Dry January? There’s a beer for that!

Are you observing Dry January, that popular trend in which participants abstain from drinking alcohol for the entire month? Good for you! Studies show that regular drinkers who abstain for just 30 days benefit from improved sleep and energy, lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure, reduced inflammation and cancer-causing proteins, clearer skin, and weight loss.

Non-alcoholic craft beer – "All of the flavor, none of the headache"
But what to imbibe instead when all you want is to quaff a cold one? Robin ’91 ’96G Lapoint and her husband, Alan ’91, own a Maine brewery whose products can make your abstinence from adult beverages less onerous. The Lapoints’ 1820 Brewing Co. has a line of seven non-alcoholic brews that they promise brings “everything you love from a craft beer but never compromises on flavor or process.”

The Lapoints know brewing and beverages. They are co-owners of The Strainrite Companies, a leader in the global liquid filtration industry, as well as two long-standing Portland, Maine, craft breweries. Facing a slowdown in the craft beer craze and in recognition of changing drinking habits, in 2022 they launched their non-alcoholic company to offer craft beer drinkers new options

“Our non-alcoholic beers are all brewed exactly the same as our original beers, with tremendous attention paid to quality,” says Robin, who earned a B.A. with majors in international careers and international relations and an MBA at Lehigh. “There’s a big uptick in our business during Dry January, but our non-alcoholic beers are popular throughout the year for all the reasons people might be taking a break from drinking.” They named their Portland-based non-alc brewing company 1820 because it’s the year Maine separated from Massachusetts and became a state. “Maine was instrumental in initiating Prohibition and one of the very last states to leave Prohibition behind, so it has a very rich history in alcohol abstinence,” Robin laughs.

The seven-beer product line includes A Better Blonde; All That Razz, a raspberry sour; Wave Finder, an India pale ale; Stand Up & Stout; Vienna Suite, a golden; So Witty, a Belgian-style white; and Peek Interest, an American pale ale named to Hop Culture magazine’s 37 Best Beers to Drink in spring 2023 — the only non-alcoholic beer to make the list.

And — good news — you don’t even have to make a trip to your local beverage outlet to find 1820 Brewing Co.’s craft beers because they’re all available online for shipping almost anywhere! If you’d like to try several to find your favorite, you can order a variety pack on the website.

Cheers to a healthier you in 2024!