It’s a hot summer afternoon. I’m sitting down on a hot afternoon, with a burger, and a cold beer.
What I’m looking for is something to replace that cold beer with. I want it to be crisp and fresh, but also not sweet. I love tart and bitter flavours. Unfortunately, my options are either cold and sweet, cold and alcoholic or hot and non sweet.
So threadiverse, what alternatives am I missing?
Tereré is great, but it’s a bit of a pain to source in Australia. What else is there?
I’m a huge iced tea fan.
Unsweetened buttermilk, or even better, ayran?
Virgin Bloody Mary is really good.
Or just … alcohol-free beer.
Near beer works great as a shandy, too. The lemon flavor may even lend more to the desired bitterness.
ice tea?
Alas, I’m allergic to black tea :\
Other teas taste nice, but I’ve yet to find one that has a strong enough taste for me.
Hibiscus tea is amazing! Agua de Jamaica
Very good on a summer day with strong flavors
“This delicious and refreshing hibiscus tea is a staple Mexican agua fresca (it’s right up there with horchata and agua de tamarindo), loved for its tart, slightly sweet flavor and stunning color.”
you should give barley tea a shot.
hot vs cold are two different flavors.
If the alcohol is the problem, there’s a lot of non-alcoholic beers available in Australia these days.
Possibly a nitro cold brew? I don’t know if you’d consider that a good pairing with a burger, though!
Maybe a switchel, if you make it yourself and don’t sweeten it too much, leaving it mostly tart.
The classic margarita. Tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, and just a little bit of sweetener to take the edge off the acidity, or omit it altogether.
Light beer?
I have been enjoying sparkling water flavored with hops. It’s distinctly different from non-alcoholic beer, and much better IMO.
Unsweetened iced tea and cold brew coffee are also standards in my kitchen during summer. My significant other likes kombucha enough to make it at home sometimes, but I never liked the stuff myself.
sparkling water flavored with hops
I just got some of this today! I haven’t tried it yet, but the guy at the bottle shop said it’s what he has when he feels like a beer, but doesn’t want a beer!
There isn’t really anything that tastes like beer other than beer. As others have said, the non-alcoholic versions have gotten pretty good over the last few years.
I’m also quite partial to unsweetened iced tea. Just make a very strong tea and pour it over ice and chill, optionally add lemon juice to taste.
Cold brew coffee is also quite nice, but personally, I prefer that one as a sweet drink mixed with sweetened condensed milk.
Unsweetened ice tea is great. If you want to drink a lot of it you can brew a pot and leave it in the fridge overnight for the next day with two containers you can just swap them out whenever one gets empty.
You also don’t need to brew hot tea. I prefer cold brewing, using about 8 tea bags per gallon. Just refrigerate for about 12 hours, or longer to taste if you like it stronger. I’ve done this with black teas (I love Red Rose for iced tea), sencha green tea, and oolong (my favorite).
For some additional context, hot brewing is really only needed for sweet iced l tea. More sugar dissolves into hot liquid than cold, so you put more sugar in it when it’s hot so it’s extra sweet.
Oh this process reminds me there is also sun tea!
Club soda
Guinness Zero is the “closest tasting to the original” non-alcoholic beer I’ve found so far. Don’t know if its available in Oz but its worth a try.
If you want a savory drink, I recommend soup broth.
Personally, I like just plain seltzer water. (i.e. just carbonated water with nothing added.) Mixing it with a bit of plain (unsweetened) cranberry juice is good too if you want something more flavorful.
Chilled barley tea is another good hot weather drink. It was a summertime staple when I was in Japan.
If you want to make it yourself, try Tepache
That sounds absolutely amazing!
I think trying this out will be a summer project for me!
It’s a great drink and a good entry point to fermentation. I hope you’ll like it!
There’s lots of dry / tart option, especially if you like tonic water and that dry quinine taste. Add a dash of citrus or bitters and it’s not much more trouble than a beer. There’s also some intresting non alcoholic herbal ‘spirits’ that bring complex (and often dry / bitter) flavours, and could be used to make something nice with tonic or plain soda water.
Tonic water was going to be my suggestion too, it ticks all OP’s boxes.
