N/A beer do or don't?
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Far west subs, IL
Posts: 58
N/A beer do or don't?
I have a friend that has been sober for a few years. When he hangs out with everyone he does bring along a some n/a beer and has a few.
I've always been a beer person and rarely ever drank booze. Over the past couple years one of my favorite hobbies has been brewing my own beer at home. Recently, I found a post on how to convert your homebrew to a non-alcoholic brew by evaporating off the alcohol prior to bottling, leaving the abv at aprox .25%. Was just thinking about trying it but unsure if it would be wise.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
I've always been a beer person and rarely ever drank booze. Over the past couple years one of my favorite hobbies has been brewing my own beer at home. Recently, I found a post on how to convert your homebrew to a non-alcoholic brew by evaporating off the alcohol prior to bottling, leaving the abv at aprox .25%. Was just thinking about trying it but unsure if it would be wise.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
The Long and Winding Road....
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Brisbane QLD
Posts: 897
If yr a genuine bonafide drunk like me n.a beer disolves my resolve to abstain from the real thing..then sooner or later i end up drinking the real thing and then the beast is loose...
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Location: Australia
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Originally Posted by driftedsoul 
I have a friend that has been sober for a few years. When he hangs out with everyone he does bring along a some n/a beer and has a few.
I've always been a beer person and rarely ever drank booze. Over the past couple years one of my favorite hobbies has been brewing my own beer at home. Recently, I found a post on how to convert your homebrew to a non-alcoholic brew by evaporating off the alcohol prior to bottling, leaving the abv at aprox .25%. Was just thinking about trying it but unsure if it would be wise.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
I've always been a beer person and rarely ever drank booze. Over the past couple years one of my favorite hobbies has been brewing my own beer at home. Recently, I found a post on how to convert your homebrew to a non-alcoholic brew by evaporating off the alcohol prior to bottling, leaving the abv at aprox .25%. Was just thinking about trying it but unsure if it would be wise.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Then I'd wonder why I'd go out everytime and get 'real' beer.
I was still knee deep in old behaviours, and didn't even realise it.
As a former beer drinker/lover I know it ticks all the boxes for me, and opens the door to old behaviour and old thought paterns.
I don't recommend it.
I note you're a 'beer person' and you've been a home brewer.
You also like the idea of having something to drink when you're around your mates
I don't need to know but maybe ask yourself why would you choose NA beer when there's so many other things to drink, though?
to be honest it sounds to me like you're being mind screwed over this one.
My addiction loves back doors.
ask yourself - is it really the taste of a beer you want, or are there other things happening here as well?
D
__
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 280
what always got me was being at the bar, hanging out late, everyones getting drunk.... having fun... and i'm ordering these n/a beers that cost the same as the stuff that's going to get me into party mood... so I stopped ordering the n/a beers and tried to play catch up with shots of jack.
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: London
Posts: 1,384
Had a few in my early sober months but found it was making me obsess about alcoHELL more and more. I want AWAY from this drug and anything to do with it, drinking n/a beer in my mind still kept me near it.
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: In transit.
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Oh man, I almost posted something very similar to this yesterday! I too am a former all-grain homebrewer and beer lover, and I know I am going to miss it a lot as a hobby. I've thought about brewing NA, or maybe kombucha, and none of it seems like an especially good plan, for all the slippery-slope kinds of reasons Dee mentions. It's a pity, since the NA beer on the market is so terrible and I know I could brew far far better, but I do think it's probably not the best idea for an alcoholic to keep brewing.
For me brewing has always less about the actual beer and much more about the precision and experimentation of the process---which was also a big social event for me usually (with lots of drinking, of course.) So I have been searching for a comparable hobby, although not with much luck yet. I think I need something that is social, somewhat intellectually stimulating, and---I think this is key for me---production-driven. I need to be building/making/inventing something I can be proud of and show off. Sooooo, I don't know. I'm still searching for a satisfying replacement. Maybe we should take up quilting.
For me brewing has always less about the actual beer and much more about the precision and experimentation of the process---which was also a big social event for me usually (with lots of drinking, of course.) So I have been searching for a comparable hobby, although not with much luck yet. I think I need something that is social, somewhat intellectually stimulating, and---I think this is key for me---production-driven. I need to be building/making/inventing something I can be proud of and show off. Sooooo, I don't know. I'm still searching for a satisfying replacement. Maybe we should take up quilting.
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Mid Atlantic USA
Posts: 59
Years ago, when I was out on a boat with some friends, we took what little money we had and stopped at a marina for beer. We bought the cheapest stuff. When we got back in the boat, we open the beer, and ....it....tasted.....like.....****. We were like, what the hell is this? It was n.a. beer. It tasted so bad, and I was so MAD to be robbed a buzz, I've hated the stuff ever since. Dumb story, but thought I'd waste a few bits telling it. I wouldn't buy the stuff on principle (because, I, um, have a lot of principles)
Peace, Love, Sobriety
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Wilmington, DE
Posts: 1,549
It's the same thing as drinking a placebo, except what they dont tell you is that those NA beers and wines DO have a small amount of alcohol in them, it cant all possibly be weeded out, so I personally stay away from them and deem them dangerous to my sobriety.
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Olde England
Posts: 528
I bought some na beer once or twice, then quite abit as I realised that once you add a load of vodka it's great for being able to drink openly in the house whilst appearing not to be drinking... as above, slippery slope.
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Join Date: Mar 2013
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NapsteR1, I thought *I* invented that trick! It's always just a wee bit humbling when you realize your alcoholic brilliance was not quite as original or brilliant as you thought it was at the time.
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Bklyn. NY
Posts: 1,859
The bus is here again, but with a twist this time, so I'm compelled to contribute. 
I'm one of the few people here who talks about the fact that I don't have any issues with NA beer. I drink one on occasion, and its never triggered any problems or urges. Perhaps I'm far enough away from my last drink that I don't even associate it with getting drunk. I do know others in sobriety who have no problem with it, but as you can see from the responses here, lots of people do.
Brewing your own however IMO is a whole nuther ball game. What I buy at the store comes packaged with no more alcohol than a 7up. What you'd be brewing would indeed have alcohol, and then you'd have to go through the extra measures to take it out. Something about having to go through that extra process sounds incredibly dangerous to me. I imagine you'd be smelling the alcohol, and the whole thing could easily get a little weird...
Ya might not want to gamble with that. Or at the very least wait till you have a few years sober experience before giving it a go.
I'm one of the few people here who talks about the fact that I don't have any issues with NA beer. I drink one on occasion, and its never triggered any problems or urges. Perhaps I'm far enough away from my last drink that I don't even associate it with getting drunk. I do know others in sobriety who have no problem with it, but as you can see from the responses here, lots of people do.
Brewing your own however IMO is a whole nuther ball game. What I buy at the store comes packaged with no more alcohol than a 7up. What you'd be brewing would indeed have alcohol, and then you'd have to go through the extra measures to take it out. Something about having to go through that extra process sounds incredibly dangerous to me. I imagine you'd be smelling the alcohol, and the whole thing could easily get a little weird...
Ya might not want to gamble with that. Or at the very least wait till you have a few years sober experience before giving it a go.
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 80
I am in the same boat. I have been home brewing for a couple years and really enjoy the hobby, but now that I am realizing I have a serious drinking problem it just pains me to think of letting go a hobby that I enjoy. I think its part of the reason its taken me so long to admit my drinking has gone out of my control.
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Central America/Florida USA
Posts: 4,064
Don't do it. I learned that non-alcoholic beers are for non-alcoholics.
I don't even drink anything in a glass bottle - I saw a new beverage here, it's cold-pressed COFFEE but they sell it in what looks like a brown beer bottle. Too close to home. I just left that stuff behind, in my opinion it would be good if you did the same. Good luck!
I don't even drink anything in a glass bottle - I saw a new beverage here, it's cold-pressed COFFEE but they sell it in what looks like a brown beer bottle. Too close to home. I just left that stuff behind, in my opinion it would be good if you did the same. Good luck!
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