Lol, I am assigned to bring alcohol to family Christmas. Nothing being insinuated there, I just have the furthest trip so it’s easier. I’ll be leaving any extra.
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Came out to a group of my friends recently who I mostly see online due to distance. Told them I’m sorry if I was off-center or weird, here’s high-level what was going on, I’ve been sober half a year.
Basically said I value their friendship and if my drinking in any way could’ve hurt our friendship even if they didn’t realize that was the reason, please give me another chance.
I already know that another person in that group is actively struggling with drink as they’ve confided in me. That had no impact on my decision to share, but I hope it’s motivational for him.
Another texted me afterward to say she’d been drinking too much since her grandmother was terminally diagnosed. I suspect her “drinking too much” doesn’t look like mine, but I shouldn’t make assumptions, and either way her acknowledgement is healthy.
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good on ya! Keep it up. You can do it. I believe in you!
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I ordered N/A beer yesterday.
The grocery delivery guy sent me a pic of the N/A beer to confirm, I said yes that one.
Delivered - alcoholic beer. Didn’t notice until he was gone and I had opened the box. Located a 7.8% beer, cracked it with my brain saying, “Yeah you can down 3/4 of this then pretend like you just realized it was alcohol”… but stopped. Gave it to my partner.
Called the service up to figure out WTF to do about this. Alcohol is not usually returnable in my state. They’re going to allow me to return it for refund and also added a $10.50 credit to my account (a very random sum not equal to the beer price.) It doesn’t matter that one is opened because returned alcohol is (supposed to be) trash anyway. I know from experience, industry people will take it home for free.
I’m very conflicted about the whole situation. In the end, I didn’t relapse. If I didn’t have my partner… I’m not sure what would have happened. $10.50 feels both like an unnecessary compensation and not enough, I alternate between angry and apathetic over it.
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you handled it pretty well overall. how the service handled it…whatever.
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WTF?!?! After confirming which one you ordered they still sent the wrong one???
Of course, because after the extra step of verifying with you, who would think they’d send the wrong thing?
I’m sorry that you faced that needless temptation and almost succumbed, but kudos for staying strong in the end.
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Maybe they saw an opportunity for free beer? If so, that’s pretty shitty.
When I worked at a pizza place there was a strict policy that you could not eat your own mistake. Hopefully the service has a similar policy.
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So, the specific N/A beer I wanted was out. An almost identical N/A beer by the same maker was on the shelf and he snapped that, to which I said, yes that one. I am guessing that the shopper snapped the picture, walked away for the 60 seconds it took me to respond, then came back and grabbed the alcohol next to it.
The shopper certainly wasn’t going for free beer. I’m talking about the distributor who sell the beer to the stores will take the return (I believe it’s usually called breakage, this would be lumped into that) and take it back as garbage. Then, based on what falls in their lap each guy might take home two 12-packs of free beers and a box of wine per week, because the 12-packs ripped open and 1 broke, and the box of wine partially tore the cardboard.
I’m sure it varies by distributor. Likely some places have a lot of theft and others are extremely strict.
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I have to do that all the time when I cook at home.
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Well the restaurant didn’t want employees making “mistakes” and scamming for free food. Obviously less of a concern at home!
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Nice job passing up the drink! I’m curious what good NA beers you have found so far. The athletic brew dark has been the best i have found, but i have also always liked stouts and darker beers.
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I like the Athletic Brew but it doesn’t blow me away at its slightly premium price. They seem to be the established “not just Bud 0.0” brand.
Heineken and Labatt’s N/A are great substitutes when you just want a cold brew, after yardwork or something. This is the version of the beer I intended to get. I may exchange it tonight and try one, will report back within the week either way.
Haven’t been in the mood for Guinness 0.0, but it’s been out for quite a while, I assume it’s a decent substitute.
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I had a Guinness 0 a while back, it was pretty good.
I did test the waters with a few drinks at home over the weekend with a Friday happy hour with the SO and dinner with another couple on Saturday. That ended up being it, back to nothing since then, even though I did end up buying a couple of 6 packs for Saturday. The benefits of skipping out on those daily evening drinks really helps the motivation to keep it going.
My BP was down 10+ points when I checked it yesterday evening. This could also be due to more regular exercise in the last two weeks, but I think even when I was running regularly a couple of years ago, I was still in the elevated/pre-hypertensive category. I might be able to get rid of the meds completely on my next regular checkup.
Weight loss stalled there for a few days, although I should be gaining some muscle from the additional running. Hopefully the brutal winter air stays away for a long time.
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Surreal Brewing has a number of NA offerings that are all quite good and most are different styles than what you usually find. The higher end grocery store in our area as well as Bevmo & Total Wine both carry some of their selections.
And I agree Guinness 0.0 is pretty good.
I’m also a fan of Sam Adams Just the Hazy (I think that’s the one) and Lagunitas IPNA.
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I liked Guinness a lot better than Heineken when I drank, but I prefer the Heineken 0.0 over the Guinness 0.0, not sure why. The Guinness 0.0 isn’t bad, it just doesn’t hit the spot.
I still am enjoying the Sierra Nevada hop water, but less so now that it’s not summer. But for a shower beer, it does it for me.
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My favorite hop water so far has been Thirst Mutilator by Shorts Brewing. Should’ve called it out above but it’s not a “beer”. Thirst Mutilator has a nice citrusy flavor.
But I’m most excited for getting a SodaStream (equivalent brand) this Christmas. Fizzy water erryday. Right now I try to limit myself to 2 a day so the price doesn’t add up.
i like the NA’s but fnd they have a sweetness to the taste. perhaps the alcohol brings a bitterness to the “regular” version.
i like heinecken and guiness 0’s. different flavors of course for different moods/heat/etc.
lagunitas has a hop water I like. had the athletics and don’t recall them. easiest is going to a place like total win and buying a build your own sampler of as many as you feel like trying. challenge to that for some might be being in total wine in the first place.
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I’m personally okay being in a liquor store. Unexpected alcohol is tempting to me. Those little liquor bottles next to the grocery store register (I’m in a pretty non-Prohibitionist state), or that beer that was supposed to be N/A and I was tempted to chug.
Finding the store you mentioned would be the larger issue 
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I’m addicted to sparkling water. I stock up on the bubbly flavors when they go on sale.
One thing you can try once you get the sodastream is to make your own hop water. Look for pellet hops from a homebrew shop. They should come in a 1-2 oz bag for a few bucks. You won’t need much…1 gram per gallon is enough, so maybe half a pellet and a squirt of lemon juice to a ~1L bottle and fill with fizzy water. You will have little bits of hops in it, but that won’t hurt anything.
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I’ve never even considered that being home-makeable. Interesting… Thank you!
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