# Can someone under 21 years old buy NA Beer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2007, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584 "2007-12-11T03:51:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/21 "2007-12-11T16:57:22Z")
[QUOTE=Leaffan] Glue? Huh? [/QUOTE] Possibility of solvent abuse, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/22 "2007-12-11T17:00:17Z")
I don’t get this product at all- are there really people out there who love the taste of beer, but hate the accompanying buzz? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/23 "2007-12-11T17:06:09Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] I don’t get this product at all- are there really people out there who love the taste of beer, but hate the accompanying buzz? [/QUOTE] I’ve known at least two non-drinking alcoholics who drank near beer. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/24 "2007-12-11T17:25:13Z")
[QUOTE=DrCube] What the hell, the US is nuts about it all. I can’t buy glue at Wal-Mart without an ID to prove I’m over 17 or something. That’s probably just Wal-Mart, though, not the law. [/QUOTE] I got carded at Home Depot several month ago because I was buying spray paint for patio chairs. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/25 "2007-12-11T17:35:02Z")
People may also drink the stuff if they are doing something which makes drinking alcoholic beverages prohibitive. I went flying with a private pilot once who had a NA beer when we stopped for lunch. Supermarkets and work environments which prohibit the stuff or prohibit sales to minors could conceivably justify it on the basis of simplicity or margin of safety - if it says “beer”, no, rather than requiring a close reading of the label to realize it’s a defanged version. For Silicon Valley work environments, of course, the Friday afternoon beer party was a tradition many places at one time, so the question was moot. Such things were largely early casualties of the [dot.com](http://dot.com) crunch (on a productivity basis) and/or bust (on a cost basis), but many companies still did not have a “no alcohol on the premises” rule in place. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/26 "2007-12-11T20:07:20Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] I don’t get this product at all- are there really people out there who love the taste of beer, but hate the accompanying buzz? [/QUOTE] I’ve tried just about ever brand of near beer there is, and all-in-all they suck. The biggest mistake some people make is to drink regular beer, decide they’ve had enough alcohol, then switch to near beer. That doesn’t work. If you think N/A brew taste bad to begin with, try it after drinking real beer! Blech! ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/27 "2007-12-11T20:38:45Z")
I know a guy in college who had some brain surgery done, and couldn’t drink because of the medication he had afterwards. He bought some NA beer just so he could play beirut with us on the weekends. 😛 Of course, then there was the night where it was too late to buy more beer, he was home for the weekend, and we had nothing to drink but his NA beer and vodka, so we made his NA beer a bit more alcoholic. For the record, vodka-spiked NA beer tastes horrible. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/28 "2007-12-12T03:37:44Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] I know a guy in college who had some brain surgery done, and couldn’t drink because of the medication he had afterwards. He bought some NA beer just so he could play beirut with us on the weekends. 😛 Of course, then there was the night where it was too late to buy more beer, he was home for the weekend, and we had nothing to drink but his NA beer and vodka, so we made his NA beer a bit more alcoholic. For the record, vodka-spiked NA beer tastes horrible. [/QUOTE] I would think that something like brain surgery could give you an exemption to drink water, soda, lemonade, iced tea, or whatever. Why the need for a no alcohol beer? And to the OP…the state of West Virginia has ridiculous, post-prohibition laws which made anything under 6% beer “non-intoxicating” beer. It is basically 70 plus years of amendments to the beer law which make anything brewed as beer to be “non-intoxicating” whether it is Budweiser or Sharps. Must be 21 to buy either. But in a related, screw up law, you can drink non-intoxciating beer in a car, whether driving or riding. So, turn 21, and you can drink beer while driving (as long as you aren’t drunk) but be 20, you can’t drink O’Douls at your wedding reception. Time for a code re-write in WV!!! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/29 "2007-12-12T03:41:09Z")
In FL you can serve NA beer to whomever you like, for what it’s worth. Duval county strip clubs are 18+ and thus serve only O’Douls. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/30 "2007-12-12T06:52:21Z")
[QUOTE=jtgain] I would think that something like brain surgery could give you an exemption to drink water, soda, lemonade, iced tea, or whatever. [/QUOTE] Brain injuries and alcohol do not mix well. You can get all kinds of weird problems, slow healing, or just bizarre and sometimes life-threatening reactions if you drink after having a recent brain injury or surgery. So, yeah, I would think that you wouldn’t even need the semblance of beer in that situation. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/31 "2007-12-12T06:52:27Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Cat] The UK operates on a similar basis, so there would be no problem with a ten-year old buying a case of Kaliber, for example. The reason no-one does, of course, is that few under-18s buy alcohol for the taste - they just want to get drunk. No/low alcohol beer is aimed at adults who like the taste of beer but do not/cannot drink alcohol. [/QUOTE] It depends where the 10 year old went to purchase it. In my local Cooperative store, for instance, you need to be 18 to purchase Kaliber or to sell it. Different stores different rules. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/32 "2007-12-12T14:26:50Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] I’ve known at least two non-drinking alcoholics who drank near beer. [/QUOTE] Interersting- to me thats like smoking THC free pot, but obviously someone drinks it or they wouldn’t sell it. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/33 "2007-12-12T16:42:09Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] Wow. I’ve never heard of that. [/QUOTE] [Here](http://ask.metafilter.com/16355/papers-please) is a discussion I just found when I googled “walmart glue policy”. Mostly it is about getting carded for mineral spirits and spray paint, but **delmoi** , about halfway down the page, apparently got carded for glue, too. I could google for more than thirty seconds and probably come up with something more definitive, but I’m in kind of a hurry right now. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/34 "2007-12-12T18:15:02Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Interersting- to me thats like smoking THC free pot [/QUOTE] Not really. Nobody smokes dope just because they like the taste of it. Plenty of people drink adult beverages with no intent of intoxication. I used to joke, though, that decaf coffee and non-alcoholic beer were both like having a girlfriend who didn’t put out! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/35 "2007-12-12T19:23:38Z")
[QUOTE=DrCube] That’s crazy. I’ve bought pure grain alcohol (Everclear) in the grocery store. And to be a cashier at a grocery store you have to be 18 years old, too. [/QUOTE] Wait, then what kind of jobs do the high schoolers get? Here, after school and on weekends, almost all the cashiers are high school aged. If they couldn’t cashier, then a lot of kids would be jobless through school. Stocking groceries and food service wouldn’t cut it. (sorry for hijack!) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/36 "2007-12-12T19:25:23Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] Wow. I’ve never heard of that. [/QUOTE] I got carded at an Ohio Wal-Mart when buying fuel injector cleaner. The cashier said the company has a bunch of products that can be used for ‘huffing’ that require you to be carded. Kinda’ sucks if you’re 16 and need to clean your ride’s fuel injectors, but I suppose you could get mom or pop to pick it up. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/37 "2007-12-12T22:35:15Z")
In Alberta you can often find some NA beer in the soft drink section at larger grocery stores. I bought some a while ago (was over 18, so no data there) to see what it was like, and I can confirm **pkbites** assertion that NA beer is nasty nasty stuff. It really should not be purchased or consumed for any reason at all, including those listed in this thread. If you’re thirsty, drink coke. If you’re trying to pretend, drink coke and say there’s rum in it. ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/38 "2007-12-12T22:50:16Z")
[QUOTE=kushiel] Wait, then what kind of jobs do the high schoolers get? Here, after school and on weekends, almost all the cashiers are high school aged. If they couldn’t cashier, then a lot of kids would be jobless through school. Stocking groceries and food service wouldn’t cut it. (sorry for hijack!) [/QUOTE] [Note: I was a high school student in Michigan, where one can buy any level of booze, from beer to Bacardi, at the supermarket. Consequently cashiers must be 18+.] I worked as a bagger/cart jockey at the supermarket, also as a dish washer and a cashier at a hardware store. There’s no shortage of retail jobs: Target, Old Navy, Kohl’s etc. Then there’s the movie theaters and the fast food places. Starbucks. 7-11. Never met a highschooler who was jobless due to lack of opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/39 "2007-12-13T01:49:26Z")
[QUOTE=Orual] [Note: I was a high school student in Michigan, where one can buy any level of booze, from beer to Bacardi, at the supermarket. Consequently cashiers must be 18+.] I worked as a bagger/cart jockey at the supermarket, also as a dish washer and a cashier at a hardware store. There’s no shortage of retail jobs: Target, Old Navy, Kohl’s etc. Then there’s the movie theaters and the fast food places. Starbucks. 7-11. Never met a highschooler who was jobless due to lack of opportunity. [/QUOTE] Ah, just grocery store cashiers! But how do they identify what’s a grocery store and what isn’t? Walmart now sells groceries, even though it is a tiny portion of the store. And 7-11 doesn’t sell NA beer in the States? ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584/40 "2007-12-13T02:29:58Z")
[QUOTE=kushiel] Ah, just grocery store cashiers! But how do they identify what’s a grocery store and what isn’t? Walmart now sells groceries, even though it is a tiny portion of the store. [/QUOTE] Stores that sell alcohol aren’t allowed to hire people under the age of 18 to be cashiers. It doesn’t matter what type of store it is. [WARNING: PDF] [See pages 8-10](https://www.michigan.gov/documents/CIS_LCC_retailguide2003_86837_7.pdf) of MI’s liquor laws. [QUOTE=kushiel] And 7-11 doesn’t sell NA beer in the States? [/QUOTE] I misspoke on that point. 7-11 does sell beer around here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-under-21-years-old-buy-na-beer/429584.md?page=3)