohol.

Keep in mind that fruit juices can also contain naturally-occurring amounts of alcohol in a range of anywhere from 0.01 to 0.5% alcohol - I once was at a dinner (a few weeks after I quit drinking) and met a woman whom I later discovered recognized me from "the program" but I apparently did not remember. I guess as a means to enforce her own sobriety, she made a rather big point of announcing that amongst other food allergies, she was extremely allergic to alcohol and further elaborated how even a little would send her into shock. Kill her even. When I calmly noted that the blood orange juice she had been drinking very likely contained at least 0.03% alcohol, she literally went pale. A few weeks later, I met her at an AA meeting, realized she was the same woman at the dinner party and felt pretty damned bad about it.

Anyways, my preference is for the 0.00% alcohol type. Otherwise, unsweetened iced tea. Tried dry ginger ales but after sucking back the third one, too much sugar in my system.

Mark75

North - Hey, how you doin... Funny story there.... Just a reminder it's best we all just stick to our own programs when it comes to this, uh??

Mark

yeahgr8

Ive met a few people that enjoyed NA beers for quite some time...then after years went back to the good stuff...i would recommend for heroin users using saline fluid too if they want to fit in with the old crowd sometimes...**** me?!

baldjim

i always found the n/a beer gave me a smacking headache

more so than normal beer

flutter

I was really young, like kid age young when these were first introduced in bars (NA beers.. and yes, I know this is a broken record of a thread/post). I was so excited, I could order a beer, being so underage and be SO adult. So my dad ordered me one, I think I was like 12.. and the bartender, annoyed at the request let us ALL know very clearly that they were not non-alcoholic and illegal to sell to underage 'drinkers'. Sorry that has nothing to do with anything other than being a little funny, to me anyways.

I don't drink anything that is alcohol, pretends to be alcohol, alcohol like, or 'light' in containing alcohol. Not anymore..

Draysin

virgin bloody marys are delicious. I would not consider it a fake alcohol drink. It's a good tasting beverage if you enjoy the ingredients. I also like pepsi and don't call coke drinkers that have a lemon wedge on their drink 'fake drinkers'.

btw - i doubt the new people that come onto these board daily would mind a cut and paste of opinions on NA beer. The visual of the eye rolling really gets old too.

debs

I find it interesting.

McGowdog

I think this is a nice post. You laid out your own personal experience, then gave your take on it from where you are now.

I used NA beer back in the past when I was trying to control my own drinking and drank the NA stuff so I wouldn't get sloshed and stupid when I was working on my old 65 Buick convertible. It worked. I didn't get drunk on it.

But this is NOT a recovery story. I was angry with myself one night because I was working on my car in the privacy of my own garage one fall night... listening to the Rockies on 850 KOA... everything was nice... beer in hand... had just replaced the rear shocks... just because. I don't know if it needed shocks but figured it couldn't hurt. Then I let the jack down and the tires wouldn't touch the ground. Looked under the car and saw that I'd left a jack stand under the car and dented the gas tank badly. It went from a 20 gallon gas tank to a 14 gallon gas tank. I felt like a stupid idiot and figured I goofed up because I'd had a few too many beers.

So the next night, I bought a 6 pack of Becks NA beer and sipped on that while I waxed the car. The experiment went fine. It took me hours to finish off 6 of those because it's like drinking soda water. Who slams a case of soda water? It would make your stomach hurt. Anyway, that lasted about a night or two before I was back to drinking bourbon or beer.

To me, drinking NA beer or near beer or apple beer is like snorting sweet n' low. But that's just me.

Latte

I've ordered virgin drinks before (not on a normal basis) and ask my lovely DH to take a sip first.

Sikkisirus

NA beer? Whats the point?

Who drinks that stuff? Tastes like horse urine. Not that Ive drank horse urine LOL

thirtybubba

Sometimes I wonder if I have an advantage here... never really hung out in the type of places where drinks have names. I don't miss anything by not being able to order them, and to be perfectly honest I fail to see the point of NA beer. Heck, I don't even see the point of A beer. Makes you go to the bathroom a lot...

On the other hand, as I go forward in college, I suppose this is the type of life I will have to eventually encounter, in which case I appreciate y'all letting me know how it is before I get there. Lord knows, I got enough problems.

Yeah, the strange life of me...

getr345

Lately, I've taken to ordering Mojitos without the rum, I just tell the bartender to make it exactly like he or she would normally except instead of run add a little ginger beer if he has it, otherwise soda water will be fine, but I still love all them limes and the fresh mint all muddled with raw sugar. And I agree that alcohol can be smelled in a drink so the responsibility is on you, the drinker of the drink, to be sure it's the way you want it, i.e., no booze, plus you can usually just watch them make it.