Yeah, I put ‘good’ in air quotes. But if you drink it any preferences?
Colorado used to have low alcohol 3.2 beer that I was fine with. Sure, it’s not what you pick for a steak, but working in the yard? No problem. That’s now gone.
So, if you drink NA or a low alcohol beer, are there any you consider better than others? (again avoiding the word ‘good’)
(Not sure if maybe this should be IMHO).
If you are lamenting the loss of 3.2 the you could try taking a regular beer of your choice and mix it with seltzer water.
I’m allergic to alcohol, so NA beer is my only option. Personally, I prefer the Labatt’s Blue. In second place would be the O’Douls Amber followed by O’Douls Green. Busch NA is OK but a little behind the others. I enjoyed a Kaliber in a bar once but when I actually bought a six pack I was disappointed, it didn’t taste fresh. Maybe just a bad batch.
For some reason we once had a Clausthaler in the fridge. It was passable. It was better after I topped it off with a little vodka.
Thanks all. I’ve tried O’douls, Clausthaler and Kaliber. Maybe it’s a mater of getting used to the taste of them, but eh…
I like Kaliber, St. Pauli Girl NA, Buckler, Clausthaler
Do note that 3.2 beer was 3.2% by weight, not volume. It’s more like 4.0% ABV beer, which is not far from the 4.2% ABV you get with a lot of light beers. So, while a bit lighter than your average American light lager, it’s closer to that than an NA beer by far.
For NA beer, I do remember thinking St Pauli was okay, if not quite tasting like real beer.
I do remember it was 3.2% by weight. Wasn’t really sure how much different that would make it from regular beer. I guess not that much.
I like St Pauli in regular beer, I’ll give that a shot.
Stiegl Radler if you like a grapefruit flavor.
Radlers are low alcohol and quite refreshing and Stiegl, in my opinion, is among the best.
Visited Germany (Rhine Valley) last year during the hottest week of the year. It was in the high 90s every day and we were traveling by train and foot. In a little café in Bacharach I discovered the radler. I’m a fan.
Coming back home I wish I had gotten a photo of the horror on my friends’ faces as they watched me pour a beer into a glass and top it off with 7-Up (I do more of an 80/20 ratio than 50/50).
nm
I used to drink A LOT of beer. So much that I’ve been sober these past 15 yrs! 
Used to host and attend beer tastings.
Don’t buy a lot of NA beer, but most of the ones I’ve had are decent. Definitely better than the swill we used to drink before microbrews got popular.
One of my faves is Clausthauler Dry Hopped. Definitely more of a hoppy/IPA taste than the regular Clausthauler - which I’ve always found decent.
Paulaner makes a decent hefeweiss, if you like that kind of thing. Sure, might not come out ahead if you taste-tested a bunch of hefes, but by itself, definitely drinkable.
I’ve also very much appreciated St Pauli. Definitely resembles their beer. Sorry, I haven’t compared it to the leaded.
Kaliber and Buckler are OK. Actually, probably better than OK. Either of them are tastier than a Bud/Milller/Lite/PBR/etc. I just prefer Clausthauler or St Pauli. You may have to buy a selection and see which you prefer.
If you are drinking O’Doul’s, definitely go with the Amber. It is still pretty sad, but better than the green. Sharp’s is swill. If offered plain O’Doul’s or Sharp’s, I’d probably choose to drink water (which I do most of the time anyway.)
All good info, thanks. I suspect (and hope) that perhaps with all the micro brews out they are getting better.
Also Becks. I always thought Becks and St Pauli’s similar and decent. Their NAs are as well.
Side note - the Beck’s NA labels are VERY similar to regular. A few years ago - after I had been sober maybe 7 yrs or so, my sister/BIL were treating us to dinner at their club. I used to drink a lot of beer w/ my BIL - and he was paying!, so I ordered a few Beck’s. Somewhere around #3 or so, one of us noticed something odd about the label. Sure enough, the waiter had goofed and brought me a leaded bottle.
Wouldn’t have made me fall off the wagon or anything, but if I want to end my sobriety after several years, I’d just as soon have it be intentional rather than inadvertent!
Becks is another one of my favs. And you couldn’t tell the difference? Wow, they have changed.
I did used to try to drink Sharps and O’douls once in a while. Just. Couldn’t. Drink it.
Sorry I was unclear - what I was trying to say is that the LABELS were very similar. So I tipped a couple of NAs, and when he brought me another, I ALMOST drank it w/o noticing the subtle diff in the label.
I’m going on several years past memory in comparing anything to real beer, but I always thought Beck’s and St. Pauli tasted similar to each other, and from my distant recollections, their NAs taste similar as well.
(But back when I drank, I preferred darks, stouts, porters and such.)
See if you have access to anything on this list from BeerAdvocate. I generally find that a rating above 3 is the cutoff between average and good. Most would be imports, but there’s a NA IPA out of Connecticut rated 3.5 and one from Michigan over 3.
Thanks for clearing that up. I saw that the labels where similar, but thought you had drank a few. I’m going to pick up a few sixers of different stuff tonight and try a few different ones.
Thanks, I was looking at that site and don’t know if I’ll be able to find any of it in the small county that I live in. I’ll be looking though.
Keep the faith - according to Food and Wine, 2019 is the year of non alcoholic beer. I’d say that’s a little premature, but you almost certainly will have more choices within the next few years.