The first time I ever saw beer I was probably less than five years old, hanging out with my parents and there friends at the bar after skiing during "happy hour". Social drinking of alcohol was always something my parents and my family were involved in. To me it just looked like adults having a great time. Through my years of adolescence, I have noticed that my dad gives up alcohol annually during lent. This is obviously not his idea, but my mother's way of attempting to lower his cholesterol, while following our Catholic faith. My dad said it was embarrassing to go to the bar with his "boys" after a hard day of skiing and to watch all his friends order the best ale while he stuck to seltzer. That is why he began to start drinking non-alcoholic beer during this time of year, so he could still feel like he fit in with his friends.
Now, I could understand where my dad is coming from, because social drinking was something I was always around while growing up, and I never really saw the negative side of alcohol until I got a little older. Were O'Douls created for people like my dad? Or was it for the recovering alcoholic who still craved his beer?
I would have to go with the first example because people who are looking to just get drunk would probably go for something harder than just beer. Maybe it was created as a transitional drink, so that the man who wasn't six foot five and three hundred pounds like the rest of his friends, could still enjoy their company instead of falling off his barstool.
The reason non alcoholic beer is more appealing to men than women is because when women go out together, they are not normally sipping on malted barley and hops. In most cases a woman's drink has to be sickeningly sweet, an eye popping shade and topped off with an umbrella. However, for the women out there who do drink beer, it is not even in the same category as men and how they drink beer. If a woman gave up alcohol for lent, she probably would not be shouting "Bartender! Another round of O'Douls for me and my friends!".
Non-alcoholic beer was certainly not meant for people of my generation either. This weekend's slew of Frat parties will not be waisting their money on kegs or anything in that matter with the label "non-alcoholic". The term "social drinking" is not really prevalent in a college student's vocabulary. Instead, the words "black-out" "belligerent" and "sh*t faced" are more commonly used in describing one's Saturday night. I think this says something of my generation, and that drinking is no longer viewed as a social event, but a sport.
This can be said about all people in my age group though. My dad even had told me when he was younger, he wouldn't be caught dead drinking an O'Douls. So non-alcoholic beer is really about maturity. Who knows, maybe when I'm forty-eight I'll be drinking one too...
