Dry January: giving up alcohol for a month

Can Matt Brady stay off booze for a whole month? He finds out what Dry January is about and takes up the challenge.

I like a drink or two, and fairly often I enjoy a beer after work. At the weekends, I like to relax with friends having a few pints in the pub, or to pour a glass of wine or beer while at home watching the football.

But for the whole of January, I’m kicking the booze in favour of soft drinks and water. Luckily for me, I still get to enjoy coffee. But why am I doing this?

Dry January

The Dry January challenge has been set up by Alcohol Concern, a charity that doesn’t advocate giving up booze entirely, but works with individuals and organisations to reduce the harmful effects alcohol has within families and communities. Dry January is also supported by Public Health England.

Dry January is both a fundraising and awareness-raising event to highlight the problem of alcohol misuse, and participants can raise money for Alcohol Concern. So I'm taking part to help raise funds and to see what, if any, obvious effects it has on my mood, health and sleep patterns.

I should add that Dry January is not aimed at people who have an issue with alcohol dependency. If you’ve got concerns about your own drinking habits, or those of someone you know, call Drinkline free on 0300 123 1110. This is a confidential service which offers information, support and help to callers.

Positive effects

Last year, over 17,000 people took part in Dry January, an increase of more than 400% on 2013. At the end of the month, 82% felt a sense of achievement, and 79% of participants saved money. Just under half (49%) said they lost weight, and 62% claimed to have more energy as a result of taking part.

Six months after completing a Dry January, research into the after effects showed that participants were drinking less often and less per day – and getting drunk less often too. Emily Robinson, Director of Campaigns at Alcohol Concern, said that although there had been concerns that people would immediately binge drink when the month was over, the research “is the proof of how, with the help, advice and support [of Alcohol Concern], our model can really change behaviour and reduce drinking.”

Lead researcher Dr Richard De Visser, Senior Lecturer at the University of Sussex, noted that what was particularly interesting is, even if people didn’t complete the whole month, taking part still “generally led to a significant decrease” in their alcohol intake.

Alternative drinks

Here at Lovefood, we’ve been trying out a few drinks that could be substituted in place of a beer. Managing Editor Simon Ward still stands by his conclusion from his own dry month in November 2013 that Becks Blue is the best alcohol-free beer, but here are some other options you might consider if you’re taking part, and our thoughts on them.

Bavaria
Bavaria is quite a well-known brand in the field of non-alcoholic beers, but its Premium Original 0.0% beer tastes very, very malty. It’s not awful but it's definitely not something I'd choose to drink – there’s no hope of a clean, crisp flavour here (though one person who tried it said that they thought it was "very nice").

And its Premium Wit 0.0% is simply not good. It has an initial flavour that's as pale and fleeting as the drink's colour, before it sours into something grotesque. I couldn't drink more than a couple of mouthfuls.

What I really want to talk about here are its flavoured beers. Bavaria’s Lemon Radler 0.0% is actually really nice, although there’s a distinct malty aftertaste which takes a while to get used to. The zesty lemonade that the beer is mixed with is delicious though. It seems a shame in a way that they didn’t just make the lemonade on its own rather than this halfway house. The cherry beer they make is very fruity, but suffers from the same malty aftertaste.

James White
James White makes three types of apple juice, created solely with one variety of apple each: Cox, Russet and Bramley.

The Russet is spicy and fresh, though not awfully crisp-tasting, and the Bramley is very bitter. The Cox is the best of the three, with a well-rounded, slightly sweet fresh apple taste, and it seems that the bottle doesn’t last nearly as long as I think it ought to. Delicious.

Cawston
Cawston Press make a couple of really nice lightly sparkling drinks: a cloudy apple and a rhubarb and apple juice. They taste quite fresh despite being mixed with fizzy water for the end result. One person who enjoyed the rhubarb drink said that the label was spot on: “It is deliciously tart! The sweet apple offsets the rhubarb quite nicely.” Another said that they didn't taste artificial or of chemicals like other sparkling fruit drinks.

However, we did find that the bottles were really hard to open, and another taster said that they liked it but were expecting it to be a bit fizzier.

Luscombe

Luscombe make a range of organic drinks and juices. We tried out their sparkling cranberry crush and both their ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ ginger beers. The cool ginger beer is rather nice: gentle ginger and soft lemon hints. But I prefer my ginger beer to have a more robust flavour – the ‘hot’ version satisfies me more with its fiery spark and sharp lemon finish. "Possibly a little spicy for some," said a colleague, "but a good kick at the back of the throat."

I’m not normally one for cranberries, but the cranberry crush has a beautiful aroma and, although it’s still dry, it has a much softer finish than other cranberry drinks I’ve tried in the past.

Soft Brew
Soft Brew comes in three flavours: lime and elderflower, lemon, and apple. The fruity flavour is decent but then comes a burst of hops that I simply can’t stand. It tastes vaguely stale and the flavour sticks in the mouth for several minutes. I can’t finish any of these bottles. After trying these, I had to have a real beer to get rid of the taste. By the way, I tried this in December – that beer back then doesn’t mean I’ve broken my pledge already!

Will you be taking part in Dry January? Do you think it’s a good idea? Let us know in the Comments below.

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