My husband, Tony, has cirrhosis of the liver. He's not supposed to drink at all, but he does. However, every now and then, he feels a bit rough and he'll go alcohol free for a while. Now he's been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, so he's on warfarin for the rest of his life. He can drink a very limited amount, but anything more than two units a day will mess around with the warfarin.
Unlike me, Tony can't just have one or two drinks and leave it at that. He either doesn't drink at all, or he goes through industrial quantities of Guinness, wine and whisky, so he's decided his best option is not to drink at all. He may be 79, but he's in no hurry to leave this life behind, and if he doesn't take the warfarin, he's at greatly increased risk of suffering a stroke, which isn't a good idea at his age.
When Tony has his 'dry runs,' he substitutes alcohol free beer for the regular stuff, as he's not keen on soft drinks and fruit juices. In Spain, there's an alcohol free version for every beer you see in the supermarkets and bodegas. They're also the same price, or even cheaper than the real stuff. However, in the UK, the choice is limited. There's Kaliber, which has a vile aftertaste, Becks Blue, Cobra, Bavaria - and that's about it. Erdinger also do wheat beer in an alcohol free version, but it's not the sort of thing you can drink lots of.
There are also Kopparberg alcohol free ciders, which taste nothing like the real thing and are quite expensive. I remember some years ago, Tesco produced an alcohol free cider, which tasted pretty much like regular cider, but that seems to have vanished now.
Another thing Tony finds is that alcohol free beers over here seem to give him a headache if he has more than a couple a day. That never happens with the stuff we buy in Spain, so maybe it's something to do with the brewing process. I think it's a great idea to have alcohol free versions of a range of beers, and I can't see why it doesn't happen over here. It means drivers and others who can't drink alcohol for one reason or another can enjoy the beer taste without the alcohol units. What do you think?
