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I've started drinking more NA beers to cut back on alcohol and I have to say they are getting better! The question of their value as a probiotic just occurred

by jcims 3y ago

I've started drinking more NA beers to cut back on alcohol and I have to say they are getting better! The question of their value as a probiotic just occurred to me the other day when I was drinking something with a particularly yeasty note coming from the can.

an_aparallel 3y ago
the issue with NA beers are that we still pay "taxed beer prices" on what amounts to fizzy yeast water. The pricing model is ridiculous...the alcohol companies know that people who've found themselves in the misfortune of not being able to drink will pay it.
- NavinF 3y ago
  Isn't that because non-alcoholic beer is a much smaller market and moves way less volume? Same reason why buying aluminum extrusions and matching fasteners costs the same as buying an entire 3D printer and dismantling it to recover the same parts
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
    Most NA beers are actually harder to produce than regular beers. The process is essentially “make regular beer, then remove the alcohol”
- SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
  I mentioned in a sibling comment that NA beers are actually harder to produce than regular beers. That would explain the pricing of NA beers, if the production cost of beer was at all related to the actual price of beer. In many jurisdictions, it very much is not. I think your comment is valuable in pointing out that the taxation scheme and law of beer often encompasses NA beer as well, when it shouldn’t, and in the end that very often hurts the adoption of and distribution possibilities of NA beer. In other words, if NA beer was treated like a soda it would have a lot less pain in its GTM segment. NA beer can have some low amount of alcohol, but then again so can kombucha. Where I live (Austin, TX), kombucha is regulated like a soda, but NA beer is not. They are fundamentally quite similar (very low ABV fermented beverages) but regulated quite differently. They shouldn’t be - from the perspective of the governing body, NA beers should be treated as bioactive sodas, exactly how kombucha is currently treated. There is no justifiable reason to treat them otherwise
scelerat 3y ago
I agree that the NA beer I’ve been exposed to over the last 3-5 years is remarkably better than what I’ve encountered before. To the degree that I like a lot of them on their own terms and not as a substitute for anything else
CapstanRoller 3y ago
Isn't all commercial beer pasteurized?

by jcims 3y ago

an_aparallel 3y ago

the issue with NA beers are that we still pay "taxed beer prices" on what amounts to fizzy yeast water. The pricing model is ridiculous...the alcohol companies know that people who've found themselves in the misfortune of not being able to drink will pay it.

NavinF 3y ago
Isn't that because non-alcoholic beer is a much smaller market and moves way less volume? Same reason why buying aluminum extrusions and matching fasteners costs the same as buying an entire 3D printer and dismantling it to recover the same parts
- SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
  Most NA beers are actually harder to produce than regular beers. The process is essentially “make regular beer, then remove the alcohol”
SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
I mentioned in a sibling comment that NA beers are actually harder to produce than regular beers. That would explain the pricing of NA beers, if the production cost of beer was at all related to the actual price of beer. In many jurisdictions, it very much is not. I think your comment is valuable in pointing out that the taxation scheme and law of beer often encompasses NA beer as well, when it shouldn’t, and in the end that very often hurts the adoption of and distribution possibilities of NA beer. In other words, if NA beer was treated like a soda it would have a lot less pain in its GTM segment. NA beer can have some low amount of alcohol, but then again so can kombucha. Where I live (Austin, TX), kombucha is regulated like a soda, but NA beer is not. They are fundamentally quite similar (very low ABV fermented beverages) but regulated quite differently. They shouldn’t be - from the perspective of the governing body, NA beers should be treated as bioactive sodas, exactly how kombucha is currently treated. There is no justifiable reason to treat them otherwise

scelerat 3y ago

I agree that the NA beer I’ve been exposed to over the last 3-5 years is remarkably better than what I’ve encountered before. To the degree that I like a lot of them on their own terms and not as a substitute for anything else

CapstanRoller 3y ago

Isn't all commercial beer pasteurized?