The first question any loyal beer fan should ask when affronted with the existence of non-alcoholic beer is “Why?” Sure, the “I enjoy beer for the flavor, not the effect“ argument can be made, but it doesn’t hold much water considering that average non-alcoholic beer is just this side of undrinkable. Beer — the true staff of life, the impetus for civilization — is supposed to be intoxicating. What could possibly be good reasons for drinking NA beers? Moreover, if you had to drink non-alcoholic brews, which ones are “good?” Doesn’t it still have some alcohol in it? What qualifies as non-alcoholic? How much would you have to drink to get drunk? How do they even make that stuff? Because we at SYD love you all very much, we will do the dirty work of answering all of these burning questions.
First and foremost: Why the heck would you want to drink NA Beer? — No seriously, who drinks this stuff?
For starters, the kind of ladies like the one you see in the above image. Some pregnant women actually like beer, and have a hard time giving it up for nine months. While research has shown that a real beer or two per day will not adversely affect your child in the form of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and is actually healthy for the mother, it can be difficult for some to socialize with the rest of us as we swill down real beer after delicious real beer, while they cannot. Near beer can make that situation a little less harsh in the jealousy department. Plus, if they drink it out of a glass with the bottle out of sight, they’re likely to completely appall onlookers who don’t realize it’s NA — which is kind of awesome. (more…)
