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The (main) problem with alcohol-free 'beer'/'wine'/etc. isn't the lack of drunkenness feeling? Especially beer has improved a lot but it's not there yet, I don
by OJFord 3y ago
The (main) problem with alcohol-free 'beer'/'wine'/etc. isn't the lack of drunkenness feeling?
Especially beer has improved a lot but it's not there yet, I don't see how developing synthetic 'alcohol' will help when we still can't remove, or make the drink without causing, real alcohol?
As for hormone shots to treat an already acquired hangover... It seems niche/less than ideal - I don't think many people would want that as a regular expected thing, 'I am going to drink heavily and then take a hormone shot in the morning' sort of thing? And isn't it a solved ('banana bag') problem? Or is it the idea that you could buy injectable hormones for home use whereas you can't (and probably shouldn't want to) self-cannulate at home, and that's the only way(?) banana bags can work (because it takes more than reasonably fits in a syringe? Needs to be administered at a more gradual flow?)?
Personally I hope we find a way to remove alcohol without impacting taste at all, and then you can buy either version of the same drinks. I'd probably still get both, I do acknowledge the alcohol plays some role in me enjoying the drinks, but I can imagine having say an alcoholic pint or two, then alcohol-free. Or an alcoholic gin & tonic followed by AF wine. But until it's as good...
- mcronce 3y ago> The (main) problem with alcohol-free 'beer'/'wine'/etc. isn't the lack of drunkenness feeling? That depends on your goals. I like to catch a buzz once in a while but the majority of the time I'm drinking is because I really love the flavor of my favorite cocktails and the quality would be very poor as mocktails. Using a Mai Tai as an example, of I could get a couple 0ABV rums, I could sub clarified orange juice for the orange liqueur and probably have something pretty good with no booze in it. I'd be quite happy with that.
- OJFord 3y agoExactly, re-reading I think my phrasing (or rather use of question mark) was ambiguous but that's exactly what I mean, the problem isn't the lack of 'buzz', it's the taste not being as good.
- jebarker 3y agoI'm not a chemist, so this may be false, but I've heard it's almost impossible to make NA drinks that are very similar to the real thing. The reason I heard is that whilst ethanol has no flavor itself it does enable/carry (whatever that means) interactions between other chemicals meaning there are flavors present that will never be there without ethanol. Would love to know if that's actually true...
- OJFord 3y agoVery naively and also as not-a-chemist though I would think that just because that's how A drinks do it doesn't mean we can't achieve a NA drink with the same taste by a different mechanism? I can't really think of a great example, but crisp (US: chip) flavours sometimes seem recognisable despite the actual ingredients being a concoction of a few not-what-the-flavour-is things.
- esafak 3y agoI'm not a chemist either but I know that ethanol is a solvent, and has the ability to dissolve and carry volatile organic compounds. That is why cosmetic perfumes, and food additives like vanilla extract are alcohol-based.
- jebarker 3y agoInteresting. I wonder is some other less toxic solvent could serve the same purpose?