January

I take a break from drinking in January. For me this isn't the dry January that has become a fad recently. I've been taking most of January off alcohol for over 10 years. I first did it to help me quit smoking.

I had a 20 a day habit, and in the days before the smoking ban i'd find that if I had a drink in a pub, i'd immediately want a cigarette. The chemical addiction to nicotine is broken in 3 weeks, so i figured that if could go without a drink for a month i could also go without smoking.

It worked, but i also noticed that i saved lots of money, lost weight and reset my drinking habits. Now whenever the new year approaches, and I'm becoming weary of partying and excess I look forward to a little break.

Of course  at this point in time i really fancy a drink. I break for my wedding anniversary at the end of the month, and I'll celebrate with a really nice beer (something like Beavertown's Gamma Ray) on Feb 1st.

At the moment, if i really crave something hoppy, i'm reaching for Brewdog's Nanny State. Unlike seemingly every other low alcohol beer, it is very drinkable. Brewdog have backed lots of hop punch into the beer, got the carbonation spot on and given it enough malty body to satisfy. It's 0.5%, so you'd have to optimistically drink 9 nanny states to get anywhere near the alcohol content of a bottle of Punk IPA.



Of course it's not the real thing but it has got a much better hop taste than many boring shop beers. Well done Brewdog.