What to Drink Instead of Beer, When You Want to Feel Good

July 30, 2026

By Jason LaValla, founder, Casamara Club · July 2026

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NA Beer Got Good
Why It Can Still Feel Heavy
The Hops Question
Drinking for How You Feel After
How to Choose
FAQ
Sources

Non-alcoholic beer got good. The best of it wins blind tastings against the real thing, the category has more than doubled since 2021, and the days of one sad bottle at the end of the bar are over. We drink it too.

So why does a can of it so often leave you fuller and foggier than the beer it stands in for? There are real answers, in the brewing and in the hops, and they sort out when NA beer is the right call and when you want something drier.

The short answer: Most NA brewing leaves the wort's unfermented sugars in the can, which drinks heavier, and it leans on hops, a mild sedative, to taste like beer. When you want the cold and the complexity but you'd rather feel light and clear afterward, that's what an extra-dry botanical soda is for.

The Good News: NA Beer Really Did Get Good

Bill Shufelt, who co-founded Athletic Brewing, describes where the category started: "Non-alcoholic beer was always something you drank when you were having a 'less than' experience." That's not true anymore. "We've done blind taste test panels with beer writers, beer judges, everything. We've won awards in alcoholic beer categories."

The market agrees. Per the Brewers Association, NA beer volume grew 111% from 2021 to 2025 and now makes up 2.5% of all beer sold in the US. The best ones are very good. If a cold beer is the thing you want, a good NA beer will do the job.

Our drinks live in all the same places: after the yard work, during the game, next to the grill, in your hand at a bar. The difference this guide cares about is how you feel when the glass is empty.

Why NA Beer Can Still Feel Heavy

Regular NA-beer drinkers notice something the category rarely explains: a non-alcoholic beer often feels more filling than the full-strength version of the same style. It's a direct consequence of how most NA beer is made.

Beer gets its alcohol when yeast eats the sugars in the wort (the sweet, unfermented liquid you start with). To keep the alcohol out, most NA brewing either stops that fermentation early or uses a yeast that can't eat the main sugar in wort. Either way, more of those sugars stay in the can. Brewers call the leftover flavor "worty," and it reads as sweeter, heavier, and more bread-like on the palate. The sugar that would have become alcohol is still there instead, and you feel it.

Add beer's heavy carbonation on top of that residual sugar and you get the fuller, more bloated feeling. It's the physical opposite of what a dry, lightly sparkling drink does.

The Hops Question

Hops aren't just a flavor. They're a mild sedative.

Hops have been used in sleep remedies for centuries, and the science is real: hops raise levels of GABA, the brain's main calming, inhibitory neurotransmitter. A study of stressed nurses in PLOS ONE found that a small daily serving of non-alcoholic beer measurably shortened the time it took them to fall asleep and cut their nighttime restlessness, and the researchers credited the hops, using alcohol-free beer precisely because the alcohol would have worked against sleep.

Now put that next to how NA beer is built. Stripped of alcohol, a lot of the "beeriness" has to come from somewhere, and it comes from hops. Even light lagers like Heineken 0.0 lean on hop character to read as beer. So you're often getting a bigger relative dose of a mild sedative, without the alcohol that would otherwise mask or offset it.

For a nightcap, that's a feature. Before dinner, at a barbecue, in the middle of an afternoon you want to stay sharp for, feeling a little soft in the head is the opposite of refreshment. This is our read, grounded in the hops research above rather than a lab test of any specific beer, but it lines up with something a lot of people describe and can't quite name.

And even a great NA beer is chasing a real beer. Every so often, you notice the gap.

Drinking for How You Feel After

The case for our botanical sodas is the after.

We build our botanical sodas to leave you feeling the opposite of heavy. Each botanical is extracted separately and blended to 4-5 grams of sugar per 12oz serving, with lemon or lime for acidity and a pinch of Mediterranean sea salt. No residual wort, no hops, no sugar crash waiting. Extra dry, cold, lightly sparkling, complex enough to hold your attention, and gone clean when you set the glass down.

Same cold-and-refreshing satisfaction, same occasions. You just feel light and clear when it's finished instead of full and a little foggy.

Two flavors land closest to beer drinkers:

Como (Alpine Style): mandarin, chamomile, peppermint, licorice root, juniper. Cooling and crisp, the character of a northern Italian pilsner.
Isla (Caribbean Style): ginger, blackstrap molasses, nutmeg, allspice, thyme. Warm and dark in flavor, light as a lager in body.

Bartender Natasha David, via Vogue: "I could slowly sip this all day." That's the point. All day, and still yourself at the end of it.

How to Choose, by What You Drink Now

If you love crisp lagers and pilsners: Como, for the same clean, cooling refreshment without the residual sweetness.

If you love hoppy IPAs: You're chasing bitterness. Alta (chinotto, juniper, orris root) and Superclasico Aperitivo give you bitterness from citrus and roots instead of hops, so no sedative side.

If you love dark beers and stouts: Isla's molasses and warm spice is the closest thing to that depth, at a fraction of the heaviness.

If you love sours: Sera and Fora drink tart and dry.

And for the straight beer craving: NA beer earned that slot.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why does non-alcoholic beer feel more filling than regular beer?

A: Because the sugars that would have fermented into alcohol stay in the can instead. Most NA brewing stops fermentation early or uses yeast that can't eat wort's main sugar, leaving a sweeter, heavier, more "worty" body. Combined with beer's carbonation, that reads as fuller and more bloating.

Q: Can non-alcoholic beer make you drowsy?

A: It can take the edge off. Hops raise GABA, the brain's calming neurotransmitter, and a PLOS ONE study found non-alcoholic beer improved sleep onset thanks to the hops. The study measured sleep at night; our read is that the same gentle effect is the last thing you want mid-afternoon, and NA beers lean harder on hops to taste like beer.

Q: What's a lighter alternative to beer?

A: An extra-dry botanical soda. Casamara Club's run 4-5 grams of sugar and 15-20 calories per 12oz, with no residual wort and no hops, so you get the cold, complex, refreshing part of a beer without the heavy or foggy after-feeling.

Q: Is non-alcoholic beer actually good now?

A: Yes. The best NA beers win medals against alcoholic beers, and the category grew 111% by volume from 2021 to 2025 per the Brewers Association. For a straightforward beer craving, a good NA beer delivers.

Q: Where can I buy botanical sodas?

A: Casamara Club ships nationwide at casamaraclub.com and pours at more than 100 of the best restaurants and bars in the country.