Non-Alcoholic Beer, Cocktails and Alternatives That Don't Suck

Recently, I publicly shared that I’ve been questioning my relationship with alcohol. While it wasn’t necessarily “problematic”, it was showing promising slippery-slope potential of being such. I shared more about it in episode 127 of The Fill Your Cup Podcast.

Along with doing “the work” to get to the root of why I was turning to alcohol to cope to begin with, another strategy I employed was to make more non-alcoholic beverages available in my home. I still consume alcohol, but the thing is, sometimes all I want at the end of the day is a fun drink to enjoy while making dinner and it doesn’t always need to contain alcohol.

So, the idea was, if I had more exciting non-alcoholic drinks on hand, I would be more likely to drink them and consume less alcohol as a result. Turns out, I was onto something — and I came across some pretty amazing non-alcoholic, booze-free beer, cocktail and wine-alternatives in the process.

Since this process can be gruelling at times (thankfully, there are A LOT of amazing non-alcoholic beverages on the market now, but not all of them are amazing), I wanted to put together a list of some of the favourites I’ve come across in my sober curious journey so far.

Non-Alcoholic Beer, Cocktails and Alternatives

Non-Alcoholic Beer

• Gruvi Pale Ale

• Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA

• Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn Golden

• OOPS IPA (available at Beer Store)

“Liquor” & Cocktail Alternatives

“Liquor”:

• Seedlip Distilled Non-Alcoholic Spirits (Spice 94 flavour)

• Sobrii 0-Gin

Cocktail Alternatives:

• Sodastream Sparkling Water with either:

  • Freshly squeezed citrus

  • Splash of juice

  • Acid League Living Vinegar (Meyer Lemon or Strawberry Rose)

• Kombucha (try my Amalfi Spritz Kombucha in collaboration with Moore Kombucha, or their Gin + Tonic flavour - use FILLYOURCUP for 10% off)

• Daydream (Sparkling Water with Hemp Extracts & Adaptogens)

• Crodino, sparkling water, ice, splash of orange

• Dominion City Brewing Co City Seltzers (Cool Melon + Orange Whip are my faves)

• Spindrift Sparkling Water (available at Summerhill Market in Toronto, ON + US)

Wine

• Acid League Wine Proxies

• Gruvi Dry Secco & Bubbly Rose

I will continue to add to this list as I come across more non-alcoholic / booze-free gems! The sober curious movement is picking up, so I have no doubt there will be even more amazing options to add to this list soon enough.

If you have any cup-filling recommendations you' want to put on my radar, you can drop them below in the comments!