How much start up money would I receive to start a NON alcoholic beer, wine and booze company?

[a kennedy]

Have friends that have given up alcohol for a number of reasons..... And we got talking about how all the great advertisements are alcohol related, and that there ARE NO ALCOHOLIC beverages that really "taste" good. When in a liquor store, the store is just full of alcoholic beverages and the non-alcoholic area is in the back or in the worst area of the store. We wondered if we could start a new trend of non alcoholic everything. If a start up company could get seed money to test great tasting non alcoholic beverages, the sky could be the limit right??? Or is alcohol the only ingredient that sells. Just curious....... Would be a ground breaking event if it would work, eh?

[Throd]

1. There are already thousands of great non-alcoholic beverages. Then I put booze in them.

[WillowTree]

28. LMAO!!!

[NightWatcher]

2. Do you mean non-alcoholic like tea, soda, juice, koolaid, water...?

They already exist, try buying them in the grocery store instead of the liquor store. There are aisles and aisles of the stuff.

[VanillaRhapsody]

4. I was thinking the exact same thing!

wouldn't those just be soft drinks of any kind along with juice and water etc? Most people are not truly drinking alcohol PRIMARILY for taste!

[a kennedy]

6. Sorry, no not the things you mentioned.....alcoholic beverages.

And where I live there aren't any non alcoholic beverages that taste good. Our choices are very, very limited. Fre is the only one that is offered in wine, and there are a few more beer choices but for booze by us? There is NOTHING in the booze section. I could by on line but the shipping fee isn't worth it.

[NightWatcher]

7. Oh, you want to make non-alcoholic beer and non alcoholic margaritas?

The year that I couldn't drink beer (liver disease), I didn't seek out non-alcoholic alternatives of alcoholic drinks.

You also asked how much start up you would get. I guess it would be up to you to try to get as much as possible. Most people who can't drink alcohol don't like the non-alcoholic beer or mixers, so they drink sodas and water and such.

[a kennedy]

11. That's what I'm asking...WHY don't the folks that CAN'T drink alcohol ONLY have the option of soda,

Or water???? Why shouldn't they have the option of better non alcoholic booze, or wine to drink??? I'm just asking....

[MADem]

30. Booze tastes LOUSY. Why would you want to make something that dogs shy away from?

Part of the reason it tastes lousy is to slow the roll of the people consuming it so they don't die of alcohol poison.

People choke it down because they like the after-effect.

You can make a pina colada without the rum--you can make any fruity cocktail without the vodka, tequila, gin or whatever that goes in it. You can make "Irish coffee" without the "Irish."

And if you can't do "white wine" try a little apple or white grape juice with a splash of club soda. Voila--non alcoholic white "wine." Want red? Do the same thing w/concord grape juice and you're drinking "Lambrusco."

There are plenty of sparkling juices out there, too--I think your idea has already been done and I don't think there's a large market for your proposal. I think you'd be broke inside a year.

[Warpy]

9. Non alcoholic booze? I doubt there is a market for it.

However, there might be a market for virgin cocktails besides Arnold Palmers and Shirley Temples. I'm thinking of things like using flavor extracts in mixed drinks like daquiris, pina coladas, and others for which such extracts exist.

Those extracts are used by the finer chocolatiers for filled candies sold in the US. They use the real booze in Europe.

I've tasted alcohol free wine once, and it was an obscenity. I honestly don't know if it can be done. Sparkling cider is a much better choice there, especially by the Martinelli company, water misers and heirloom apple conservators.

[a kennedy]

18. That's what I'm asking for.....better tasting beer, wine, and booze if there is a better booze

Being non alcoholic. No choices.....all the people I was with just wanted more choices of non alcoholic beverages. Just Asking because they think it stinks walking into a store that is filled with stuff full of alcohol and they're pushed to the back of the store. OMG they're like the Rosa Parks of the drinking world. OMG. That is just Wrong. Sorry. I should have never brought this whole topic up. Again I'm sorry.

[jberryhill]

26. "That's what I'm asking for.....better tasting beer"

Do you think the existing makers of non-alcoholic beer, today, sit around and say, "Hey, let's make one that tastes like piss?"

I mean, let's start at the beginning...

Do you, right now, have some idea of how to make good tasting non-alcoholic beer?

If not, what will having money do to improve your ability to do so?

Because it strikes me that there are a fair number of people engaged in the business who - and this is a wild guess on my part - aren't aiming at making a bad tasting product.

So, what is it they are doing wrong, that you would do right? (Other than, "if I had money, I would know&quot

[NutmegYankee]

12. They don't taste good because they were not made right.

The taste of beer or wine is created by fermentation of various strains of yeast picked for the style. The non-alcoholic beers and wines require processing to remove the alcohol, which usually also ruins the flavor.

As for non-alcoholic drinks, why would a store need to exist? Just drink Coca-cola.

[Politicalboi]

3. Better off making

Pot edibles or start a collective. Of course it all depends on what state you live.

[CBGLuthier]

5. I was thinking just today how stupid Star Trek Next Generation was for their concept

of alcohol free alcoholic drinks. If that's the future I shall continue to live in the past thank you very much.

[Warpy]

10. Well, to be fair, Synthohol got them plastered

It had an antidote if they got belligerent or were suddenly needed on the job.

[TheKentuckian]

22. I got the idea that it was more of a inferior buzz one could quickly just will

themselves out of but the real stuff seemed to still preferred and prized pretty universally.

[Warpy]

24. No, it was covered in one episode in STNG

that stated it was served on board and real alcohol was pretty much forbidden because the synthetic stuff had an antidote.

[ret5hd]

8. None...

from me anyway.

[SheilaT]

13. If there's no alcohol, it's NOT beer, wine, or booze.

Some of us do drink various alcoholic beverages for the taste/flavor. Good beers are amazing, and very different from each other. And VERY different from crap like Bud Light or Coors. Same for wine and spirits. They all do have specific flavors, although certain ways of mixing drinks tends to disguise those flavors.

Great tasting non alcoholic beverages are sold under names of soft drink manufacturers and various fruit juices. Actually, Pineapple juice mixed with club soda is great, so is a combination of orange and grape juice.

So good luck to you, if you think there's room for more such drinks, but you won't be getting any money from me.

[a kennedy]

15. Thanks...but there are a lot of folks that can't and won't drink alcohol.....

So I was just asking....personally I LOVE WINE, BOOZE AND CRAFT BEER. Just feel bad that there are hundreds of thousands of people that can't handle alcohol and they have crap to choose from when out for more the just a couple of hours.

[AngryAmish]

17. I'm like a chocoholic, except with booze.

[Lilyhoney]

25. I found a link that might be helpful to you.

http://barmedia.com/pages/amo/vlm21/21-02b10_tapping_into_the_alcohol-free_crowd.htm


Mixology is big at the moment. Mix the right ingredients together and you have a tasty alcohol-free top-dollar product. Creating an entirely new product seems to be too far of a reach. Research and development can be a bank breaker.

Good luck

[SheilaT]

34. Here's my take on the idea of non-alcoholic

beer and wine: I've had both a couple of times and they are absolute dreck. Why bother? If I couldn't drink for some reason, I'd just switch to totally different stuff. And I can't imagine a non-alcoholic version of spirits. Honestly.

. . . Wait . . .

Okay, I just phoned my brother about a great non-alcoholic drink. We were at a party a couple of years ago and he turned me on to this. It's club soda with a splash of cranberry juice and a lime. Apparently with vodka it's a specific drink that bartenders know, but minus the vodka it's refreshing and just great. Plus, if a non-drinker doesn't want to be hassled, he can get this and it looks like he's doing the real thing, which keeps the annoying drink pushers at bay.

[hunter]

14. With the alcohol extracted, but with cannabis as part of the brewing process...

... that has possibilities, no?

[Enrique]

16. i didn't know liquor stores had a non-alcoholic area

it seems out of place somehow

[LuvNewcastle]

27. It doesn't really make sense to me,

unless they're selling them as mixers. The purpose of having liquor stores is to sell a product that you can't buy anywhere else. It seems to be a waste of shelf space to sell beverages in a liquor store that can be bought in just about any store.

[Journeyman]

19. All I can say is, whoever named it near-beer was a terrible judge of distance . . .

[Enrique]

20. i happen to be watching "Columbo"

and right at this moment he just drank a Shirley Temple.

[Warpy]

21. I think the better bartenders have formulas for non alcoholic drinks

so it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask. Other than that, you can order stuff like whiskey sour, hold the whiskey.

There are times to keep your head clear, even if you do enjoy alcohol.

It gives me a migraine 20 minutes after the first sip. No party, just pain.

[MadrasT]

23. You have the cart before the horse.

First you need to come up with a detailed business plan and financial model. The financial model would detail your capital requirements.

THEN you would seek funding, and any potential investors would evaluate the plan and the model and if you were lucky, make an offer as to what amount of funding they might contribute.

You don't just say "I have this vague idea, somebody give me money to work on it." Well you can say it, but nobody in the world is going to give you money based on that.

[Warren DeMontague]

32. There's another possibility.

If they come up with something that tastes just effin' amazing, they might be able to drum up interest that way.

But beyond that, yeah, probably a more structured plan would be the way to go.

[LuvNewcastle]

29. If you can make a good-tasting NA beer,

more power to you. Nobody else seems to be able to. NA wine is juice, and there's already plenty of that, both regular and sparkling varieties. As far as NA liquor goes, I don't see how you could do it. The alcohol content in liquors is too high to fake the taste. You might be able to make some faux liquers, but even that's a stretch.

So don't try to do all of those beverages at once. Pick a type, such as beer, and then work on your business plan. If you want to have a business that makes all types of NA beverages, that would be something that you work into gradually. Seagram's wasn't built in a day, after all.

[WillowTree]

31. I don't know how to break this to you, but "non-alcoholic booze" is an oxymoron.

Also known as a total contradiction in terms.

What you want is sort of an adult beverage equivalent of turkey bacon. Good luck at coming up with one. Many have tried with little or no success.

[Warren DeMontague]

33. Ignore the smartasses, first off.

For the people who can drink, who don't have a physiological problem with alcohol, bully for you.

But you're not the target market, here.

I think part of the issue is that not everyone who 'doesn't drink' particularly wants the taste of beer or liquor or what have you. I don't drink, anymore, and over the years my beverage tastes have gravitated towards things like unsweetened tea, black or green... also I notice I enjoy extremely sour drinks, like unsweetened pure cranberry juice mixed with grapefruit juice (what my kids call "crazy juice&quot or even mixed with some natural ginger ale and ice. I like that sort of super-tart bite, it kind of sets off something in my brain.

But I never find myself "missing the taste" of beer or the like.

I do know that non-alcoholic bars are a thing, now, in England. That strikes me as more of a business opportunity, because for many ex-drinkers it's the social experience more than the taste of the beverage that they miss.

[KingEddie]

35. Non-Alcoholic Beer, Wine, and Cocktail Company

Pay no mind to the haters. There is a company operating in Canada that will be coming to the US later this year (i'm told) that has this exact concept. www.PremiumNearBeer.com is their website. My cousin in Ottawa told me about them and we both are allergic to alcohol (stupid genetics).

[a kennedy]

36. Oh my, this is your first post???

Thank you for this information and welcome to DU, and I'm hoping it takes off....IPO possibly?? I'd invest in an upscale non alcoholic beverages company....