Alcohol-free wines, beers and ciders: are they any good?

[LlygodenFach]

I work for a charity that does research into alcohol issues. I'm also a father of two, so I've seen a couple of times what it's like to try and cut back or abstain from alcohol for 9 months. Back when my boys were "in utero", it was Eisberg and Kaliber or nothing when it came to alcohol-free drinks for grown-ups.

These days, there's a lot more choice, and in an act of selfless heroism , a colleague and I have tried and reviewed 17 alcohol-free wines to see if they're any good:

www.drinkwisewales.org.uk/alcohol/alcohol-free/wines/

We've also been trying a shed-load of alcohol-free beers and ciders:

www.drinkwisewales.org.uk/alcohol/alcohol-free/beer-reviews/

www.drinkwisewales.org.uk/alcohol/alcohol-free/ciders/

I'd love to hear everyone's views about whether alcohol-free versions of normally alcoholic drinks do the trick for you; and what attracts you to them/what puts you off?

Cheers
Andrew (aka LlygodenFach)

I bought some great alcohol free fruity beers in France "tourtel twist" in 3 flavours - orange (nice but not my fave) lemon (yum) and what I think is blood orange (although it looks like a grapefruit on the bottle - but doesn't translate as grapefruit).

I have tried a few on alcoholic wines but just found them far far too sweet.

My best find so far though is in coop. Own brand non alcoholic gin and tonics. Pre mixed. In cans. Almost like the real thing. If you put them in a naice glass with ice and cucumber.

Maisels Weisse alcohol free beer is lovely I tried it the other day at a craft beer bar. The Nanny state one is nice too but I thought that one was better!

Hi *AnUtterIdiot", we found a couple of decent weissbiers on sale over here. This one seems to be the best: www.drinkwisewales.org.uk/alcohol/alcohol-free/beer-reviews/#Franziskaner

ElChan03 I had the Maisels Weisse in a pub in Cheltenham a few months ago, and it's delicious. I've not seen it in any shops, though, or any other pubs for that matter.

I didn't know Tesco did one!!! We have a sort of Tesco here - Channel Islands so it's a local store which stocks Tesco products. Will have a snoop round after work.

Only another 3 weeks to go. Dh has bought me a bottle of pink gin for my birthday (hooray!) cannot wait for a first proper drink drink! Haha!