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With almost all 20-somethings I meet in California, I tend to assume that they don’t drink alcohol and I’m often right. Alcohol is as cool as tobacco here now. Not at all. No wonder bars are really struggling.
The only people I know here who are really into booze now are elderly millennials and Gen X and Boomers.
(I’m renting a place in Monterey, and everyone is sober)
I stopped drinking in 2022.
Sometimes I still have the practices of a person who came of age with booze.
I brought some NA beer and other NA drinks to festive things. The NA beer is fine, but otherwise time has really weaned me off the rituals of social alcohol and NA replacements.
It’s hard to find non-alcohol centered places where I live now (in SF). Even though drinking culture is way more intense in Singapore, there were at least plenty of late night outdoor food places where you can sit and drink a Milo or iced lime water while your friends drink beer. No such luck here.
When I’m in Monterey, I like going to the Fieldwork Brewery solely for the reason that they have not just one, but three very good NA beers in diff styles. And they have a outdoor patio with a fire pit. And there aren’t many other places to hang out in Monterey!
But on the whole, I don’t feel compelled to want to center alcohol in my life anymore. I do like the taste of shitty IPAs, the more bitter and bad the better, and the plethora of amazing IPAs (amazing to me, shitty to people who hate them) that are now nonalcoholic, more than scratches that itch for me.
Everything else: tea geekery has fully replaced my former whisky and gin geekery.
At Christmas I told a boomer acquaintance ‘did you know the best selling beer at Whole Foods is NA’ and he did not believe me ahahahaha
@skinnylatte It kind of makes intuitive sense. They have a million alcoholic beers and probably just a few non-alcoholic.
@skinnylatte I totally believe it. The Whole Foods near me has a sizable NA selection, with choices from several breweries, some like Athletic that do nothing else, and others like Industrial Arts that have a significant sideline in NA. Athletic must be doing particularly well; I saw an ad from them during the college football playoffs, usually the home of the macro beer brands.
@skinnylatte that's interesting, a majority of my friends in their 20s and 30s are really into craft beer and mixed drinks here in the southeast. I like a glass of wine with dinner at home but don't like drinking when I go out, mostly because I'm cheap 
(I'm GenX).
@Jennifer yeah this was true here.. 10 years ago. In the last few years it’s really died down
@skinnylatte it is *just now* that I realized NA probably meant non-alcoholic instead of north-americas.
@skinnylatte I hope the whole wine presentation thing goes away because of drinking not being seen as glamorous like the commercials said it was.
Fire pit in Monterey had me sold.
@Littlebobbytables it’s pretty nice and toasty.
@skinnylatte
not enough of a drinker to grok this stuff, me.
The IPA thing.
we used to drink beer. alc content was low (rel), came in pitchers, drink enough & you may well regret it.
Have had IPAs I really liked.
Very well received brewery opened up nearby (15min by bicycle), folks love it. Nice, bicycle friendly, famlies, dogs, kids, oldtimers, fire pits, etc.
had one of their IPAs that came in a small glass, w/tip, cost $10, & I poured it out.
I can't afford it.
who has all this $$?
@cpm where I come from, alcohol is $20-40 :) each!
I'm getting that.
Place also has a proper liquor license & gets lots of complimentary takes on their cocktails
I mean, on an appropriately hot day, I like a decent 'generous' G&T also.
A friend bought me one at that place. Was nice, I like mine better, but ok.
I returned the courtesy.
the bill rang my bell!
I took note the place doesn't run the tab on your coaster as I am used to, but rather, takes your card. Yikes!
I do cash, and tip well
I don't see how folks afford it