Any non-drinker BA members?

Maybe low- and non-alcohol beers need someone to step up and advocate for them?

 

Naaaah!

 

You mean a site like "Fake-beer Advocate"?

 

If and eventually when I stop drinking, I will find it both difficult and pointless to be a part of this website. Reading and talking about an addictive substance such as alcohol while sober would seem torturous at best.

 

Interesting post. If had to give up beer due to health issues I'd surely come here still to drink vicariously thru y'all!

 

Take the @rgordon approach! Truly inspiring, and to enjoy and share the experience with your son must be priceless. I love the idea of making your tastings something to look so forward to, instead of burden of the inability to consume at will. True advocacy.

Having said that, I must admit that in my current state, I would have nowhere near that kind of will power . Cheers, and good luck however you may approach it @bbtkd !

 

Im not sure if id stay if i didnt drink. I do love the history and culture aspect of beer, but being part of it is most of the fun.

 

I'm about 99% sure I'm experiencing my first gout flare up right now at age 30. My big toe on my left foot is swollen, and it's around a 6 or 7 on the pain scale if I bend the joint in my toe. It hurts but it isn't debilitating yet. I consider myself a moderate drinker but I work at a bar and have a fridge full of alchemist and treehouse stuff. This sucks. Just popped up last night and felt it when I got out of bed this morning. Going to need to take a long break it seems. Also, I have been drinking a pretty good amount of big yeasty beers lately. Probably 10-15 a week.

 

Same line of thinking here. When I step away a few times a year to reset the palate or whatnot I step away from this community as well. I love beer and it's not easy for me to abstain for a couple weeks if I'm still immersed in the culture. On the flip side - it always makes it a treat to come back and catch up on what I missed, and it's a nice reminder that good beer is coming out all the time and if you miss a few releases its not a big deal. To each their own, especially if it's a long term or permanent issue. Just guessing here but I would apply the same 1:1 logic - if I abstain for two weeks then I'm not on the site for two weeks, if it's two months then I'm away for two months, etc. Tough decision, for sure, but would be necessary for me.

 

I would not be able to hang around. The best part of the culture is the experience of drinking the beers. I just would not see the point of being on BA and talking beer if I did not partake, would not make much sense.

 

To me the best part of the culture, through the years, has been the people. Drinking beer is easy; making friends and being a friend takes effort that is rewarding beyond any pleasure that beer allows. I love beer, always have and always will, but drinking beer has nothing to do with the most important things that this place provides. The erudition and humor here mean more to me than any beer experience through about 50 years of drinking. People do things for lots of reasons. Beer alone has never been enough for all of my passions. Drinking or not, this is an educational, fun, and sometimes humbling place.

 

For me hanging around a beer board without drinking would be like watching the cooking shows and not eating.

 

I used to like watching Julia Child get a bit tipsy. I was always better at drinking than cooking. Now I cook up a storm!

 

What your saying is true and would apply to a hobby you can be part of. I would think that if you are not a drinker then you would find something you do get involved with and join that community. Why would a non-drinker even come to BA? If I did not drink beer why would I come to a place and make friends with people when I am not part of the culture etc? That would be like me joining a hiking club when I don't hike, seems sort of misplaced? So with that said yes the people here and everything here is awesome, its a great community, just saying that it sort of makes no sense for a non-drinker to become part of it since they cannot relate.
I also could understand if you were a drinker and were part of the community then could no longer drink, sure then I get why your part of the culture and such, you would have been involved and made friends and yes by all means that makes sense to stay, just my view would be based on people who never drank or don't like to, that to me seems weird.

 

It would be strange if you had *never* hiked, but if you at one point in your life used to enjoy hiking but no longer could for whatever reason, it wouldn't strike me as strange at all to try and continue taking part in the community in some sort of vicarious manner.

 

How is that? If you hiked for 20 years and now cannot but have been part of the community why would you leave your friends? I would imagine you had a great connection with the people and probably have known them for a long time. Why would you not still chat and discuss things or better yet help younger folk learn some things form your experience? I think that is far different than someone who does not drink at all joining a place that is all about drinking? I think we have two separate points here, a long timer verse new person, totally different circumstances.

 

Oops. I have a great number of interests and cultivate them in many ways. I have an abiding interest in beer (and wine), having spent a great deal of my life engaged with both. An Atheist might still have interest in theology.