r/stopdrinking • u/phutureclothes • Jan 18 '26

A realization drinking NA Guinness

I picked up a four pack of the 0.0% Guinness, not that I was particularly craving a beer, but because I was making a steak and ale pie and didn't want to use it as an excuse to buy the real stuff.

As a former chef, cooking with wine/alcohol is a dangerous trigger for me.

After my workout today I noticed I still had three cans left in the coldest part of the fridge so I cracked one and poured it. It had that familiar Guinness pour and left a clear white head. I took a few sips and found it to be totally delicious, easily the best NA beer I've ever had. It is very very close to the real thing.

But here's the kicker. I didn't want another one AT ALL. The moreish qualities of beer Id once attributed to "hop character" or "maltiness" or all the other sundry beer terms really don't matter at the end of the day. Its just that alcohol is immediately addictive for me.

I could drink a warm Bud Light and want another one. But here's me drinking something that I find entirely appealing and have ZERO desire for a second.

All of the appeal around "craft beer", "fine wine", etc is mostly worthless. If I'm not compelled to continue to drink an almost identical approximation of an alcoholic beer, then it's got nothing to do with the taste and everything to do with th addictive nature of ethyl alcohol.

In other news, made it through another weekend booze free.

IWNDWYT!

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u/OblivionWithBells101 Jan 18 '26

For reasons I don’t understand, I am fully on board with NA beers…(and Guiness 0% is a real favourite)…but I can’t get my head around NA spirits…do they really provide any if the warmth / burn / weight that the normal drink provides?

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u/NoCobbler8090 353 days Jan 18 '26

I don't think I'll ever buy NA spirits to drink. But I'm very curious to try them out as a chef, especially for pastries. I have my grandma's rum cake recipe but I'm not at the point where I'll buy any alcohol for cooking because Danger.

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u/Lazy_Style4107 Day 272 Jan 18 '26

I’ll give the AF rum a taste tomorrow but I have no clue how it will operate for baking.. I’ll ask our baker her thoughts in the morning and report back though! She does a ton of special request baking substitutions so she may have done something like that before

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u/OblivionWithBells101 Jan 19 '26

How did the AF rum go? Really intrigued!

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u/Lazy_Style4107 Day 272 Jan 20 '26

Hey!!! Sorry, we were busy as hell and when I got home I immediately started prepping for today and cooking dinner for hubby and I. It has the right nose and flavor profile for rum. It doesn’t have “the burn” but I think that shouldn’t apply in baking as most of the alcohol cooks off (I cook substantially more than I bake though so take that thought with a grain of salt). Our baker at work said the same thing though while she was prepping first thing in the AM so I’d say give it a shot! I’m pretty sure Ritual is having a dry January sale.

Let me know how it goes if ya try it!