Well, one reason is that if one has to avoid alcohol for some reason, whether legal, pharmacological, or otherwise, NA beer may provide a suitable choice, especially for those who don’t care for soft drinks or carbonated water of the Perrier type. With beer especially, there is a component of “beerness” that goes beyond the mere alcoholic strength, and it’s this quality that can make a NA beer worthwhile in some circumstances. It’s true of beer in a way that
I do think that the taste of NA beer has an unfortunate bluntness to it, but the better brands come pretty close to eliminating that.
You know there is some alcohol in N/A beer. Less than .05 % is what they’ll guarantee.
I once freaked out an AA meeting by walking in with an open can.
There is a wide range of taste in N/A beer but the real thing tastes better each and every time. What can I tell you. I’m The Flying Dutchman and I’m an alcoholic.
NA is pretty similar to a lot of Alcoholic beers… at least a lot of Alcoholic beers that I think taste like water (read Budweiser, Coors, Asahi, Kirin, etc) and when they’re cold enough they’re tolerable, but they don’t taste very good. I miss beer so ridiculously badly. I mean, out here we have like 20 different kinds of Kirin that all taste the same, 20 different kinds of Asahi, etc, they’re all the damn same, and only TWO (yes, a literal measurement, not an exageration, only TWO) come in a bottle, and both are Kirins.
I’m from California, though, which has one of the best micro-brewing cultures in America (behind, from what I’m told Seattle). One of my good friends used to work at the local brew pub as assistant brew master, and he had a brew mastering license from a school in England. I’m used to going into a bar and seeing at least 10 micro brews on tap, all we have tapped out here is “nama” beer (usually some kind of kirin/asahi) and, if you’re lucky, Guiness.
So really it depends what kind of beer you drink. If you like the water pilsners and lagers that are the “big name” beers in America than I can see not really tasting a difference, but if you’re obsessed with IPAs and Amber Ales, Scotch Ales and good Pilsners, than no, they don’t taste even REMOTELY the same.
Our rugby club once solicited donations from a beer distributor. The guy who was contacted must not know much about the rugby culture, because we were given about a dozen cases of NA beer. I think it’s still sitting in the shed; either that or we used it for [del]rugby practice[/del] target practice.
I prefer MANY beers, not just one.
Joe
That’s a bad choice. For malt liquors or ice beers, ALL OF THEM taste better than Camo - it’s so thick and sweet… Bleargh!
Joe
NA beer tastes like camel piss. All of them. Gross. If that’s all there is to drink, I’ll pass.
you can get real beer at a higher percentage than that. Some IPAs go up to 9%, Barely Wines (including my favorite, Lagunitas’ Gnarly Wine) are around 11-13% and they’re all tastier than malt liquor. As Atmosphere says: I haven’t drank a 40 since I was old enough to drink
Why? I drink for the alcohol content and I don’t really understand how the OP can feel there’s no difference either, but your reply and a few others in this thread are coming off very defensive.