Butch Dry January: NA NA NA NA....
Dry January: Butch Edition, Part 3
Welcome back to my Butch Dry January exploration! Truth be told, I was happy about this decision when I started it, and I can say that I am still really happy I made this decision. As I touched on previously, choosing to observe Dry January doesn’t have a huge impact on my day to day life, as I do not personally have Alcohol use disorder nor am I in recovery. Nevertheless, the intentional decision to observe dry January has been eye opening.
I also definitely strongly associated drinking beer and hard liquor with masculinity. You don’t see Homer Simpson drinking a vodka cranberry at the bar. You don’t see Ron Swanson having a hard seltzer while grilling steak. And you can bet that Don Draper doesn’t have a bottle of white wine in the bottom drawer of his desk. The gendering of alcohol is a very interesting aspect of all of this.
I came out at 14, I also started sniffing around the liquor cabinet at that time too, probably not a coincidence. I could count on one hand the amount of times I dipped into that and tried a few drinks out. After that I didn’t touch alcohol again until after high school. My impression of what “real drinking” was meant it had to be masculine. Wine? No that’s for tired moms. Vodka? That’s for girls night out. Prosecco? That’s for bachelorette parties. I didn’t fit into any of those spaces.
I am pretty shocked that I spent most of my life thinking that I needed to drink just because I could. This all led me to start thinking about exploring NA Beer and Zero Proof Liquor options. I was somehow convinced that NA drinks weren’t for me. I personally am always worried about taking up space in places that aren’t for me, which I believe is part of existing as Queer Enby Butch, knowing and feeling like most spaces and things just weren’t made for me because I didn’t ‘fit’ in them. For some reason (jk I know the reasons are marketing, capitalism, and stigma), making the decision to abstain from drinking, or even just including NA options, had nestled itself in the ‘not for me’ category. "I don’t have a drinking problem, so those clearly aren’t for me”, I would think. The marketing and stigma were working their magic on me.
This all led me to think more about why and when I drink, what do I get out of it, how do I feel about it. The more I’ve thought about it, the experience and the flavors of the drinks, were more what I was looking for than the buzz. In fact, I’ve always felt like the buzz got in the way of being able to enjoy my drinks. Always doing the mental gymnastics of how long it would be until I felt safe to drive, how being that tired might impact me, being concerned about how I will feel the next day. So all of that just for a drink, or two, started to feel like more trouble than it was worth.
So I took a leap and grabbed a few different Athletic Brewing Co brews, a NA Sam Adams, and Ritual Zero Proof Whiskey. The results are better than I could have imagined! This whiskey is sharp and deep, it mixes well into a zero proof old fashioned or mixed in with a Coke Zero. The beer has way better flavor, less after taste, and is just better all around. AND the mental gymnastics don’t exist! I can have one, or two, or three! It’s literally just a beverage to me now. I can have one at dinner, or at lunch, or after dinner, and I just get to enjoy the flavors without the sleepiness or the buzz.
As an additional note, the branding on the Athletic Brewing Co beers is pretty gender neutral. They are a clean design and the colors are bold but nothing leans any one direction. They don’t seem to be trying to cater to being ‘masculine enough’ or ‘feminine enough’ they are just, NA beers in nicely designed cans. For me, that adds an extra layer of ease.
I can confidently say that the concept that NA beer isn’t for me has been completely shattered, and I fully intend on continuing to explore other flavors and options and incorporating them into my life.
For the curious here’s a quick recap of exactly what I got, where and for how much, so you can see how accessible these NA options can be for you:
Zero Proof Ritual Whiskey: Great flavor and bite | $30 | Amazon
Sam Adams Just the Haze: Surprisingly Crisp | $12 | Target
Athletic Brewing Wit’s Peak: My favorite by far | $15 | Direct from AthleticBrewing.com
Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn: Not for me | $15 | Direct from AthleticBrewing.com
Athletic Brewing Lodge Life: My wife’s favorite | $15 | Direct from AthleticBrewing.com