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For Los Angeles resident Michael Burns, ordering a beer-and-shot combo is synonymous with going out to the bar, a hallmark of his \u201cprime young drinking years\u201d in Baltimore and Chicago. But since having a kid almost two years ago, he mostly steers clear of boilermakers, which he knows he\u2019ll feel the next day. Instead, the new dad has found a workaround: At his local bar, where there\u2019s a Miller High Life and amaro shot special, Burns will allow himself the amaro, but chase it with a nonalcoholic beer. He calls it a boiler<\/span>faker<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Subbing in N\/A beers plus the occasional boozy dalliance allows Burns to still go out with friends, minus the threat of hangovers. You could call it a hack: \u201cWhy not get some booze in the system and participate in the ritual of the boilermaker,\u201d he says, \u201cbut without the consequences that come with ordering it post-40?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
What might initially sound like either a strange bit or a misunderstanding of how to act normal at a drinking establishment, the N\/A-plus-full-proof combo is more like microdosing, but for alcohol.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Riding the pendulum swing from pandemic overindulgence to a \u201cCali sober\u201d (or sober-ish) lifestyle, many of us are navigating a gray-area middle: still drinking, but perhaps more mindfully. Consider <\/span>zebra striping<\/span><\/a>, which names the practice of alternating alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n N\/A beer, while nothing new, has seen <\/span>a boom<\/span><\/a> in recent years: A Nielsen IQ <\/span>trend report for 2024<\/span><\/a> found that the nonalcoholic beer, wine and spirits category approached $1 billion in sales, \u201cdemonstrating a growing consumer preference for moderation\u201d\u2014moderation, rather than abstinence, being the key term here. It helps that brands like Athletic Brewing Co. figured out how to make the stuff taste a lot better. At a Valentine\u2019s Day dance party I attended, with a crowd that skewed 30-something, the bar actually sold out of Athletic. These days, it\u2019s just another beer on the menu.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cWe have more options than ever before when it comes to consuming beverages,\u201d says beverage journalist Joshua M. Bernstein, \u201cand there\u2019s not a lot of codified rules; we\u2019re making them up as we go along.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Melton Sharpe, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, is another boilerfaker convert. He says it does the trick on nights he\u2019s DJing and wants to feel just a touch less than sober. In a sense, it\u2019s a step toward knowing thyself. \u201cAlcohol plus alcohol has never done me any good,\u201d he says, shuddering over J\u00e4ger bombs past. \u201cBut if I can do alcohol and N\/A, I\u2019m usually in a pretty good space.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n You\u2019re not yet likely to see an N\/A-beer-and-alcoholic-shot special advertised at the bar, though the pairing potential is right there if you\u2019re feeling creative. Bernstein tells me that he\u2019s also seen a <\/span>reverse boilerfaker<\/span><\/a>: pairing a shot of Pathfinder, a hemp- and herb-based N\/A spirit, with full-proof beer. And some bars offer it on a word-of-mouth basis; <\/span>per GQ<\/span><\/a>, there\u2019s an unofficial Athletic-and-tequila-shot pairing that goes by The Hypocrite at Pencil Factory Bar in Brooklyn, or The Wild Buffalo, an Athletic Run Wild IPA and a shot of bourbon, that\u2019s popular down in Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n I had to see for myself. So recently at my local bar, I ordered a shot of whiskey with the only Athletic beer they had in stock, the Run Wild. My tolerance level is such that I am going to get buzzed off a shot, and I did. As a chaser, I can\u2019t recommend the Run Wild\u2014if one of the lighter Athletics is available, or an N\/A lager, I\u2019d suggest that. But after the initial flavor clash of the whiskey and too-hoppy beer, I enjoyed sipping something nonalcoholic while the buzz from the whiskey carried me through, making the neutered beer seem almost legit. A friend at the bar likened it to \u201cordering the black bean burger and adding cheese and bacon.\u201d Doesn\u2019t necessarily sound bad to me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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