In the words of the great Jon Bon Jovi; "Woah! We're half way there." Yep, since the last episode I've passed the mid-point of this year off drinking. The biggest lesson I've learnt from my sober six months is that the habit of beer drinking can easily be separated from alcohol. As Fergus from Adnams told us, the beer in an alcohol-free product is THE SAME BEER that's in the regular product. There are some additive differences, but in terms of taste... it's come from the same source. 

This is huge. We've talked about pubs quite a lot, and we both love their atmosphere, the friendship, meeting-place, as our Irish friends would call it; the craic. Being able to keep this in my life, but massively reducing the alcohol intake is key to the 2021+ version of me. I know this is hard for some people to comprehend, but I can completely see a future where people meet in pubs to drink AF lager as a group... just think about the recent shift from cigarettes to vape - yes, it took legislative change and a MASSIVE advertising push, but the tobacco lobby seem to have realised that they'd rather have their customer-base vaping than giving up... well perhaps booze is the next frontier?

The big challenge? Convincing people that AF beers are good drinks. Enter Adam from Sober Sauce... he's set-up a company that looks to provide mixed taster boxes of AF beer to those thinking of joining 'my' team. In this episode Adam explains that he's targeting Matt as much as he's targeting me. And if I heard correctly... he might just have convinced Matt that there's a non-alcoholic future for him too! 

Enjoy the episode... and as a bonus you can find on our website a video of an interview I recorded with Adrian Chiles at the weekend as part of Club Soda's HUGE festival of mindful drinking. Over four days speakers from around the globe shared their experiences, tips, and products to like-minded drinkers, and those looking to be a bit more moderate. It was great fun, and I'm hoping to get Adrian on our podcast soon... 

Cheers. 

Geoff

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