When I quit drinking, I wasn’t necessarily looking for a replacement for alcohol.
I was looking for a replacement for the ritual.
There is a difference.
I didn’t need the alcohol in the beer.
But sometimes I still wanted a cold beer.
I wanted one after working outside all day. At a cookout. Around a bonfire. Watching a football game. Sitting on the patio. All of those completely normal moments when, especially if you live in Wisconsin, someone reaches into a cooler and pulls out a beer without giving it a second thought.
I wanted to do that too.
I just didn’t want the alcohol that came with it.
Enter Athletic Brewing.
And if you’ve spent any amount of time with me since I quit drinking, there is a very good chance you’ve seen me with one in my hand.
So consider this my very unofficial Athletic Brewing review, from someone who actually drinks the stuff
This Is Not Your Grandpa’s Non-Alcoholic Beer
I think one of the reasons people are hesitant to try non-alcoholic beer is because historically, it wasn’t exactly known for being delicious.
It was the sad beige substitute.
The thing you drank because you couldn’t have the real thing.
Athletic Brewing completely changed that for me.
Their beer doesn’t feel like a consolation prize.
It feels like beer.
Good beer.
Beer I actually want to drink.
And that distinction matters to me because I’ve talked before about the difference between being sober and living alcohol-free.
Sobriety, especially in the beginning, felt like something I had to protect.
Alcohol-free feels like something I get to enjoy.
Athletic Brewing fits into the second category.
It isn’t something I drink while wishing I could have a “real” beer.
It is the beer I drink.
I Also Really Love This Company
The older I get, the more I care about the companies I give my money to.
And Athletic Brewing is one of those companies I genuinely like.
Their entire philosophy is built around the idea that choosing not to drink alcohol shouldn’t mean sitting out.
You can still have the beer.
You can still have the ritual.
You can still be at the party, the tailgate, the cookout, the bonfire, the finish line, or wherever else life is happening.
You just don’t have to feel like shit tomorrow.
That’s a philosophy I can get behind.
The company was built around creating genuinely good non-alcoholic craft beer and making alcohol-free drinking feel like an active choice rather than a punishment.
And clearly I’m not the only one who thinks they’re onto something.
J.J. Watt is an investor in the company, which, as a Wisconsin girl, gives them approximately 47 additional credibility points.
Real recognizes real.
The Podcast I Love
Athletic Brewing also produces a podcast that I genuinely love.
It’s another reason I became such a fan of the company beyond just liking the beer.
The conversations are about people doing interesting things, pushing themselves, building lives they actually want to live, and questioning the assumption that alcohol has to be part of every celebration, adventure, or social experience.
Which is very much my kind of conversation.
Because alcohol-free living, at least for me, was never about removing everything fun from my life.
It was about realizing how much more life I had access to when I removed the one thing I thought I needed to make it fun.
The Wisconsin Thing
I have to talk about this because it is impossible to separate my drinking story from where I live.
Wisconsin.
Alcohol is everywhere here.
Fish fries.
Football games.
Golf outings.
Bonfires.
Breweries.
Supper clubs.
Patios.
Coolers.
Someone’s garage.
Someone else’s garage.
Tuesday.
We don’t necessarily need an occasion.
Alcohol is often just the soundtrack quietly playing in the background of whatever we’re doing.
When I first quit drinking, I thought I was going to lose some of that.
Not necessarily the drinking itself.
The belonging.
The ritual.
The feeling of cracking something cold open at the end of the day and sitting down with everyone else.
Athletic Brewing gave me a way to keep the parts I actually liked.
Turns out, the alcohol wasn’t the important part.
Why It’s One of My Favorite Things
I don’t recommend things just because they have an affiliate program.
And I don’t want my Favorite Things to become a giant list of random shit you can buy on the internet.
These are the things I actually use.
The things I buy again.
The things I tell my friends about.
The things that have somehow earned a place in my actual life.
Athletic Brewing is one of those things.
Because yes, the beer is good.
But I also love what it represents.
Choice.
Options.
A life where alcohol isn’t required for participation.
A cold beer without giving up tomorrow morning.
That’s a pretty damn good trade.
And for the record, I don’t drink Athletic Brewing because I can’t have “real” beer.
I drink it because this is real beer to me now.
And I genuinely prefer the life that comes with it.
