The short answer to this question is on the question page What do you serve guests who do not drink alcohol?. Below you can read the whole story behind it.
We stock 110 alcohol-free bottles. Of these, 49 are beer, 17 still wine, 9 sparkling, 6 aperitif, 5 an alternative to spirits, 17 ready-made mixes, 3 syrup and the rest cider and sparkling apple juice. That is enough to fill a whole evening without pouring the same thing twice.
Yet at most parties the alcohol-free offering consists of two things: cola and mineral water. Someone who does not drink all evening gets one choice that way, and that choice is the same at six o'clock as at eleven. This piece is about what else you put out, and what to watch for when you buy it.
Think in moments, not in quantities
How much alcohol-free you need is the wrong question to start with. The right question is: at which moments is something being poured, and does the guest who does not drink have something different in their glass at each of those moments?
An evening usually has three. The welcome, the meal, and the rest of the evening. If you put out the same bottle of soft drink for all three, it stands out. If you put out something different for each, nothing stands out any more, and that is exactly the aim.
Only then start counting. For each moment, calculate in glasses rather than bottles, and bear in mind that a 75 centilitre bottle fills six and a bottle of beer exactly one. With an aperitif or a spirit alternative it is different, because only a small amount goes into each glass and you get twenty or more out of a bottle. Running out is more annoying than having a bottle left over: alcohol-free keeps for months unopened.
The welcome: bubbles versus bubbles
The trickiest moment is the first one, because that is when the toast is made and everyone has the same glass in hand. A glass of cola next to a glass of bubbles is immediately noticeable.
So put alcohol-free bubbles alongside. Dealcoholised sparkling wine, alcohol-free cava-style bubbles from a Spanish house, or an alcohol-free hugo. Watch out for one thing: most of these bottles are sweeter than a brut, because sugar has to carry the weight the alcohol no longer provides. Taste one beforehand, and choose the driest you can find.
Why there is never champagne or prosecco on such a bottle, we explained separately.
At the table: beer and wine without alcohol
With food it is simple, because the range is largest here. Alcohol-free beer is the best-developed category of all: we have 49 bottles, from pilsner to weizen, from witbier to IPA and from radler to trappist.
Choose two that are far apart. A pils or a weizen for those who want an ordinary glass, and something bitter or fruity for those who want to taste more. Alcohol-free wine also works with food, although the gap with the original is bigger there than with beer. White and rosé come closer than red, because red wine relies on tannin and alcohol together.
How those bottles are made is explained in our pieces on non-alcoholic beer and non-alcoholic wine.
Later in the evening: bitter and long
After the meal, tastes shift. Those who do drink move on to something stronger or something bitter, and that is exactly the moment when a glass of soft drink becomes too sweet.
This is where aperitifs and alternatives to spirits come in handy. A bitter aperitif with sparkling water, or a non-alcoholic alternative to gin with tonic. Both are bitter, both are long, and both look in the glass like what everyone else is drinking. We wrote a separate piece about the bitterness in such a bottle.
Keep in mind: these bottles are concentrated. They are served diluted, at about one part to two to three parts. So count in glasses, not bottles.
What you need for it
Four things, and they carry more weight than the choice of bottle itself.
- The same glass as everyone else. Alcohol-free beer in a beer glass, bubbles in a wine glass. A plastic cup turns a choice into an exception.
- More ice than you think. Alcohol-free drinks usually have more sugar, and sugar needs cold so that it does not become sticky.
- Refrigeration. Almost all of these bottles need to be cold, and opened bottles of aperitif or spirit alternatives must go into the fridge after opening. Without alcohol, nothing keeps them from spoiling.
- A touch of citrus. A slice of orange, lime or lemon squeezed over the glass lays down a layer of aroma that the alcohol no longer provides. That is the least effort for the greatest effect.
What you are better off leaving out
Three pitfalls, all three from experience.
Too many varieties. Two beers, one sparkling, one wine and one bitter bottle is enough for an evening. If you put out eight varieties, you end up with leftovers of seven of them.
Only sweet mixes. Ready-made mocktails are handy and they go down well at the start of the evening, but they are all sweet. Without something bitter or dry alongside, the evening becomes monotonous.
Warm bottles. An alcohol-free bottle at room temperature is a different product from the same bottle ice-cold. In this category that is not a detail but the difference between being finished and being left.
Where to start
Start with the beer, because that is where the chance of a miss is smallest and the choice greatest. Put one sparkling bottle and one bitter bottle next to it, and you have covered the three moments of the evening without anyone having to explain what they are drinking.
If you get stuck on the numbers, give us a call. At the counter in Bathmen we are happy to work it out with you.
Read more
- The whole shelf: alcohol-free drinks at ’t Bockje.
- What the numbers on the bottle mean: 0.0 or 0.5.
- The categories themselves: beer, wine and gin.
- Search the entire range: alcohol-free at ’t Bockje.
