Non Alcoholic Beers in Dublin pubs

gazzer · 10-05-2013 12:14pm #1

Just wondering if anybody could tell me what non alcoholic beers there are out there in Dublin pubs?

I'm heading out tomorrow night and will be driving on Sunday morning so don't want to drink any alcohol, however I definately dont want to drink minerals.

I like to taste of beer but after a bad experience with Becks Non Alcoholic beer I would prefer to try something else.

Thanks.

BeerNut · 10-05-2013 12:31pm

You rarely get a choice. It's usually Beck's or Erdinger or Paulaner.

Maynard · 10-05-2013 1:24pm

^^^Correct^^^

Erdinger is the best of a bad bunch in my experience.

rubadub · 10-05-2013 3:53pm

Drives me mad, you go into loads of pubs now, scan the fridge, get your hopes raised only to find the only erdinger they have is the non-alcoholic erdinger, all the other bottles are the piddly small 330ml 75cent supermarket muck for €5.

I often do ask just to show there is demand.

SolarFlash · 13-05-2013 11:29pm

Alcohol beer and Non-alcohol beer taste exactly the same. The Alcohol beer is just perceived wrongly to be tastier as the alcohol rewards the brain with dopamine.

GreeBo · 13-05-2013 11:32pm

SolarFlash wrote: »

Alcohol beer and Non-alcohol beer taste exactly the same. The Alcohol beer is just perceived wrongly to be tastier as the alcohol rewards the brain with dopamine.

I dunno, I had a non alco erdinger last night and it tasted way wheatier than regular erdinger to me...that said it may well have been sitting there for several years!

Speedtrap · 13-05-2013 11:40pm

Erdinger N/A is streets ahead of Becks.

Paulaner is passable but a bit too fruit flavoured or something. Seemingly there is a Bavaria N/A which is ok ish......

Are they liable for excise duty? Should they be the same price as booze.?

coylemj · 14-05-2013 1:10am

Speedtrap wrote: »

Are they liable for excise duty? Should they be the same price as booze.?

Excise represents a relatively small part of the retail price of beer, especially of bottles in pubs. As illustration, I bought a 20-pack of Heineken 33cl bottle recently for €18 meaning I paid 90c per bottle so when you look at the typical pub or restaurant price, the excise is a relatively small component when you consider the massive markup i.e. most of the pub price is straight profit.

And anyway, publicans don't want to encourage people to drink N/A beer, it means they drink less so it's in their interests to keep the price high.

There was also a suggestion I heard once which said that the excise is levied on the beer when it's fermented and the brewery gets no rebate on the excise when they remove the alcohol, open to correction on that one.

feargale · 14-05-2013 1:34am

Where can I get non-alcoholic whiskey?

heinz hummer · 14-05-2013 1:47am

gazzer wrote: »

Just wondering if anybody could tell me what non alcoholic beers there are out there in Dublin pubs?

I'm heading out tomorrow night and will be driving on Sunday morning so don't want to drink any alcohol, however I definately dont want to drink minerals.

I like to taste of beer but after a bad experience with Becks Non Alcoholic beer I would prefer to try something else.

Thanks.

I WOULDN BOTHER GOIN OUT TO BE HONEST WHATS THE POINT??

Dr. Loon · 14-05-2013 2:04am

Becks and Erdinger are generally the choices available if there is a choice at all. Strictly speaking they're not even non-alcoholic. They have a small percentage in them, around .5 or something. Most barmen also don't seem to know that these beers still have alcohol in them. It's a negligible amount, but I have to avoid it altogether.

There are other fully non-alcoholic beers, Becks, Bavaria, Cobra, Holsten all do 0% alcohol versions, but rare you'll find them in a pub. You'll often see the 0% Cobra in Indian restaurants.

munchkin_utd · 14-05-2013 8:31am

SolarFlash wrote: »

Alcohol beer and Non-alcohol beer taste exactly the same. The Alcohol beer is just perceived wrongly to be tastier as the alcohol rewards the brain with dopamine.

They do taste different, very very different.
Theres a strange flatness to a non alcoholic beer, and some of the sweetness seems to be missing from the beer through the process too. Not un-sweet as in pils which is a proactively bitter twang attacking your taste buds in the same way as ear wax, but non-alcoholics are just simply un-sweet. And theres a characteristic non-alcoholic (from the process?) taste off them too that can even be smelt.
Even in a blind tasting.
Even when you have a couple of pints in front of you and forgot which is non alcoholic, it IS different and can be distinguished from the Alcoholic version.

Anyhow, the odd place in Ireland has Schneiderweiss non alcoholic which is a great option.
As I said above, its not the same (not as nice) as the original but probably about as good as it gets with non alcoholic.

Failing that, when theres no N/A Weissbier to be, got my trick to get around the crap taste of becks N/A and the piddly bottles is to get it poured into a pint glass, add a dash of white lemonade or 7up and a few icecubes then to mask the taste further with the cold.
Its actually quite an OK drink if you are driving and cannot drink a heap of cokes all night.

Sky King · 14-05-2013 8:44am

The lack of tasty alcohol free beverages is a real bummer in this country.

Anyone who has ever had 4 or 5 cokes on a night out knows what I mean - you get a bloody hangover off it!

Erdinger Alkolfrei (sic?) is the best available imo, but that's not saying much.

googled eyes · 14-05-2013 8:45am

How come a NA beer is sold at off licence hours in supermarkets yet ginger beer which states has no more than 0.5% on the bottle is sold as a lemonade ?

harry Bailey esq · 15-05-2013 12:21pm

my ma drinks n/a beers,she always swore by erdinger but lately she has discovered bavaria and says it beats the rest hands down

Ravelleman · 15-05-2013 1:02pm

heinz hummer wrote: »

I WOULDN BOTHER GOIN OUT TO BE HONEST WHATS THE POINT??

This post is great in every way, from the all-capital letter style to the questions itself.

I'm not going to answer the question though in the faint hope that you are a master of irony.

feargale · 16-05-2013 1:22am

Sky King wrote: »

The lack of tasty alcohol free beverages is a real bummer in this country.

Anyone who has ever had 4 or 5 cokes on a night out knows what I mean - you get a bloody hangover off it!

True, not to talk of most non-alcoholic beers, a worse hangover than from the real thing. Some years ago there was only one. It was brutal. I forget the name. I've drank alot of coffee betimes when I was dry and it's the worst of all. I think the cops should be breathalysing fellas for caffeine!

[/quote="Sky King;84602985"]Erdinger Alkolfrei (sic?) is the best available imo, but that's not saying much.[/quote]

I agree. Sweden has what they call " the safe driver's beer " at about 0•5%, and it's quite drinkable.

rubadub · 16-05-2013 6:09pm

SolarFlash wrote: »

Alcohol beer and Non-alcohol beer taste exactly the same.

I take it you don't drink beer often so. Even the breweries do not claim such nonsense, and they are obviously going to great lengths to try and make them taste as similar as possible.

I expect many beer lovers could taste the difference without even drinking it, i.e. sipping and spitting, which would do away with that dopamine claim. Or people already drunk or taking dopamine by injection would tell the difference just as easily.

It took coca cola decades to develop coke zero, which they do have the balls to claim tastes very like coke.

Speedtrap wrote: »

Are they liable for excise duty? Should they be the same price as booze.?

No duty, but costs more to make, as they usually are brewing normally and then undergoing processes to take it out. Going by the margin on other soft drinks in pubs then a 500ml erdinger NA should cost a hell of a lot more than a normal one. 500ml of coke would be €7.12 in my local.

googled eyes wrote: »

How come a NA beer is sold at off licence hours in supermarkets yet ginger beer which states has no more than 0.5% on the bottle is sold as a lemonade ?

Probably down to the simple fact it is located in a cordoned off area. You can probably not buy bottle openers in some supermarkets as they are within the sectioned off alcohol area. So its just a matter of not being physically able to get at them. Or possibly errors on stock recognition.

if it is illegal then so is your lemonade, if its the same %.

Non Alcoholic Beers in Dublin pubs

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