What’s the Best Non-Alcoholic Alternative to an Ice Cold Beer at the End of the Day?

The flavor of beer is rich and complex and I can’t think of anything to replace the experience of beer.

If it helps, I actually like fruity beer, something sweet but with still some bitterness and that complex flavor I can’t describe that most good beers have.

Why not a softdrink or a root beer? It’s just not the same, it’s like a different branch from beer.

    • Changetheview@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      NA beers can be great. Lagunitas sells a Hop Water that’s pretty good too - very light though. And most high-quality ginger beers pack a lot of flavor.

      • maporita@unilem.org
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        1 year ago

        For a long time I was in the “Non alcoholic beer can never replace real beer” camp. But in the last few years they’ve come a long way … and now you can buy low or no alcohol craft beers that are actually quite good.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Athletic makes some great NA beers too. Everything from a light lager like you’d expect from something like a bud light all the way up to NA stouts.

      • darharrison@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Hop Water is insanely good. Like a citrusy, slightly bitter seltzer and usually cheaper than any NA beer that’s worth drinking. It’s quite a bit more money than any store brand seltzer though (which I would’ve recommended otherwise in either grapefruit or mango flavors for basically the same reason).

    • red@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      At least here in Europa NA beers have improved wo much in the last few years. I literally don’t know when I last drank one with alcohol when I just felt like drinking a beer (as opposed to when I wanted to drink alcohol).

      And since OP likes it fruity, (NA) Radler/Shandy is just great. It’s 50:50 (NA) beer and lemon soda mixed. This was one of the original ways to get a fruity beer with a lower alcohol content (since the soda doesn’t have any) when NA beers weren’t good yet, great for a hot summer day.

    • dannoffs@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      As someone who used to have a pretty bad drinking problem, NA beers have gotten so good in the past few years. Heineken zeros are almost indistinguishable from normal ones and craft NAs have also gotten pretty good. Even though I’m not “fully sober” I mix in some non alcoholic beers if it’s going to be a long night to help pace myself.

    • cabbagee@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Yup. There should be a couple where you normally buy alcohol. Check out middle eastern grocery stores too. Mine has a wide range of NA beers.

    • m4xie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      Non alcoholic beats have gotten so good with the proliferation of reverse osmosis distilling! The previous methods ruined it.

      I’d like to try getting a small reverse osmosis pump such as for survival desalination, and try doing small batch dealcoholising for more variety of wine. I’m sober now and I’m grateful for my options, but I was really into exploring before.