Non-alcoholic beer

nobodythere

I need a non-alcoholic beer that tastes like a beer for an experiment... Any suggestions? From what I can gather, most of them taste like crap...

Inspector Gadget

This is going to be very much a matter of personal taste, but the Beck's non-alcoholic stuff (black ring around label rather than red for with-alcohol) is surprisingly good as far as my palate can detect...

Gadget

whiskeyman

Whats the experiment?
I've often thought about one where a mad free-beer party was held (say in a college), but dont tell the people its non-alcoholic beers etc...
I'd be interested to see if a placebo effect would happen where people acted in a drunk fashion the more they drunk and the later it got.
Maybe you could use some of the current non-alco beers and pass it off as some strong foreign brand the "target" never heard of...

Sarky

grasshopa wrote:

I need a non-alcoholic beer that tastes like a beer for an experiment... Any suggestions? From what I can gather, most of them taste like crap...

There is no such thing. Even German alcohol free beers are pants.

nobodythere

Can't give away details because people from this board know me... but you're on the right track...

Would you recognise that it isn't actually alcoholic?

chump

Of course ya would...

pickarooney

They've done experiments like this in universities before. They gave one group 6 pints of alcohol-free beer and another 3 pints of normal beer. The boozeless people were more 'pissed' than the ones drinking acohol. Probably some effect of group inhibition-losing.

whiskeyman

i dont think so... as I said, pass it off as some foreign muck.
Probably best you try the most potent smelling / tasting of the lot and use that one.
You cant tell some foreign beers if they have alcohol, they just taste so damn weird...

Sleipnir

Beck's non-alcoholic ain't bad at all.

narommy

Sleipnir wrote:

Beck's non-alcoholic ain't bad at all.

I drink Becks N/a all the time and the only thing good about is is that it is better than drinking lots of Coke. It tasts like pis but with ice it ain't bad. The acloholic version is nice though.

There is a poor and inconsistens selection of N/A bears.
I got N/A Erdinger (in Traffic, i think) nice
Hoslten N/A in Cassidy's Camden street.
Aslo some other ones that i can't remember the name of. They.re actually hard to pronounce when you're sober.

Could also try the porterhouse. I think they have a few.

PS
BECKs NA has .3% alochol. Which is plenty for me

chump

pickarooney wrote:

They've done experiments like this in universities before. They gave one group 6 pints of alcohol-free beer and another 3 pints of normal beer. The boozeless people were more 'pissed' than the ones drinking acohol. Probably some effect of group inhibition-losing.

Any chance you can point us to this study please

whiskeyman

chump wrote:

Any chance you can point us to this study please

yeah, I'd love to get more info on this.
Perhaps meself and my mates could use the results and findings to somehow go on the piss ordering nothing but pints of water...

Töpher

Erdinger!

ExOffender

Non-alcoholic beer = non-orgasmic sex. Tastes like piss and only gets you pissed if you're in an experiment! And the placebo effect would be negligible once you're aware of it.

Crucifix

Einst&#252 wrote: »

Erdinger!

Is Erdinger non-alcoholic? I quite liked Erdinger when I tried it.

pigeonbutler

Crucifix wrote:

Is Erdinger non-alcoholic? I quite liked Erdinger when I tried it.

Erdinger do a non-alcoholic version. Blue label and says Alkohol-Frei on it. I read a review of non-alc beers in the Times before and it rated the Erdinger stuff as top notch. Plus Erdinger is a weissbier and not a lager so most people won't be familiar with the taste. Even if they were drinking the proper version they'd think it tasted funky so they're less likely to cop the absence of alcohol.

Blisterman

Didnt they do this in Freaks and Geeks once?

nobodythere

Thanks for the replies. We're running an experiment, I'll give details when it's over. The people won't know about it. We have loads of empty bottles of obscure french beer to put it into. We have 4 in on it, two of us documenting and 2 who will be actually a bit pissed (but acting really pissed).

They'll have shown up earlier than everyone else and will be "drunk" when everyone else arrives. The rest of them will drunk nothing but non-alcoholic beer. There are loads of little complications to sort out. If you know me off this board, shut your mouth and gimme a ring!

pickarooney

chump wrote:

Any chance you can point us to this study please

I wish I could, or could even remember where I read it (it was a blue paperback book, in about 1994, further details escape me). This was the closest I could find after a quick search.

And yes, there was a similar experiment in an episode of Freaks and Geeks (given the sheer volume of posts referencing that show on boards, we could maybe expect a second series )

inflight

whiskeyman wrote:

I've often thought about one where a mad free-beer party was held (say in a college), but dont tell the people its non-alcoholic beers etc...

Ha, reminds me of that Freaks and Geeks episode... God that's a funny show! It worked the way they showed anyway

inflight

Oops too late. Damn

Larianne

My dad drinks Kalibar non alcohol beer or becks now. I dont know the diff in taste between good beer or bad beer so can't help there.

Nah, the freaks and geeks will unfortunately never return to our screens. Stoopid Americans!!

arbeitsscheuer

Erdinger's non-alcoholic version is pretty good, my brother chose that when he was going thru a phase of not drinking. Non-Alcoholic Beck was also a regular choice when places didn't have the Erdinger option.

I've never touched the stuff tho so...

Capt'n Midnight

IIRC low alcohols beers are usually made two ways. One is by using an enzyme to break down the ethanol, the other by using vacuum distillation to boil off the ethanol at a lower temperature. The second changes the taste more ?? Anyway they both remove ethanol but leave behind almost all the other nasty things that can cause hangovers.


You could try a strange beer - say one of those trays from Lidl or Aldi - so it won't taste normal anyway. If you could soak off the labels and change them or recap the bottles you might have a better chance of getting away with it.

Crucifix

To the OP: Report back to us how it goes

narommy

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

IIRC low alcohols beers are usually made two ways. One is by using an enzyme to break down the ethanol, the other by using vacuum distillation to boil off the ethanol at a lower temperature. The second changes the taste more ?? Anyway they both remove ethanol but leave behind almost all the other nasty things that can cause hangovers.

QUOTE]

The hangovers aren't great with Becks NA.
Makes you think that you're still drinking

seanin4711

this stuff is great!
1 It tastes Like beer(most important)
2 Isotonic (training for dublin city marathon!)
3 Contains Vitamins
4 Low fat!

I have a very young family and dont have time for hangovers so this is a refreshing tasting beer and ticks all boxes for me!
slan
j

markfla

Drinking non alcoholic beer is like going down on your own sister.......it tastes the same but you know it's just not right:D

seanin4711

markfla wrote: »

Drinking non alcoholic beer is like going down on your own sister.......it tastes the same but you know it's just not right:D

I wouldnt know!

Capt'n Midnight

seanin4711 wrote: »

I wouldnt know!

what part of "it's just not right" do you have a problem with ? :eek:

Inspector Gadget

Did you entertain the possibility that he doesn't have a sister???

jill_valentine

Nobodythere- if your choice of non-alco beer tastes too mild, try adding a bit of tonic water.

Alco-free Erdinger is probably your best bet though.

Krusty_Clown

Paulander also sells a non-alcoholic weis bier, that in my opinion is marginally better than Erdinger. You can buy it in Dunnes Stores. When I was last in Berlin at the Marathon expo, there were loads of non-alcoholic beers available, which were delish. Sadly they don't seem to export them to Ireland though.

Berlin marathon actually hands out pints of non-alcoholic Erdinger at the end of the race, as a recovery drink. Of course as soon as you get out of the finish area, you start hitting the real stuff.

Capt'n Midnight

Inspector Gadget wrote: »

Did you entertain the possibility that he doesn't have a sister???

I'd rather entertain the sister.

Capt'n Midnight

There are several ways of removing alcohol after the brewing process. You can vacuum evaporate it off or you can remove it with enzymes. Neither process removes the higher alcohols or fusel oils that contribute in part to hangovers.

irish_goat

Working in a pub we sometimes give other staff members Becks N/A without telling them and watch them get steadily "drunker". Becks N/A has a real awful smell to it though so I was topping a bit of draught lager into it try and hide it.

It's always a good laugh when you confess to the person though. :pac: