I have to avoid alcohol for medical reasons. I never drank much to begin with so it’s not something that I miss all that much. On the rare occasions that I find myself in a bar I’ll order an O’Douls. The label states that it contains less than 0.5% alcohol by volume. Searching the web, I’ve found several claims that this is no more than what naturally occurs in things like orange juice or bread. I haven’t been told to avoid either fruit juices or bread so if these claims are true than it would follow that non-alcoholic beer should be just as safe for me. But I haven’t found what I would consider to be authoritative cites to back up the claims. Are these claims correct? Is 0.5% a biologically meaningful amount of alcohol?
If I’ve done my math right then a 12 oz. O’Doul’s has about a third of a teaspoon of alcohol in it. You should ask a doctor what amount is safe to ingest with your condition. You’ll never get drunk from the stuff though.
Hmm… When I read your post I thought “that can’t be right, it’s only one half of one percent” but I did the math myself and, unless we both made the same mistakes, it’s 0.36 of a teaspoon so you’re correct. But the question then is, does 12 ounces of orange juice really contain as much as 1/3 of a teaspoon of alcohol? I’ve never heard of anyone being told to avoid OJ due to its alcohol content.
If you are truly concerned about the alcohol content in the 0.5s like O’Douls, consider drinking one of the true non-alcoholic beers, like the 0.0% Beck’s beer. I was at a party for New Year’s, and several people were seved the non-alcoholic version by accident (both types were in the fridge) and no one noticed a taste difference, not even those people who regularly drank regular Beck’s.
There are a few other 0.0% beers, in which no fermentation was ever allowed to happen. Visit your local friendly Beer-selling person and ask them about it.
Are you certain about the Beck’s? From Beck’s website: (Click on “non-alcoholic” to the upper right of the picture.)
So unless they have another non-alcoholic that they’re not mentioning, it’s the same as O’Douls, less than 0.5% by volume. I’m skeptical that any of them are 100% alcohol free.
And I’m still looking for a cited answer to my original question. Is it true that the same volume of orange juice can contain as much alcohol?