An alcohol-free Lent

Now that it’s Easter Sunday, I feel that I can safely talk about my alcohol-free Lent. I had my last glass of wine on Tuesday 9th February and not a drop of the stuff has passed my lips since then. I was expecting it to be difficult, but with the exception of Mothering Sunday when the four of us went out for dinner at the excellent Masa restaurant in Derby (ironically enough in a converted Wesley Chapel) I haven’t really missed it. This comes as something of a surprise. In other years I’ve always needed to call on the tradition of not counting Sundays as being part of Lent.

Part of my avoidance strategy has been to make sure that I’ve always had an alternative to wine at home. While the Co-op’s no added sugar dandelion and burdock is excellent, there’s only so much of it I can drink at once, rather like diet colas. So sparkling water and various cordials have also been on hand. Even so, I’m not sure I would have made it unscathed if I hadn’t remembered that alcohol-free lagers are available. I’ve always dismissed them, as the ones that were available 30+ years ago were invariably disgusting. However, as with so many things in the twenty-first century, the Germans have come to the rescue.

I can thoroughly recommend Bitburger Drive, although I haven’t managed to find it in a local supermarket. In fact, the only place where I did manage to purchase a couple of bottles this Lent was at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Virginia Water.

So the main staple of my alcohol-free beer drinking during Lent has been Beck’s Blue. I even drank it a few evenings ago when I’d been given a free bottle of red wine to go with my meal in the Holiday Inn in Darlington (I live a jet-setting life!!). That bottle made its way back down the A1 with me and is currently sitting in the wine cellar chez Holyoake (aka the cupboard under the stairs).

My  local Co-op sells it too. But for some reason, they challenge you to prove your age when you buy it (the alcohol content is stated as being less than 0.05% by volume), but don’t bother if you buy Shandy Bass (alcohol content stated as being less than 0.5% by volume – 10 times as potent). A brief twitter exchange with them didn’t shed too much light as to why, except that Beck’s Blue apparently looks like it’s alcohol, whereas presumably Shandy Bass doesn’t. I’d have thought the big red triangle was equally suggestive of booze as the shape of the Beck’s Blue bottle.

Go figure, as they say in America.