Challenge Dan: Dan visits a non alcoholic drink shop to taste test the different beverages on offer.

Shropshire Star

Challenge Dan: Dan visits Dry, a non alcoholic drink shop based in Shrewsbury to taste test the different beverages on offer.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:10 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:39 Happy New Year, everybody.

00:41 Well, with 2024 here, a lot of us

00:43 might be trying out a bit of dry January,

00:45 give ourselves a little bit of a health kick.

00:47 With that, we want to have a look

00:49 at some of the best low alcohol and non-alcohol beverage

00:51 options on the market.

00:53 So today, we've come out to a special emporium

00:55 in the town of Shrewsbury.

00:56 It's going to help us do just that.

00:57 Let's go and take a look.

00:59 OK, folks, well, we're here at Dry in Shrewsbury

01:02 with the owner, Mike Dalton.

01:04 Mike, it's a fantastic place you've got here.

01:06 Tell us a bit about your business.

01:07 Hi, Dan.

01:08 Yeah, so we opened in October of 2022.

01:12 I've been here about 14 months.

01:14 Got the idea because I had to stop drinking about four years

01:18 ago due to a medical issue.

01:20 So starting getting into craft beers, non-alcoholic craft

01:24 beers, and realized just how many there were available.

01:27 So originally started looking at what was in supermarkets,

01:31 but realized very quickly there was a lot more going on,

01:33 in terms of the scene, around the types of drinks.

01:36 So I got into them and then expanded the business

01:40 into non-alcoholic wines, non-alcoholic herbal

01:43 apparatis.

01:44 Smashing.

01:44 You've got a fantastic selection.

01:47 It's like an Aladdin's cave in here, isn't it?

01:50 So we're looking to find some of the best beverages

01:54 that we can to keep us all happy during dry January.

01:57 What would you recommend to us?

01:59 Right.

01:59 So if we start maybe with the beers,

02:01 if you want to help yourself, we'll go--

02:03 That sounds good to me.

02:04 We'll go with the first one, which is a pale ale

02:07 from the Birmingham Brewing Company called Sober Brummy.

02:10 Sober Brummy.

02:11 Excellent.

02:12 So great beer, really refreshing, real light taste.

02:17 Birmingham Brewing Company are an old style traditional brewer,

02:20 so they do alcoholic drinks as well.

02:22 But they also do this, which is ironically

02:24 one of their best sellers.

02:25 So please pour yourself some and see what you think.

02:28 [SILENCE]

02:32 It's a lovely impression.

02:44 [LAUGHTER]

02:44 It is, isn't it?

02:45 Yeah.

02:46 No.

02:47 The other thing worth pointing out

02:48 is they also, like a lot of the small independent brewers,

02:51 they actually donate part of their profits

02:53 to the Midlands Air Ambulance.

02:54 Oh, fantastic.

02:55 So you know that you're helping out,

02:58 if I drink it.

02:59 Well, all the more reason to get stuck in.

03:01 Yeah.

03:01 Excellent.

03:02 OK.

03:02 And then maybe try the next one up.

03:05 Fantastic.

03:06 And who's this by?

03:06 So this is Hobson's, which is a Shropshire brewery, obviously.

03:09 Very local, yes.

03:10 So this is, at the moment at least,

03:12 this is the only Shropshire brewer who

03:14 are doing a non-alcoholic beer.

03:16 I mean, I've no doubt whatsoever that in time,

03:18 more of the Shropshire brewers will be doing it.

03:20 I certainly hope so.

03:21 This is proving a very, very popular drink.

03:25 And certainly tourists like buying it,

03:28 because obviously it's a memento of their visit to the town.

03:32 So I've tried their full fat beer before, if you will.

03:35 But--

03:38 So this is an IPA, so slightly more hoppy than the pale ale.

03:43 It's got a lovely flavor to it.

03:45 Yeah.

03:45 Nice and fruity.

03:47 Yeah.

03:48 Very nice.

03:49 Yeah.

03:49 We sell a lot of it.

03:50 And it's a really nice beer.

03:53 Nice.

03:54 Have you still got room for--

03:57 I should say so.

03:58 Should we move on to red wine?

04:00 Why not?

04:01 So this is Zeno Wines, which are probably our best-selling

04:05 non-alcoholic wines.

04:06 They've also won several awards.

04:09 They're all over the media at the moment,

04:10 in national magazines.

04:11 They've been on Saturday Morning Kitchen, et cetera.

04:14 Really, really nice wines.

04:16 They're all Spanish wines, ironically.

04:18 Oh, look at it.

04:19 They are what they call de-alcoholized wines.

04:22 So rather than the kind of cheap stuff

04:24 you often see in supermarkets, these

04:26 are wines that have been made in exactly the same way

04:28 as ordinary wines, the only difference

04:30 being the alcohol is extracted at the end of the process.

04:33 OK, right.

04:34 So hopefully you'll joke that by the taste.

04:37 You'll see the difference.

04:39 That's delicious, isn't it?

04:48 I'm really taken aback.

04:49 I would have thought that the flavor without the alcohol

04:51 in would have been quite a lot different.

04:53 Yeah.

04:53 That's really, really lovely.

04:55 I always, when people ask, is it the same as wine,

04:58 I'll always use the phrase that it's not the same,

05:01 but it's similar.

05:02 Yeah.

05:03 Oh, it's-- and it's got a gorgeously fruity flavor.

05:07 Fruity, yeah.

05:08 It's really nice and rich, though, as well, isn't it?

05:10 That's-- if you don't mind me saying that,

05:12 I'm really surprised by that.

05:14 No, that's fine.

05:15 I think-- and wines in particular

05:17 have had a bit of a bad press over the last few years,

05:20 non-alcoholic wines.

05:21 And I think what's happening now within the marketplace

05:24 and by the producers is they're upping their game.

05:29 A lot more effort, a lot more money

05:30 going into producing these kind of wines.

05:32 How much alcohol-free wine is actually out there?

05:35 Because I'm sure a lot of people who are watching us now

05:38 will be familiar with the--

05:40 plenty of different alcohol-free beers.

05:42 But how many different brands have we--

05:45 Not as many as the non-alcoholic beers, obviously.

05:48 It's still a relatively young market.

05:50 But even in the 14 months that we've been open,

05:52 we've seen a big upsurge in the amount of producers there are.

05:57 I mean, probably in the UK, in terms of specifically

06:01 non-alcoholic wine producers, you're probably

06:03 talking about half a dozen.

06:05 We try and stock the best of those.

06:08 Hence why we've got Zeno here.

06:10 We've got Naughty.

06:11 We've got Oddbird.

06:12 But it's rapidly growing.

06:15 When we first opened, everybody was interested in the beers.

06:18 But increasingly, people are asking for the wines as well.

06:20 Well, it depends on the occasion, doesn't it?

06:22 Because I'm just thinking sitting down to dinner,

06:24 I could get happily stuck into a bit of that.

06:26 It's really, really nice.

06:29 So in terms of other options, then,

06:31 because we've looked at beer and wine,

06:33 I can see we've got something pretty special.

06:35 We have, yeah.

06:35 So this is called Mother Root.

06:37 And it's a ginger switchel.

06:39 Oh, OK.

06:39 Now, switchel is a drink that--

06:42 well, it's referred to as the hipster's new kombucha.

06:45 Right.

06:47 It's a drink, ironically, that dates back to the 1700s.

06:49 Right.

06:50 It's got an apple cider vinegar base to it,

06:52 so really good for your gut health.

06:53 Yeah.

06:54 As the name implies, because it's ginger,

06:56 packed full of ginger, really fiery kick to it.

06:59 Right.

07:00 You'll feel it going down.

07:01 You'll feel it on your chest.

07:02 I'm excited about this.

07:03 So it's something that, you know, it's good for you,

07:07 as well as tasting good.

07:09 The bottle almost reminds me of sort

07:10 of a traditional Victorian medicine type thing, yeah?

07:13 Hopefully it doesn't taste like that.

07:15 We're actually-- this one we're selling loads of at the moment.

07:18 It's really, really popular, almost to the point

07:20 that we're struggling to keep up with the demand.

07:22 It's got a very hypnotic look to it.

07:24 Yeah.

07:24 Let's give it a taste.

07:26 Wow.

07:31 That's got quite a kick, hasn't it?

07:32 It really has, yeah.

07:34 I mean, that's wonderful.

07:35 That's-- yeah, that's--

07:38 Stays with you.

07:39 It does.

07:39 It's powerful.

07:40 But I think that's kind of nice, because when you're

07:44 drinking a drink that's meant to be a full-fat alcohol

07:47 beverage, sometimes you like to feel a bit of a kick.

07:51 Yeah.

07:51 That's still got it, but without any of the--

07:53 And I think what tends to happen with these, particularly

07:56 the herbal aperitifs, is they'll often

07:58 introduce flavors to replace that kind of kick or burn

08:01 you get from the alcohol.

08:02 So ginger is one.

08:04 We do a Danish non-alcoholic gin where

08:06 they use a little bit of chili.

08:10 Right.

08:11 And also coriander to give that peppery flavor.

08:13 Yeah.

08:14 In the back of your throat.

08:15 Excellent.

08:15 So it's just about being more creative, really.

08:17 Yeah.

08:18 It's exciting.

08:20 It seems to me like the market is a lot bigger than probably

08:23 a lot of people realize.

08:25 Yeah, absolutely it is.

08:26 And growing all the time.

08:28 And ironically, the fastest growing sector within it

08:30 are younger people.

08:32 Younger people are drinking less and less,

08:34 and they're older than older people.

08:36 Yeah.

08:36 That's what I thought.

08:38 Cheers, folks.

08:40 Well, folks, thanks to Mike, I'm feeling nice and inspired

08:43 and ready for dry January.

08:44 Now, Mike's business Dry can be found on Wild Cop in Shrewsbury.

08:49 But if you are interested in buying anything online,

08:52 website is drybychoice.com.

08:55 Happy January, everyone.

08:56 Cheers again.

Category

Transcript

Recommended