By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Editor & Publisher
An emerging trend among pubclubbers is catching on in bars and nightclubs around the USA. It called zebra striping and it involves mixing in a non-alcohoic beer with regular beers when out at night. The idea is to extend one’s awareness rather than falling into a drunken stupor.
As a result, sales of non-alcoholic beers are surging. So much so that Michelob Ultra Zero has gone from, well, zero sales to number one in the category.
“In just 12 months on shelves, Michelob Ultra Zero became the No. 1 top-selling and fastest-growing non-alcohol brew in the industry and the No. 1 innovation in the total beer industry last year,” Kyle Norrington, chief commercial officer at Anheuser-Busch, told Fox News Digital.
Yet zebra striping is really not new. Or the concept of it anyway. Regular barflies have known for decades that you need to hydrate when out because alcohol causes dehydration. If you are in a bar or at an event for several hours, the smart drinkers will mix in glasses of water with every three or four drinks. I even have seen some people take it to the extreme by declaring “I have one glass of water with every beer I drink.” Fine, but that’s really overdoing it, but if it works for them, who am I to argue?
Personally, I would rather drink water than a non-alcoholic beer (for one thing it’s cheaper in that most bars and restaurants will give you glasses of it for free) tho replacing an actual beer or cocktial with it is the way to go for some people. Non-alcohlic beer, by the way, does contain 0.5% by volume (ABV).
In conclusion, zebra striping is a way for people who want to go out but not get plastered. That is good for bars and restaurants, who are suffering these days to bring in customers and beer companies who have seen consumption drop in recent years.
Kevin Wilkerson is a seasoned beer drinker and has been to hundreds of bars around the world. This article is. based on his personal experiences and knowledge. It was written by a human with no assistance from AI or Chat-GTP.
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