Europe’s first-ever dedicated non-alcoholic craft beer festival has kicked off in Warsaw, placing Poland on the frontier of the fast-growing alcohol-free beer market while also spotlighting the nation’s wider shift towards mindful drinking.
Cool. Given that no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health, this seems like a meaningful step.
I feel the English language is in need of an update; while the article does mention NoLo Beers to describe the beers of festival, the two most used words in English are alcohol-free and non-alcoholic - both suggest all these drinks belong to only one category: the 0.0000% category. De-alcoholized drinks are never entirely free of alcohol. This festival celebrates both, which I am totally fine with; so this is not a comment about one being good and the other being bad - this is a comment to vent my dislike the fact that English language lacks a word for ‘(very) low in alcohol <0.5%’ and just uses the (imo false) words that already exists for products that never had any alcohol in it. Imo alcohol-free / non-alcoholic drinks are soda’s, not de-alcoholized beer, wine, etc.
I think it’s generally pretty well understood that they contain a small amount, like decaf coffee. But perhaps non-intoxicating would be a good label.
Decaf is quite a good example. If you order decafinated coffee, the menu doesn’t say non-cafenic or cafeine-free.
The problem isn’t with the words for alcohol-free beer, or non-alocholic but for the ‘containing a little bit of alchohol’. It doesn’t matter to everyone, but for people who don’t drink for religious or (mental-) health reasons they do care. And often the label says it, that’s not the problem. The problem is they’re both described (in English) by the same word, while they’re not the same thing to those people.
It was noticed that fights didn’t break out anywhere!
Also in my county I notice a significant shift away from alcohol. In 10 or 20 years, I expect it will be viewed similarly to smoking today. An unhealthy habit from a time when people didn’t know better
The world is losing its fun. 😔
No more cigarettes, no more substances, I can’t even name them without being afraid, no more alcohol, no more dancing cuz we’re getting recorded, no more casual hook ups, no more socialising. Only rotting in bed on short video formats. I feel alien sometimes striking up a zippo to light a cigarette.
Wish I could go. Most NA’s served in the US are basically budweiser. Boring, flavorless, thin. I know alcohol removal plays sole part in that, but I have genuinely had some very good NA’s. Unfortunatley they’re the exception. Overseas have very good NA choices. I’ve had draft German NA beer that I pertty much could not tell the difference between it and normal beer. Perfect for a hot day after hiking around. Spain has some really good ones too. The US? It’s mostly all Athletic brand stuff which has nothing distinctive about it, or crappy sweet stuff like Odoul’s.
I hate beer, so with non-alcoholic beer, I just don’t see the point at all. Tastes like crap, and doesn’t even give you a little buzz. 😅
Do you like non-sweet cold drinks that are not water? Non-alcoholic beers tend to be the only option in that regard (and even then most are too malty for my taste).
I can’t think of many non-sweet cold drinks that aren’t water lol. Maybe ice tea? I like that. But I never drink that tbh. I mostly like refreshing fruity beverages like juices and lemonade and stuff like that. I do like alcohol-free ginger beer, that’s nice.
On occasion, must, as well.
If I go American, root beer and cream soda are probably my two that I can drink from that region. 😅 But those are obviously sweet.
Yeah self-made iced tea (industrial iced tea is usually chockfull of sugar) is great, too, but is not as readily available as a bottled drink unfortunately. A sugary drink on a hot day just makes me feel more dehydrated than before.
Corona Cero might be my favourite. Non-Cero is already a rather light corn beer, but Cero is the perfect summer drink.
“Mindful drinking” is no drinking
People aren’t allowed to have fun
If you can’t have fun without alcohol, you’re an alcoholic. Your addiction shouldn’t be encouraged and pushed on others.
If you have just one thing in life that brings you joy, then I pity you. Now if people want to gather some friends, get a bottle of wine, some pot, or even nothing while they talk, let them be
Maybe go touch some grass will help
I said that mindful drinking means not drinking, you reacted saying that I’m not wanting people to have fun, implying that alcohol is a requirement to have fun.
If you can’t have “joy” without alcohol, you have a problem, and should worry about that. Your reply doesn’t even make any kind of sense.
And also, no, I’m not going to “let people be” when they do things that cause a lot of problems. And yes, alcohol does cause a lot of problems, even when it’s “just a beer”, and unless you’ve lived in a cave without anyone else your whole life you have seen it, or participated in it
Maybe start caring about things once in a while, this “let things be” never worked.