Edibles & Potables: Age limits, carding, and non-alcoholic beer, wine and spirits

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“If we leave the door open to there being a marketing push for non-alcoholic beverages among kids, could that then lead to increased alcohol use among this generation? We don’t want to wait to find out if that’s going to happen.”
— Molly Bowdring of the Stanford Prevention Research Center

All the way back in January, I devoted a “Hip Hops” column to the proposition that when it comes to “NA” beers, alcohol makes our hops-flavored barley beverages safer, not the other way around. At the risk of over-simplification, the act of boiling water to brew beer kills germs, and so does the alcohol created by fermentation.

Here’s the refresher course.

Hip Hops: About non-alcoholic beers, and what they’re missing (or not)

Obviously none of this addresses societal (varying slightly from “purely scientific”) concerns about children ingesting beverage alcohol. Most of us agree there should be a legal drinking age, although we quibble about the specifics. But this drinking age by definition applies to alcoholic beverages.

What about non-alcoholic drinks that mimic the character of “the real thing” for the benefit of adults? An article at NPR provides an overview of yet another discussion best undertaken only after defining one’s terms.

ID please. Should kids be able to buy nonalcoholic beer, wine and mocktails?, by Pien Huang (NPR)

Darryl Collins owns a zero-proof bottle shop called Hopscotch in Baltimore, Md., selling over 200 options of nonalcoholic spirits, beer, wine and canned cocktails.

He opened the shop in August 2023 to get in on the booming market for adult nonalcoholic beverages. These are drinks with less than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV), marketed towards adults who want to cut back on drinking, avoid hangovers, or prevent other ill health effects from alcohol.

Credit Collins for astutely mining an unexplored niche market. That’s chutzpah worthy of commendation. In order to sidestep potential controversy, he has set his own age limit, and “cards” his customers, precisely because the state of Maryland offers no guidelines — and for operators, parameters are what protect you from arbitrary prosecution.

Now, some health researchers are calling for clear, consistent age limits for non-alcoholic beers, wines and liquors, likening them to candy cigarettes. “I think there is a risk that these could be an entry product...Read more