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Alcohol Free Bourbon

Wigwam Jones

Wigwam Jones

Caesar non supra grammati
I love Guinness. I love bourbon. Irish whiskey, not so much. Scotch, not at all. However, I did not imbibe that much. Maybe once a quarter, and never to excess any more. I do not like hangovers.

However...blood thinners got in the way. I am not to have alcohol anymore. That's a shame. I wasn't drinking much; now I drink none.

Recently, I saw an advert for fake bourbon. Non-alcoholic. I told my wife, she ordered a bottle so I could give it a try. I wasn't expecting much, to be honest.

Kentucky 74, by Spiritless (appropriate name). I tried it neat. Nope. Ugh. But the instructions said to try it in a mixed drink. So I poured it over ice in a glass with Diet Coke. Ah. Much better.

Is it bourbon? Nope. It has the smell, the look, and some of the mouth feel. The taste is...something like bourbon. I think the smell being dead on helps, to be honest. There's no burn, no sting. Of course there wouldn't be, no alcohol. I took about a month to get through the bottle. I didn't hate it as a mixed drink. I did like not worrying about what it was doing to my blood sugar or interacting with my blood thinners or having a hangover.

Just for comparison, I tried a different brand. Free Spirits bourbon. Ick. Nasty. Does not smell like bourbon, doesn't look like bourbon, definitely doesn't taste like bourbon; at least not to me. I tasted corn as the strongest note, and it was too sweet. Again, this is just my perception. I could not drink it all; it went down the sink, money wasted.

I read a lot of comments online. Most people hate all of these alcohol-free attempts to imitate various types of alcohol. I get it. If you want the bourbon experience, you have to drink bourbon. Nothing else is really bourbon. If that's your yardstick, you're not going to dig this stuff.

But I recall when I switched from regular soda to diet soda, many years ago when I was first diagnosed with diabetes. For two weeks, the stuff just tasted nasty. How could anyone drink this swill? But you get used to it. Now diet soda tastes sweet. Regular soda tastes WAY too sweet; undrinkable. Like drinking a bottle of pancake syrup.

So I am sharing my experience in case anyone else out there is unable to drink anymore but still wants to bourbon (or gin, vodka, etc) experience.

It's not the same. Some of it is a close-enough deal for me. Might be for you, or maybe not. I think it's going to be a personal thing.

But I suspect this is a growing market. More and more of us can't drink alcohol anymore, for a variety of reasons.
 
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I confess to falling into that group that distains near beer, as well as other forms of alcohol-free “booze”, but in my case that applies to pretty much fake anything. Having said that, my bride and I found that what we call a cherry spritzer can be unusually satisfying. The areas of taste buds stimulated on the tongue are very similar to a dry red wine, which could be why. It’s nothing more than a Tom Collins glass filled with ice, then with plain, unflavored sparkling water to within 1/2” of the rim, and filled the rest of the way with your choice of tart cherry juice. We like Montmorency. Since we cut way back on alcohol, both the Montmorency cherry juice and La Croix sparkling water are always in stock. It’s admittedly better with Perrier but I can’t justify the price. Kinda like a lot of audio gear. ;)
 
2FarGone said:
I confess to falling into that group that distains near beer, as well as other forms of alcohol-free “booze”, but in my case that applies to pretty much fake anything. Having said that, my bride and I found that what we call a cherry spritzer can be unusually satisfying. The areas of taste buds stimulated on the tongue are very similar to a dry red wine, which could be why. It’s nothing more than a Tom Collins glass filled with ice, then with plain, unflavored sparkling water to within 1/2” of the rim, and filled the rest of the way with your choice of tart cherry juice. We like Montmorency. Since we cut way back on alcohol, both the Montmorency cherry juice and La Croix sparkling water are always in stock. It’s admittedly better with Perrier but I can’t justify the price. Kinda like a lot of audio gear. ;)
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Nice find. I absolutely understand that any comparison between alcohol free 'bourbon' and actual bourbon will always fall short. But in my case real bourbon simply isn't an option. This is a reasonable (for me) substitute.
 
Since my heart attack and DVT a month later in the spring of last year, I've been off alcohol. I've had two small sips of my daughter's wine at dinner, but on St, Patrick's Day this year I was out with my daughter in Austin and tried some NA Guiness. It wasn't bad at all and I wound up having 3 more that night and no effect. Maybe it was because I hadn't had a beer in 13 months, but I did enjoy it.

Two months later we are out agan for the girl's birthdays and I asked if they had any NA beer and got a Heinekin 0.0. I liked it too. So I did some research and found some other NA beers, some 0.0% alcohol, but some are 0.5% are "NA" too. I like them all and am pleased I can now have a drink at dinner. I'll still favor the 0.0 beers like Heinken and Stella Artois to be safe, but may still drink them once I'm off the blood thinners for the DVT, hopefully this October. Since I was never really a beer aficionado, there's really no huge drop off to me, especially after not imbibing for over a year. So I'm good to go and found a couple products I truly enjoy.
 
So I read a bit about "non-alcoholic" beer and I learned that the numbers are ABV (alcohol by volume). So a 0.0% beer can have less than 0.04% ABV if they round like I was taught as an analytic chemist. But the 0.5 ABV is legally "non alcoholic" so I guess the lawyers and marketeers take license that scientists don't. BTW, I get PO'd at "seedless" watermelons too.

But the good thing here it that if Wiggy enjoys a shot of 0.5% ABV in a Diet Coke he's ingesting 1/12 of what I am having in a 12 oz Labatt's 0.5% beer.
 
Oh man!! Your thread inspires another thread me thinks. "If beer or other spirits didn't have alcohol in them would I still drink them???? Darn you!!! What does it say about me if the answer were no? Don't answer that- I'll work it through while I open this bottle of Balvenie. Seriously - I haven't opened it but it is looking at me right now. I also have a bottle of Eagle Rare unopened and regular Buffalo Trace. If I boiled them the alcohol would be gone then I just put them on ice.
 
If it makes me a lush, so be it. Boil the alcohol out of it and it will not taste the same. No, thank you.
 
I gave up alcoholic beverages some 41 years ago, haven't really found something I like other than clear water and coffee. Coke zero, Sprite zero, Dr Pepper zero otherwise to fill I for something fizzy. Occasionally, ginger ale or tonic water for something caffeine free.
 
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My wife likes the Nkd Whiskey-Spirit Alternative and the Ritual Rum Alternative. She says the Busch NA is OK and likes the Stella Artois NA as a treat.
 
Some NA beers are OK these days. I use them on off days or as a thirst quencher and even with a spicy virgin Mary. NA spirits would have no redeeming quality for me.
 
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