Hiya
Im really early in my sobriety. I understand there are different opinions and perspectives on Alcohol Free and 0% substitutes. As I navigate sobriety and whats right for me, Id really love to hear your perspective, mindset and experiences with these, so I can understand better how they may help or hinder. SJ 
This is definitely a subject worth discussing!
For me, there is a simple line I’ve drawn for myself. If it’s sold in the alcohol section, it’s not for me. Even a year into my sobriety I refuse to even entertain the idea of entering that area in any store. Why expose myself to what I know is a trigger? It’s like playing with fire and hoping I won’t get burned.
When I got sober I wrote a list of people, places and things that were triggers for me, and the alcohol section was definitely one of the places I decided I’d avoid to help stay sober. At this point in my sobriety I can’t willingly enter an alcohol section, buy a six pack of 0% beer (after walking past the wine and liquor), go home and drink it and then expect that behavior (which my brain is all too familiar with) to not lead to serious cravings for actual beer, wine or liquor.
I choose to drink sparkling or flavored water, usually Liquid Death as they have some great flavors and offer carbonated and flat options!
I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this, I’m definitely interested in what others have to say! 
If you go to the search 
and plug it in you will find lots of conversions about this topic.
My son more than 12 years sober had no problem drinking NA beer or Wine early on.
Me? I wasn’t going to take that chance. After my 3rd year I like having an NA IPA. There’s lots of good ones out there. I only have one. What’s the point if there’s no booze. I don’t like NA wine. And I enjoy creative mocktails in restaurants.
But everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I’d be careful though.
@Alexh666
In my experience it’ll probably hurt in early recovery. I relapsed the first time I tried those, I drank them like an alcoholic drinks normal alcohol. This time I didn’t think about them or touch them until I was years into my sobriety.
In the past few years I’ve probably had a total of maybe 10 NA beers. I’ve never had more than 1 at a time and I’ve never wanted more than 1. I don’t miss being in an altered state what so ever.
You may wonder why I ever tired them again… well two reasons. 1.) I was extremely certain that I stood zero chance of relapse because I no longer wished to escape reality. 2.) I kind of like the taste of beer.
Understand that if you go down this path you really need to listen to yourself in honesty and I truly believe it’s more likely to result in relapse than recovery in early sobriety.
Best wishes to you on your journey.
I want to give my opinion. My alcohol choice was tequila and don’t think there is a 0 version. Not triggered anymore after two years but trigger was never alcohol. I have tried 0 Corona and actually like it. Like expressed above I had only one a couple of times. If it is used as a tool to avoid alcohol and works for you … great! I too believe the desire to have permanent long term sobriety should not include a new habit of 0 alcohol beverages when there are so many choices of truly zero alcohol free beverages out there. Again just my opinion.
Personally I have never found NA drinks an issue. You can’t get drunk on them and later in my drinking career I only drank to get drunk. Sure I made a million excuses as to why I was drinking, but really I was just searching for a high. I drink the occasional NA drink now, but never more than 2 because well, they’re just not that good 
Everyone’s journey is different though, and I would echo the advice to proceed with caution and stay away if you even suspect they will act as a gateway back to alcohol.
I dabbled in na options in early sobriety and found myself leaning on a bottle of na wine every weekend for like a month and hubby called me on the unhealthy behavior so yeah i stopped that. I do like a lauganitas hop water 0% alcohol. I cant do any other nas as theyre triggering and why dabble?!
Everyone has their own path and id encourage you to look at your motivation and habits around nas.
I actually did try first but couldnt find any. Unfortunately ‘alcohol free’ brings up loads of hits understandably and ‘0%’ seems to find every ‘0’ regardless of the %. But if you know a past thread that had some good discussion on it, please do share.
I really appreciate you sharing your & your sons experience. Thank you.
Thank you so much. The trigger logic makes sense, but I hadnt thought about the habitual behaviour explanation you gave too! That makes a lot of sense to me. Completely changing habits and breaking them.
Thank you! I was wondering as well. I honestly like the taste of wine….but I dont think any 0% alternatives really taste right for wine (at least they didnt when I was pregnant 10 yrs ago). 
Im curious about the social aspect. I do a lot of social camping and where I am at right now Im dont feel comfortable openly saying to acquaintances that Im an alcoholic. So I was thinking of using them almost as a decoy. People will notice Im not drinking and ask questions (probably of the are you pregnant kind tbh) because they are used to me drinking and they enjoy drinking (its that peer pressure type behaviour), but Im not sure theyll look too closely at a fake can of beer or bottle of wine. I know some will say avoid those places. That isnt an option for me. Part of my recovery is learning to be in those places and staying sober too.
You owe an explanation to no one. Easy way out would be to say you don’t drink right now. As long as you’re honest to yourself.
Learning to stay in those places might be part of your recovery. Doesn’t mean you have to expose yourself to them this early in sobriety and recovery. It takes time.
There’s a difference between alcohol free and 0.0%. 0.0% is exactly that (well, 0.05% max actually). Different countries have different rules for what might be called alcohol free. Over here, in the Netherlands, it’s 0.5%. In Spain and Germany it’s 1.5%, which can be sold as alcohol free too here (EU rules, a bit odd yes).
Early on in recovery it was a bit too close to the real thing for me so I stayed away. I will have a 0.0% one when I go to a restaurant these days. Which is not often. Or have a glass of 0.0% bubbles to celebrate something big maybe. That’s all. If that’s wise or not I am not sure. I would advice against it to people in early recovery.
Most booze tastes awful and so do the alcohol free versions and they’re expensive so I refrain for those reasons.
@BeautifulandBrave I’ve been sober a while, coming up 22 years April 16th, and yes I drink 0.0% beer, and enjoy it.
I’m with Eric @Dazercat on NA wine it’s just awful 
, the same with NA vodka, (I’ve never bought it, I had a taste at a friend’s house 
) vodka was my doc back in the day, too many bad memories.
Currently I drink Heineken, Doombar amber and Theakstons nowt peculiar, all 0.0%, which out of the others I’ve tried are by far the best. All the others are either have a bitter after taste, taste soapy or are like water (Bud 0.0%)
Never more than 2 a night and definitely not every night, and I often end up not finishing a bottle.
It’s entirely up to you how you approach this, but always read the fucking lable.
They hide 1.5% and 0.5% beers in the alcohol free sections, which in England are usually before the real 
booze, so you don’t have to walk down that aisle .
Stay strong , stay safe and above all else stay sober.
&
I’m also thinking about this a lot. Yesterday I got tips from someone who has been sober 20 years about which 0% substitutes are nice but I feel I am too early in my sobriety for this. It feels like a gateway to the real thing. My only thing is that sometimes I want something else then water or tea and I think most sodas are too sweet.
Sparkling water or flavoured water is good for this, or juices of any kind. Sometimes it’s just thirst.
In the past (prior to relapses) I would have tried the N/A route, because I was trying to navigate how to fit my sober self in socially. I don’t crave the flavours, if I stop and think about it, it’s usually a thirst that wants to be satisfied. Now.. I honestly couldn’t care less what anyone else is doing, nor do I feel the need to fit in. I’m done with the idea of making others feel comfortable, because when I thought about it, that’s all I was trying to do.
In your case, on your camping trip (or any drinky get-togethers) just tell your tribe you’re upping your game on all things health, and not having drinks is part of that. That keeps it friendly and questions at bay, all while kindly asking people politely to back off. The sober version of you will become the norm for them soon enough.
I like some craft sodas, also long as they are bitter or not sweet. Or some really sour or floral lemonade. And yes, fizzy water helps with cravings. Tried flavoured water too but they always give me a headache somehow.
It can be a tricky search engine.
I just searched NA Beer and got these and more. Is this what you’re looking for?
(Alcohol free beers, wines etc your thoughts please!)
https://talkingsober.com/t/na-beer-and-wine-use/159287
https://talkingsober.com/t/are-alcohol-free-drinks-cheating/178923
Drinking on camping trips is very relatable! I recently got back from a camping trip with my family and thankfully I was able to maintain my sobriety. I was with people who were drinking, but they knew I was sober, and they did not pressure me to drink. Exposing yourself to situations with people who don’t know you’re trying to stay sober where there is a lot of drinking and peer pressure to drink is not a good idea in early recovery.
Why isn’t it an option? Is a camping trip more important than your sobriety? This maybe something to reconsider or at least reevaluate, it could be the difference between staying sober and a relapse.