6 Maine-made non-alcoholic drinks to enjoy for Dry January

After a holiday season likely full of indulgences — and over-indulgences — the monthlong break from alcohol that’s become known as Dry January may offer the kind of full reset your body and mind need. Dry January was launched as a public health initiative in the U.K.

in 2013. The campaign has since become a global movement, and it appears to be growing more popular every year. According to market research group CivicScience, 25 percent of Americans age 21+ observed Dry January in 2024, up from 16 percent in 2023.



Dry January offers its participants plenty of immediate potential benefits. You could lose some weight and save some money. Many people sleep better when they give up drinking for a period, and they certainly feel better when they wake up.

Your relationships and work habits may also improve. Importantly, the month of abstinence also gives you a chance to reassess your relationship with alcohol, and determine if you want to continue to drink as much — or at all — going forward. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism advises anyone partaking in Dry January to let their friends and family know, so they can help support the sobriety effort.

Experts also urge participants to find nonalcoholic beverages they enjoy so they can sip them at home or bring them to gatherings. The n/a beverage market has seen substantial growth in recent years as sobriety or minimal drinking becomes more of a way of life for many Americans, particularly the younger generations. Between 2021 and 2022, total sales of nonalcoholic drinks in the U.

S. showed year-on-year growth of 20.6 percent, according to data from NielsenIQ, a large database of consumer behavior.

Mainers are fortunate to have a wealth of locally produced n/a options, from hop water and craft bar mocktails to n/a beer and THC-infused beverages. Here are alcohol-free offerings from six Maine brewers and bars that’ll keep your month of abstinence as delicious as it is healthful. Some of the n/a beers available from Portland’s non-alcoholic brewers, 1820 Brewing Co.

Courtesy of 1820 Brewing 1820 Brewing Company Co-owners Alan and Robin Lapoint started Portland’s 1820 Brewing in the summer of 2022 to give non-drinkers better options. “We wanted to establish a non alcoholic beer really to be inclusive,” Alan Lapoint explained. “We want people to feel included when they’re celebrating life in different ways, and I think a n/a beer gives people a nice option.

You’re seeing a growing demand from people who want to have a choice in how they celebrate life.” The Lapoints, who have also owned Geary Brewing Co. since 2017, worked with their brewers to perfect the brewing, flavor preservation and pasteurization processes for their line of alcohol-free beer.

Of their seven current n/a styles, Lapoint said 1820’s Wave Finder IPA and Stand Up and Stout beers are the best choices for winter sipping. “Wave Finder has the nice floral and citrus notes you’d find in a regular IPA,” he explained. “Our process allows for the full fermentation of the malts, so you get the complex body you might see in a sessionable IPA.

It’s a little bit heavier mouthfeel, and it has a lot of dry hops in it.” Lapoint said that because their Stand Up and Stout uses chocolate malt and crystal malt, “it gives you a little more body character than some of the lighter lagers or blond ale. It has notes of coffee and chocolate in it like a normal stout, maybe a little porter feel to it as well.

” Find 1820 beverages at major retailers and many independent beverage stores; $9.99-$10.99 for a six-pack.

Hop water from Allagash Brewing Company Allagash doesn’t produce a n/a beer, although they’ve traditionally offered craft nonalcoholic beverages from other producers in their Portland tasting room. But in 2024, they entered the n/a space with a new product in a relatively new category: Allagash’s Hop Water went on store shelves throughout the Northeast in December. Allagash Brewing Company’s new Hop Water was introduced to the retail market in December.

Courtesy of Allagash Brewing Co. Essentially seltzer water flavored with hops, hop water products first appeared on the national beverage market about 10 years ago. They’ve since built a growing fanbase, thanks in part to major brewing company products like Lagunitas Hopped Seltzer.

In Maine, breweries like Bissell Brothers and Orono Brewing Company also put out hop water beverages. Allagash Hop Water features coriander and orange peel, which are signature flavors in Allagash White, the brewery’s flagship beer. It uses two types of hops: Crystal, the main hop in Allagash White, and Citra, a popular IPA hop with citrus-forward flavors.

“(Allagash Hop Water) by no means tastes like a beer or Allagash White, but it draws inspiration from that,” Allagash Brewmaster Jason Perkins said. “It’s got a refreshing slight tartness that makes it really crisp and drinkable. It’s also worth noting that it has been highly popular among our staff, too.

It’s nice to see the entire team getting fired up and drinking it kind of regularly.” Find Allagash Hop Water at retailers throughout Maine, and on the Allagash website ; $8.99 for a six-pack.

Carrabassett Valley’s Long Coast canned mocktails are brewed in Portland and are infused with 5 mgs THC. Courtesy of Long Coast THC-infused drinks from Long Coast For anyone not be totally on board with a straight-edge, fully sober January, Long Coast has you covered. Based in Carrabassett Valley and brewed at Geary Brewing Co.

, Long Coast canned mocktails are infused with 5 mgs of hemp-derived THC and 5 mgs CBD, the chemical compounds in cannabis. “It gives you a little bit of relaxation, maybe you get a little giggly and have fun with your friends. But you wake up in the morning, there’s no hangover,” said Long Coast owner and CEO Mercedes Lamphere, a former bartender and daughter of alcoholic parents.

Lamphere wanted to offer people relaxing and delicious drinks without the damaging consequences of alcohol that she’d witnessed firsthand. Lamphere said people will often feel the effects of a Long Coast drink within an hour of consuming, and she equated it to the relaxation you might feel after a glass of red wine. For anyone wary of having a bad experience from THC (the psychoactive compound), Lamphere notes that the hemp-derived THC in Long Coast drinks is comparatively mild, and won’t give you the munchies, anxious paranoia or an overly sedated couch-lock experience.

Still wary? All of Long Coast’s mocktails are available in THC-free versions as well, sold online through the company’s website . The Pineapple Mimosa and Sea-Salted Margarita are her company’s most popular winter varieties, Lamphere said. Find Long Coast at more than 800 Maine retailers; from $19.

95 for a four-pack, with singles from $4.99-$5.99.

The creamy-spicy Mango Mamacita at Ocotillo was created by an expecting mother. Courtesy of Ocotillo The Mango Mamacita at Ocotillo It’s said that necessity is the mother of invention, and surely an expecting mother needs a good mocktail. So Gwen Stevens, a member of the bar team at Ocotillo — the all-day West End restaurant where Texas BBQ meets Mexican flavor — created the Mango Mamacita.

According to bar manager Jenny Nelson, Stevens developed the creamy (but dairy-free), spicy mocktail when the baby in her belly was 16 weeks old and roughly the size of a mango. She used fresh mango puree for the base, mixing in house-made ginger-lime syrup and — for some kick — a few dashes of house-made “firewater” bitters infused with serrano peppers. The drink is topped with soda water and rimmed with Tajín, an in-vogue Mexican spice mixture of dehydrated lime, sea salt and ground dried chile peppers including guajillo, pasilla and chiles de árbol.

Nelson believes bold flavors are the key to a good mocktail, which makes sense: In the absence of alcohol buzz, n/a drinks strongly benefit from striking the palate vividly. “These were the flavors she was craving,” said Nelson. “The ginger was nice on her tummy.

” Find the Mango Mamacita ($8) at Ocotillo , 211 Danforth St., Portland. The Lulo Lemon mocktail at Papi in Old Port features the tart juice of the Colombian lulo fruit.

Courtesy of Papi The Lulo Lemon mocktail at Papi Puerto Rican restaurant Papi is located in the Exchange Street space that once housed a Lululemon athletic apparel store. Knowing this bit of Old Port real estate history will help you fully appreciate Papi’s signature mocktail, the Lulo Lemon, made with Colombian lulo fruit. LyAnna Sanabria, Papi’s beverage director and a semifinalist for Punch magazine’s list of the country’s best bartenders in 2023, explains the lulo fruit thusly: “It looks like a persimmon, but it tastes like if a bitter orange and very floral, aromatic lime had a very fibrous baby.

” Sanabria mixes the lulo juice with plenty of fresh lemon juice and mint, then tops it off with soda water. She said for mocktails, she likes to use acid-forward fruits with ample floral notes, aromas and also fiber, to give the drink body and help it froth. “I try to make mocktails that are a little more complex, have a little more going on and also that tap into the nostalgia of actually drinking,” Sanabria said.

“The Lulo Lemon hits a lot for the margarita drinker or the mojito drinker. It’s got a really nice, big body and it’s very tart. It’s got a nice weighty mid-palate, and it’s just refreshing.

“People respond to it really well,” she continued. “They take a sip, then another, and you see them passing it to one of their friends who is drinking alcohol, and after tasting it, that friend is not even sure it has no alcohol. ” Find the Lulo Lemon ($9) at Papi , 18 Exchange St.

, Portland Pointer is a classic New England-style hazy IPA, though non-alcoholic, from Woodlawn Farms Brewery in Kittery. Courtesy of Woodland Farms Brewery Woodland Farms Brewery Patrick Rowan, owner and head brewer of Woodland Farms, Maine’s first nonalcoholic brewing company, said he was moved to launch the Kittery company in 2017 in part because alcoholism has been prevalent in his family. “I also wanted to do it because the options for nonalcoholic beers out there were terrible,” Rowan said.

“They just didn’t taste good.” While Woodland Farms does produce some beers with alcohol, Rowan said n/a products account for more than 80 percent of their output. The company currently has eight n/a beers on their website, including Pointer IPA, their top seller, which Rowan describes as “a classic New England-style hazy.

It’s juicy, with lemon and grapefruit flavors. It’s really yummy. And if you pour it in a glass, it looks just like any other New England IPA.

” But Woodland Farms is also introducing four new n/a styles this month, one each week. The first release is a coffee porter, made in collaboration with Swift River Coffee Roasters in Lisbon Falls. Over the rest of January, Woodland Farms will release a red ale; dunkel, a Munich-style brown lager; and a series of three or four saisons, each made with a different herby flavor profile.

The brewery’s new January beers will be available through their website and in their Kittery tasting room. Rowan said the Woodland Farms team likes to use Dry January to educate consumers not just about n/a products, but about smart drinking strategies as well. “Dry January affords us an opportunity not just to spread the word that nonalcoholic beer doesn’t have to taste terrible, but that it’s OK to mix in an n/a beer here and there if you’re out having beers,” he said.

Find Woodland Farms products at Market Basket, Hannaford, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and local craft beer stores; $12.99 for a six-pack. We invite you to add your comments.

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