The best alcohol-free drinks

Rules are clear when it comes to alcohol and driving in the UK:

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the drink driving alcohol limit for drivers is 35 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath. In Scotland it’s 22mg per 100ml of breath.

This doesn’t translate into a certain number of drinks allowed, such as two pints of ale or glasses of wine because people vary as much in size and metabolism as alcoholic drinks do in volume, strength, and flavour. And therefore two glasses of wine affect each adult differently.

The rise of zero alcohol alcohol

The production of low and zero alcohol beer, wine, and other traditionally alcoholic drinks has really taken off in recent years. This is partly due to this desire for people to have a few drinks and still drive sober but mostly because ever-increasing numbers of people are quitting or minimising their alcohol intake.

This shift in customer demand has driven manufacturers to make big advancements in the quality and flavour of their produce. It's also allowed new names to pop up. Where low and zero alcohol wines and spirit-type drinks are still improving, low or zero percent beer is nailing it, the best of which you’d be doing well to tell apart from their alcoholic equivalents.

The best low and zero alcoholic drinks

How alcohol-free beer is made

It usually goes through the same process of mixing barley with hot water, then boiled with hops and fermented. The beer then needs to be dealcoholised, and this can be achieved by a number of methods, such as heating the beer to remove the alcohol.

Some producers will alter the fermentation process. For example, some may reduce the amount of sugar that is to be fermented in the wort (barley-water mixture).

How alcohol-free wine is made

Alcohol-free wine undergoes the same processes as regular wine, which is what separates it from mere grape juice. The most popular means of removing the alcohol from wine is by heating it gently, just like the process for beer mentioned above.

Read next:

The best cooler boxes for your car

The best power banks for your car glovebox

The best travel flask for your car

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