"O'Doul's is a doleful name. A sonorous Gaelic dirge that could travel a distance and still be heard. A lament nearly homophonous with "Oh dear!" Yet, it is the designation of America's most distinguished near beer. But increasingly, it sounds like the lugubrious echo of drinking in decades past. The green-labeled brown bottles, containing less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume, fit well in the dusty halls of "breweriana," the nostalgic collections of long-forgotten beer labels and brewing paraphernalia of defunct maltsters."
"Each bottle emblazoned with the Anheuser-Busch eagle and a tied barley bow is a classic, but O'Doul's former prominence as America's go-to nonalcoholic sip has slipped away. Now, standing in front of the merchandise refrigerator at the package store, modern sober-curious drinkers are spoiled with beer options with little if any alcohol. O'Doul's is still there, though it seems more a reminder of a different sober moment than a tempting option in our current one."
O'Doul's launched by Anheuser-Busch in select markets in March 1989 and went nationwide on Jan. 8, 1990 as a nonalcoholic beer offering. The brand's green-labeled bottles contain less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume and have become collectible breweriana. O'Doul's once served as America's go-to nonalcoholic beer, but its prominence has waned as modern sober-curious consumers encounter a wider range of low- and no-alcohol beer options. The decline reflects changing consumer tastes and industry responses to stagnating beer sales and anti-alcohol campaigns in the late 1980s. Other major brewers also introduced sober offerings during that period.
Read at Slate Magazine
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