Most passable non-alcoholic beer?

[Bazza]

i.e. in your opinion, what is?

We have a 60th birthday party to go to tonight away on the far side of Belfast. We're only going for a short time and I hate the thought of paying £30-£40 in taxis (assuming you get any given the night it is) there and back. So I've offered to drive.

But rather than having the obligatory 1 beer and then looking awkward for the next 2 hours I thought I might bring a 4-pack of something non-alcoholic along with me to 'fit in' a little more.

Any suggestions? I see Erdinger do a non-alcoholic weissbeer. Anyone tried it?

Or is this an exercise in futility and I should just man up and drink a coke?

-Barry

[DEMPSEY]

Personally never found a non alcoholic beer that I could drink. go for the coke 

[AJ_Rowley]

On occasion I've had the erdinger and its a decent drink.

[sub82]

I like the erdinger and would drink a fair bit of it. I got the 0% cobra once and thought it was great and could then never find it again!

Would you completely abstain? That 2.8% Tolly English Ale in Tesco isn't bad.

[Bill_00]

The German one's are generally pretty good.

Warfsteiner at a push, but Erdinger's is pretty good.

[Bill_00]

Thread just made me remember of my days as a young 'un (11-14) being allowed L.A Beer....was horrid stuff

[Bazza]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

I'll have a look for the Erdinger in my local Winemark.

Failing that I'll just show up at the party with a big 2-litre bottle of red lemonade and be the envy of everyone.

-Barry

[matthewdick23]

don't go. no point.

[sub82]

The Vineyard used to do it in a gift pack with a fancy Alkohol Frei glass.

[sub82]

 

don't go. no point.

[johnrm]

I thin there are generally 2 types of NA beer.
0% and 0.5%

I stand to be corrected but...
0% is alc-removed and forced carbed.
0.5% is either alc-removed to a point, then force carbed or bottle-conditioned with added yeast and sugars.

The 0.5% ones are somewhat palateable, 0% I find are not.

[LordEoin]

I quite like the becks one myself

[irish_goat]

I quite like the becks one myself

That stuff is terrible, the smell of it especially.

Paulaner N/A is the nicest I've had. It's hard to get N/A beers that don't have a "cooked corn" flavour off them though. Baltica 0 is grand as well.

Avoid Fruh N/A as well.

[LordEoin]

yeah, well... I suppose I sometimes find pleasure in the smaller things in life like cans of carling, finding a nest, strippers, snow, sunsets, etc.

What I like about the becks is that t tastes like becks.
ackoholfrei erdinger, while drinkable tastes kinda odd..

[Bazza]

Well, in the end Winemark only had Becks and Bavaria N/A so I opted for the Bavaria. Not unpleasant, would be the best I can say.

Had about 5 of them until they started to run through me and I just had to accept that the psychological thing of having something resembling beer in your had at a party doesn't really work. I peaked in the first five minutes and spent the rest of the time trying to stay awake and needing the toilet 

On a more bizarre and tragic note, the people having the party had to apologise for having no proper party food. They'd been keeping it in the fridge at a friend's house a couple of streets away but couldn't get to it because the whole street was cordened off due to someone being murdered earlier in the evening 

I'll stick to the big 2L bottle of red lemonade, a few chicken wings in the back pocket and a sound alibi next time.

Cheers for all the help, lads


-Barry