It’s a hot summer afternoon. I’m sitting down on a hot afternoon, with a burger, and a cold beer.
What I’m looking for is something to replace that cold beer with. I want it to be crisp and fresh, but also not sweet. I love tart and bitter flavours. Unfortunately, my options are either cold and sweet, cold and alcoholic or hot and non sweet.
So threadiverse, what alternatives am I missing?
Tereré is great, but it’s a bit of a pain to source in Australia. What else is there?
Non alcoholic beer
Ginger soda. You can use a ginger bug to ferment soda. You can add flavors to make different varieties or you can just do the ginger base.
Its refreshing and good for you. Does have like up to a half percent alcohol… But nothing that will be inebriating.
I don’t know if you can get it in Australia but I like Spindrift seltzer/sparkling water when I want a beer substitute. Obviously it doesn’t taste like beer. I was someone who hated seltzer for a long time, none of it tasted right and too fruity but also somehow not enough since its just sparkling water. Someone recommended Spindrift since they use real fruit so it has some real flavor but it’s still low in calories. I’m partial to the grapefruit flavor because it’s the most tart/crisp.
Along the same lines, I think, I don’t know what Spindrift is, but when my hubs went sober, he started drinking 100% grapefruit juice with Seltzer (usually grapefruit flavored seltzer) on ice. He says it tastes just like IPA with it’s bitter notes. Probably a 1:2 ratio of juice:seltzer
So if you can’t get Spindrift, you can still make something similar!
Spindrift is the brand but it’s basically what you described, unsweetened fruit juice with sparkling water. I think the ratio is a little different but exact same idea. I like the flavor of beer but I just need the tartness and the bubbles to be happy.
Unsweetened Ice Tea.
Can choose pretty much any variety of tea you like and just drink it with ice and no sugar.
Around here (not Australia), it’s normally black tea, lemon optional for mild sweetness. Unsweetened green tea (not matcha) is also common. Not good if you’re looking for unsweetened, but the Arnold Palmer is also a popular drink, which is 50% iced tea and 50% lemonade.
Anywhere boba tea is served, you’ll find varieties of matcha iced tea available. More of a cafe drink, but probably good if you’re a matcha person. Milk tea is also common in boba shops and is just any variety of iced tea plus dairy, so if you like your tea with cream, that’s still enjoyable as a cold drink.
In Japan, barley tea is pretty commonly served cold and unsweetened, along with other popular tea varieties like oolong and jasmine. If you’re in Australia, it might not be too difficult to get Japanese imports (or even to just learn to make your own, they’re easy).
Rye kvass, Kombucha
Oh, yes, also cold black tea (no ice, no lemon, just nice slightly bitter taste. Also nice because the taste is not really fighting with the taste of whatever you eat
Malt beer or even better Kvass
In Japan they drink cold unsweetened tea.
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Why a Bottle of Japanese Iced Tea is the Ultimate Summer Refresher
Water kefir is a great alternative. You can buy it in organic shops or make it at home. The hardest part would be to source grains but once you get them started, as long as you take care of them they last forever.
It’s tart, fizzy, refreshing, has flavors reminiscent of some wild fermentation sours, and can be flavored with almost any fruit after transfer (and probably hops too).
Kombucha
This. There’s a passion fruit and hop kombucha that is great for me. I don’t drink during the week and that’s my go to ‘treat’.
I mainlt drink carbonized water with a bit of citron juice.
What about a kind of cocktail with at most 20% red wine filled with sparkling water?
It sounds weird, I agree, but it has few calories, is refreshing, is tasty and may remain cheap enough as you do not need a great wine for it.
There isn’t really anything that tastes like beer other than beer. As others have said, the non-alcoholic versions have gotten pretty good over the last few years.
I’m also quite partial to unsweetened iced tea. Just make a very strong tea and pour it over ice and chill, optionally add lemon juice to taste.
Cold brew coffee is also quite nice, but personally, I prefer that one as a sweet drink mixed with sweetened condensed milk.
Unsweetened ice tea is great. If you want to drink a lot of it you can brew a pot and leave it in the fridge overnight for the next day with two containers you can just swap them out whenever one gets empty.
You also don’t need to brew hot tea. I prefer cold brewing, using about 8 tea bags per gallon. Just refrigerate for about 12 hours, or longer to taste if you like it stronger. I’ve done this with black teas (I love Red Rose for iced tea), sencha green tea, and oolong (my favorite).
Oh this process reminds me there is also sun tea!
For some additional context, hot brewing is really only needed for sweet iced l tea. More sugar dissolves into hot liquid than cold, so you put more sugar in it when it’s hot so it’s extra sweet.
A ginger beer, tastes nothing like beer and is a real pickme up.
Ginger beer is tits. It’s expensive around here, so sometimes I’ll make a fresh ginger syrup (which stays good in the fridge forever) and add a few tablespoons to seltzer water. It’s basically the same thing and very refreshing!
If the alcohol is the problem, there’s a lot of non-alcoholic beers available in Australia these days.
Possibly a nitro cold brew? I don’t know if you’d consider that a good pairing with a burger, though!
Maybe a switchel, if you make it yourself and don’t sweeten it too much, leaving it mostly tart.
I have been enjoying sparkling water flavored with hops. It’s distinctly different from non-alcoholic beer, and much better IMO.
Unsweetened iced tea and cold brew coffee are also standards in my kitchen during summer. My significant other likes kombucha enough to make it at home sometimes, but I never liked the stuff myself.
sparkling water flavored with hops
I just got some of this today! I haven’t tried it yet, but the guy at the bottle shop said it’s what he has when he feels like a beer, but doesn’t want a beer!
