{"id":7075877,"date":"2026-10-04T17:11:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7075877"},"modified":"2026-10-04T17:11:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:11:43","slug":"your-actual-real-life-alcohol-free-zebra-striping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7075877","title":{"rendered":"Your actual real life alcohol-free \u2018zebra striping\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The increasing ubiquity, quality and variety of alcohol-free beer has meant that it\u2019s slowly become a meaningful part of our drinking habits.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few years ago it was common for people like the late Peter \u2018Pub Curmudgeon\u2019 Edwardson to argue that nobody ever drank AF beer <a href=\"https:\/\/pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com\/2020\/01\/drinking-with-enemy.html\">except as an emergency measure<\/a>. For example, because they were the designated driver. And\u00a0 if you told them that, actually, you were going to pay for cabs for everyone, they\u2019d hurl their half-finished bottle of Heineken 0.0 into the nearest bin and order a barley wine to start catching up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was largely true, we think, because however much we kidded ourselves, almost no AF beers were truly enjoyable. In craft beer circles, where being fussy and having high standards were part of the game, why would we expect people to be tolerant of thin, vegetal, fizzy, weird-tasting brews?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But some people do actually like them. Ray\u2019s mum, for example, is actually excited to drink BrewDog Punk AF. Perhaps it\u2019s because she\u2019s never been a real ale enthusiast or beer snob, and mostly drinks whisky when she does want to get a buzz on, but she genuinely finds it enjoyable. What might read as thin and one-dimensional to some is, to her, pleasingly crisp, dry and bitter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first AF beer that we recall finding pleasant to drink \u2013 as in, we occasionally crave it \u2013 is Bristol Beer Factory\u2019s Clear Head. It still has some of the typical flaws but, crucially, nothing that reads to us an off-flavour, and its hop aroma is actually pleasing. On the right occasion, it can be quite refreshing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We still find most AF beers unsatisfying or even unpleasant. We\u2019re baffled, for example, by the lie that Schneider alcohol-free Weizen is any good when it is, in fact, like drinking Cup-a-Soup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent months, however, as perhaps our alcohol tolerance has taken yet another turn for the worse \u2013 we\u2019re both now in our late forties \u2013 there have been occasions when AF beer has been a vital part of our tactical approach to a session.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the Lost &amp; Grounded Oktoberfest event a few weeks ago, we needed to be around for several hours to meet friends who could only get there later in the afternoon. On top of that, we wanted to make sure we got to drink plenty of L&amp;G\u2019s Festbier which, at 5.8%, is by no means sessionable under normal circumstances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What worked for us was something like:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Festbier.<\/li>\n<li>AF beer.<\/li>\n<li>Festbier mixed with AF beer.<\/li>\n<li>Festbier.<\/li>\n<li>Repeat.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We were still a touch giddy by the end of the afternoon but not vomiting-in-the-bushes pissed. And we were able to get up the next day, do all the life admin that needs to be squeezed into the weekend, and go to the pub later in the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We also found the AF beers unobtrusive enough that we forgot we were drinking them at times, perhaps partly because the real pleasures were the music, the company, and the general vibe of the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You might say, ah, but this is still a version of the Pub Curmudgeon\u2019s \u2018distress purchase\u2019; you don\u2019t actually want the AF beer; it\u2019s about utility, not pleasure; if you could drink without getting intoxicated, you wouldn\u2019t touch the AF beer at all. That\u2019s fair.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What we will say, though, is that zebra-striping (alternating AF and normal beer) has another interesting pleasure-intensifying effect\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You know how the first beer of the session, or the first beer after a few dry days, tastes amazing, but the second, third, fourth beers of the session never quite have the same zing? Resetting with an AF beer between every round, or every couple of rounds, solves this problem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s right: if you step down from the heights of pleasure and drink a merely adequate, inoffensive AF beer, then every proper beer you drink feels like the first of the session. You appreciate it more, and you value what alcohol brings to the party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Contrast \u2013 white stripes, black stripes \u2013 increases your overall enjoyment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The increasing ubiquity, quality and variety of alcohol-free beer has meant that it\u2019s slowly become a meaningful part of our drinking habits. A few years ago it was common for people like the late Peter \u2018Pub Curmudgeon\u2019 Edwardson to argue that nobody ever drank AF beer except as an emergency measure. For example, because they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7075878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236395,132451,106693,97133],"tags":[52051,6138,3333,236396,12608,482,236397,33249],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7075877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-generalisations-about-beer-culture","category-low-alcohol","category-non-alcoholic","category-opinion","tag-actual","tag-alcoholfree","tag-life","tag-low-alcohol","tag-non-alcoholic","tag-real","tag-striping","tag-zebra"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Your actual real life alcohol-free \u2018zebra striping\u2019 - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7075877\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Your actual real life alcohol-free \u2018zebra striping\u2019 - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The increasing ubiquity, quality and variety of alcohol-free beer has meant that it\u2019s slowly become a meaningful part of our drinking habits. 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