I was drinking an glass of excellent Sober Carpenter “West Coast IPA” at lunch when I ran across Even moderate drinking is bad for us. Enter nonalcoholic beer in the Washington Post. Drinking less seems to be A Thing just now and I suppose alt-beverages too, so here’s my experience.

Right at the beginning of the year I saw this and decided to drink less. I didn’t try anything fancy, just restricted alcohol to two days a week. I’ve never been a heavy drinker but for some decades had had wine or beer with most dinners and a whiskey at bedtime.

“Two days” doesn’t just mean weekends; our kids are at an age where fairly often they’re both away at weeknight dinnertime, so Lauren and I will cook up something nice and split a bottle of wine. This works out well because we fairly regularly video-binge on Saturday nights and drinking plus extended-TV is a sure headache for me.

Three-months-ish in, there’s no stress keeping to that regime and the results are moderately pleasing. Findings:

1. At some point earlier in my life I had concluded that all mock-alcohol drinks were hideous wastes of time. No longer! I encourage you to try a few alternatives (that WashPost article has lots), and if you’re in Canada I absolutely recommend that Sober Carpenter brand. I’m very fussy about my IPAs and while I wouldn’t put this one in the top-ten I’ve ever tasted, I wouldn’t put it in the bottom half either.

   I’ve also been exploring fancy ginger beers and while I’ve found one or two that are pleasing, I suspect I can do better.

2. I sleep a little better, albeit with more vigorous, sometimes disturbing, dreams.

3. If lunch would benefit from (zero-alc) beer on the side, I don’t hesitate.

4. The monthly credit-card bill is noticeably lower.

5. When I was getting hyperfocused on code and it got to be past 11PM, that late-night whiskey was a reliable way to get unstuck and off to bed at a sane time. Oh well, there are worse things than a too-much-coding fog.

   When I’m struggling with a blog piece though, a drink seems to boost the writing energy. This can lead into the wee hours and feeling fairly disastrous the next morning.

   Let’s call that one a wash.

6. Sushi isn’t as good without sake. But it’s still good.

7. I kind of hoped I’d lose some weight. Nope. Oh well.

I’m really not recommending any particular behavior to any particular person. Several people who are close to me have had life-critical alcohol problems and that situation is no joke; If you think you might have a problem, you should consult an expert not a tech blogger.