Same here, initially it was all lagers which I’m not partial to but now there is an increasing number of decent ales available in shops, if not pubs.
I’ve tasted a few, but none I’d choose to drink for pleasure, unlike a good hoppy IPA style ale like St Aistell Proper Job or Okells MPA (Manx Pale Ale) or Hop Back Summer Lightning” etc. I haven’t tried any winter warmers (an ancient favourite was Brakespears*’ Old*, and although the Guinness alcohol free is better than some I’ll not be bothering having again. And of course they have to be available in pubs and bars or anywhere people commonly drink normal beer, ir tgere’s no point!
Dry January…nope,
but I do really like Guinness zero. Nearly as good as the real stuff (and I used to drink a lot of it)….at worst it’s very drinkable. My company** social club stocks it and it’s great for lunch time meet-ups with the other retired old buqqers!
** ”ex company” since retirement, but still retain the club membership.
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Unfortunately in my area most pubs still have only lagers or maybe adnams ‘ghost ship’ at best for 0% or low options but it is improving slowly.
I’m suitably encouraged to give it a go, as the 0 is £5.50 for 4 x 440mm tins in the local Sainsbury’s, whereas the normal stuff is £6.50.
Like others here, I think a reduction in caffeine intake is required alongside.
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In my forty-four years working life I was definitely the “walking coffee cup”, but since retirement it’s one or two cups per day.
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Dry January? No!
I am drinking Champagne Moet and Chandon. £45 for a bottle. Enjoying life too much.
Saying No to Champagne is saying no to life.
All being said not drinking is very worthwhile. Better health, better sleep and so on.
January and February are the darkest months in terms of daylight. Having a few drinks helps soothe the soul in these dark and cold times.
I sometimes think people want to punish themselves by obstaining.
Enjoy life and do what makes you feel great !
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Of the zeros, the Wheat Beers are far and away the best imo. Erdinger seems to be the most readily available. Zero Guinness is ok for one I think but wouldn’t sustain me for a full night out. Yet to find a zero which compares with a ‘real’ beer.
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Enjoy the champagne, we all have our preferences but try a bottle or two of Bollinger Special Cuvée if you’ve not done so before, simply as around that price I prefer it but may be missing out on other good choices.
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Personally I think it’s a real shame that there are few choice between ‘zero’/very low alcohol and standard strength beers - why not a 2-3% quality beer?
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It’s a real shame Mild seems to be almost impossible to find these days. In my very early drinking days, you could just about find it in ‘old man’s boozers’ but I haven’t seen it for years if not decades now. Cheap, tasty and 2-3% alcohol, but it had a deeply uncool reputation, even back then.
I think some clever marketing could be done here. If IPA can go from niche to hipster-cool in just a few years, surely Mild can make a comeback too!
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Small Beer Brewing Company make a table beer with about a 2-3% alcohol content. I think they are based in south Bermondsey in London, and I had a couple over Christmas. They offer IPA, pale and amber ales and a lager. A satisfying lower alcohol content beer, give it a try.
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The Kernel also make an excellent ‘table beer’ at around 2% - full of flavour
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Tetley’s Mild was just the job in my youth. Still to taste a better beer than Tetley’s Bitter though, when it was brewed in Leeds and pulled properly by Landlords who cared about their beer. When I do see Mild these days it’s usually a marquee brew with a really high specific gravity. When I played Doms in the tap rooms of my youth the old guys taking my money (paid a penny a spot) often drank Mixed, which I never truly understood. Happy days.
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Probably because it’s actually hard to do well.
Base malt by itself already contains enough sugar for ~2.5%. So you need a yeast which isn’t very good at consuming more complex sugars. Two problems here, one there will be a lot of residual sugar so risk of infection. Two, very little alcohol so more bacteria are able to survive in the environment. See the first issue.
There’s of course also the challenge in packing flavour into such a low alcohol beer. It will quickly taste watery.
A mild is a brilliant beer, mostly 3-4% though. Indeed a real shame it’s so hard to get, and that’s in the UK. Here it’s impossible.
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I seem to remember that the options in Scotland years ago were “Heavy” or “Light”. (Said with the right accent). Don’t know if that is still the case.
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Not totally dry, but I am cutting down from almost every evening to Friday and Saturday evenings only from now onwards. Mrs 1906 has been on non alcoholic wine for years, so I need to buckle down. Hope it will bring my cholesterol down from 5 too. All the best to anyone reviewing their habits.
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Where’s ‘here’?
I think that Dry January’s are like new years resolutions - just a temporary fix that will do no long term good at all.
Some time during the Covid period, my wife and I realised we were sloshing too much booze back every day of the year which is not good when you are in your seventies. We got through a bottle of wine every day plus a few gin and tonics and even whiskies and Drambuies . It was made worse by spending 5 months every year in Spain meeting friends in the bar and although we were never even tipsy, it was another gin and tonic being added to the pile. I was also just over the diabetic threshold which was not good.
We decided to reduce the booze intake about 3 years ago. We limited ourselves to either 1/2 of a bottle of wine between us each day or an evening gin and tonic but not both. The sessions in the Spanish bars became zero coke. We felt no different but we both started to slowly loose weight, in my case I am 2.5 stone lighter today.
Today the limit of half a bottle of wine between us still applies. We have a gin and tonic most Saturday evenings and that is basically it. The weight has remained off and I am now below the diabetic threshold.
If you want to do something, do it now and don’t even think of leaving it to Jan 1st because if you leave it that long you are not sufficiently motivated.
The only stupid vice I have today is drinking too much loose leaf tea but you got to have some vices or life would be bloody miserable.
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