Local drink makers look to fill void during Dry January

The new year is often a time to step back from the holiday indulgences of December and take a break from booze and two local companies are here to help.

As Dry January grows in popularity, SYC Brewing and Mock-Ups Mocktails offer non-alcoholic craft products that fill a market for elevated, alcohol-free adult beverages.

"January becomes our slowest month of the year for sure," said Adrian Boudreau of SYC Brewing. "People start to realize that maybe they overdid it a bit in December and they need to find a better alternative to maybe kind of cut back."

Bodreau said the brewery saw more customers looking for alcohol-free options and saw the trend as an opportunity to expand.

In 2021, SYC Brewing launched the Phantom Buzz, a non-alcoholic pale ale. It costs half of what their regular beer does and has been so successful that SYC Brewing will be launching a new booze-free beer in the next month or two.

"We're really excited to grow on the brand for the non-alcoholics," he said. "We see a huge demand for our Phantom Buzz."

It fills a void, Boudreau said, for craft products without alcohol that look and taste like their boozy counterparts and don't leave people feeling left out.

"A lot of people are scared to admit that they're having Dry January," he said. "Mainly because at times they did feel bullied by their friends or by their peers."

"This kind of takes away a lot of that pressure from your friends and your peers to be able to have a product and not be questioned about it," he added.

For people with different tastes, another local entrepreneur has found success in what she said is an underdeveloped mocktail market.

JoAnne Pearce, owner of Mock-Ups Mocktails, started experimenting with non-alcoholic cocktails in 2020 after she decided to stop drinking. Since then, she has launched two recipe books and a line of bottled pre-made mocktails.

"I think that people assume when you stop drinking that you just become a monk, and all of a sudden you're like really into tap water and health. But that's not true," she said. "You still want to feel included and you still want to feel special."

Elevated non-alcoholic options give people the chance to celebrate and mark occasions together regardless of whether or not they drink alcohol, and a lack of those options left her feeling out when she quit drinking.

"We think of mocktails as things we have to settle for, as a consolation prize, but I think they can be their own legit culinary sort of niche," she said.

Pearce has been partnered with Token Bitters since 2020. She said their first collaboration on two bottled mocktails has been a success and she's excited for a future where the conversation around food and drink includes non-alcoholic options.

"I see the opportunity now to take up space there and be a part of this really exciting sort of paradigm shift around what it means to consume as an adult," she said.

"A lot of people are looking for those options. It's dumbfounding to me how underserved they've been up to this point."

There are plenty of reasons to stop drinking or drink less, and Pearce said her advice for anyone going sober or cutting down is to give Dry January a try.

"This is a great moment because you won't feel as alienated," she said. "People won't second-guess you; they won't judge you or demand to know why you're not drinking"

"It's become just a lot more normalized, and I think we're going to start to see that more year-round as well."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jessica Robb