Sober-curious trends, including abstaining from alcohol completely, have picked up steam in the last few years. People who normally hoist a glass of bourbon or a gin cocktail are taking time off — for health reasons, to lose weight, or simply to reset their consumption patterns. Often, they do it in the first month of the year, taking part in the mostly informal movement known as Dry January.
For many craft distilleries, especially those that rely on tasting room sales, this marks a low period — often the worst of the year. “Dry January is the most depressing time of year for our business,” says Brooke McKinnon, Director of Hospitality and DTC Sales at Freeland Spirits in Portland, Oregon. “We go from OND [October, November, December], which is super busy because of the holidays, to a quarter of our business.” She adds that the slow period necessitates shifting into survival mode, including cutting staff.
Cedar Ridge Distillery in Swisher, Iowa, also sees January as a month to simply hang on. “It’s going to be rough; it’s just a matter of how rough,” says founder Jeff Quint. “The strategy we employ is [to] just manage costs to the full extent possible.”
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, As Above So Below Distillery offers alcohol-free options — including cocktails, beer, and other beverages — in its tasting room year-round, but co-founder and Master Distiller Caley Shoemaker says January is still a brutal month for sales. “We are 100 percent in support of people taking a break from alcohol, and balance is a huge part of our company ethos,” she says. “But the culture of avoiding a bar environment in January combined with New Year’s resolutions and a huge slowdown in tourist traffic can make January a very tough time for small businesses.”
Sales may dip during Dry January, but the general interest in low or no-alcohol drinks doesn’t have to turn the tasting room into a ghost town. Many craft distillers are finding ways to continue offering hospitality to abstinent consumers — and discovering that their business models can accommodate everyone.
Options for Everyone
At Freeland Spirits, the tasting room is a central part of the business, offering neat pours and cocktails alongside a light food menu. Alcohol-free cocktails are part of the mix year-round, and in January they get highlighted in a mocktail flight. (At the same time, Freeland promotes its variety of gins with “Dry Gin-uary” specials.) McKinnon says that with each passing year, she and her colleagues are learning how better to weather the post-holiday revenue dip, and they’re in conversation about ways to meet patrons’ increasing interest in sobriety.
“We’re all in agreement that there should be more options for people who are sober or pregnant or not drinking for whatever reason,” McKinnon says. “It should be a category that people explore more and hopefully make really good stuff in doing so. We’re still trying to figure out how that impacts us directly.”
Many distilleries in tourist-heavy destinations added alcohol-free drinks to their menus long ago, aiming to accommodate designated drivers or simply members of a party with different tastes. “We’re definitely seeing it as something we need to lean into,” says Jesse Den Herder, Creative Marketing Director at Iron Fish Distillery in Thompsonville, Michigan. The distillery is located just a few miles from Crystal Mountain Resort, a big skiing destination, so tasting room sales in January are actually pretty strong, depending on snowfall. And Iron Fish consistently offers several alcohol-free options year-round, including cocktails, kombucha, and nitro cold brew.
Den Herder says that the non-alcoholic drinks don’t necessarily pull in people directly, but the fact that they’re listed alongside Iron Fish’s spirits-based cocktails could sway the decision for a split group. “Let’s say there’s a party of six, and three don’t want to drink. We have these options,” he explains. “They’re going to now decide to come because of those options.”
It’s a similar situation at Hard Truth Distilling in Nashville, Indiana. Sales there slow down in January, which Head of Marketing Seth Teeters attributes to the post-holiday lull more than a period of abstinence among consumers. “We have a strong mocktail menu for those that want to visit or socialize with others while they are moderating, and that is something we offer year-round,” he explains, pointing out that consumers may switch from alcohol to a non-alcoholic option in the same sitting.
Catoctin Creek in Purcellville, Virginia, doesn’t list alcohol-free drinks on its menu, but co-founder and Chief Distiller Becky Harris says they’re always available if consumers ask. “Our tasting room crew is really thoughtful about getting creative about adapting the menu for special requests,” she says. “Especially since we are in a wine region, so they see plenty of designated drivers!” Catoctin Creek purposefully programs events in January to attract tasting room visitors, and Harris says that keeps consumers coming in the door.
All in on Alcohol-Free
Beyond Dry January, the growing interest in sobriety has spurred at least one craft distiller to create an alcohol-free spirit, offered alongside their usual lineup. Founder Guy Rehorst makes a full range of spirits at Milwaukee’s Great Lakes Distillery, from vodkas and gins to whiskeys, liqueurs, brandies, and red and green absinthe. With such variety already on offer, it wasn’t such a leap to add a non-alcoholic botanical spirit called SANS Junipre.
“I was witnessing a change taking place in the marketplace,” Rehorst recalls. “I saw that many people were drinking less or looking for options that were not heavily alcohol-based. I thought, well, we make really good spirits — why can’t we make good spirits that don’t have alcohol?”
SANS Junipre launched in 2022 as part of a new company, Boundless Beverages, and Rehorst says it’s been well-received. “We get a considerable number of people here every week for tours, but it’s not unusual to have somebody who is either the designated driver or maybe just doesn’t even like to drink but is curious, and they’re hanging out with their friends and they want to be part of the party,” he says. “So it gives them something nice — the option for cocktails in our tasting room that are NA.”
On top of that, the fact that a distillery is making its own zero-proof spirit is attracting new clientele. “We get people who come in the tasting room [who] would never have considered coming in before because they don’t drink, for whatever reason, but they find out we have the NA spirits,” Rehorst says. “Maybe their friends turned them onto it or they found it out in the wild somewhere, at a bar or restaurant, and they’re like, ‘Wow, this is actually really good stuff. I’ve got to check that place out.’”
Few craft distilleries have the time or resources to follow Rehorst’s lead and create their own alcohol-free spirits replacements, but there are a growing number of companies focused on this space alone. And one of them is successfully operating a tasting room that’s modeled after those of traditional craft distilleries.
Wilderton opened its alcohol-free tasting room in Hood River, Oregon, in the summer of 2023. Seth O’Malley and his co-founder, Brad Whiting, both started in the world of traditional spirits, and brought their knowledge of consumers and distillery experiences to their new endeavor.
“What was so important to us and something that we never questioned is: If you’re starting a spirits business and you want to be successful, you have to have a tasting room,” O’Malley says. “We wanted to create a space where people could meet us and also understand the production process better.” He adds that the sensory experience is key. “What we do is botanical in nature. We use a lot of really interesting botanicals. To not allow people to come in when we’re brewing and extracting and distilling those things felt like a disservice.”
Wilderton looks like any other craft spirits producer: There are shiny tanks, steaming tuns, pallets of stacked boxes, and a still. “I took pains to create a visually straightforward and unclever production cellar for people to see the process,” O’Malley explains. “We are a regular old distillery. Oh, and by the way, it happens to be nonalcoholic.” And just like a regular distillery tasting room, Wilderton offers tastings of its different offerings and a variety of cocktails.
Those similarities provide a familiar point of reference for consumers attuned to craft spirits. Even if they’re surprised to discover that Wilderton is alcohol-free, O’Malley says that almost everyone sticks around to learn more. “People respond with curiosity and openness,” he notes.
Of course, given its non-alcoholic nature, Wilderton sees a huge bump in sales during periods of heavy sobriety. “January is our OND,” O’Malley says. “We can see that via online sales, even if people can’t make it to our tasting room.”
Meeting Consumer Needs
Without a crystal ball, there’s no way to be certain that the low-and-no-alcohol movement will continue growing, though it seems likely. The current craft distilling environment is fraught with anxiety about declining spirits sales and Gen Z’s seeming preference for cannabis over alcohol. Even if sober-curious trends remain static, they’ve already made significant inroads among the legal-drinking-age population: In 2024, more than half of consumers aged 21 to 54 said they were somewhat to very likely to participate in Dry January, according to CivicScience. That number went up to 75 percent for consumers aged 21 to 24.
In other words, hospitality venues — including tasting rooms — would be wise not to ignore the trend. And craft distillers are especially well-positioned to proactively meet it, since so many are in close contact with their consumers on a day-to-day basis and work to offer them unique, flavorful drinking experiences. Distillers don’t have to make their own non-alcoholic spirits in order to serve guests who aren’t drinking, but they should take people seriously when they express a desire to imbibe less alcohol, but still drink well. It’s not enough just to offer a Coke or club soda.
“There’s definitely a market out there for alcohol-free spirits,” Rehorst says. He notes that many on-premise accounts are still only offering sodas or “kiddie cocktails” to abstinent adults. “I say, what if they could enjoy a Tom Collins without the alcohol? It’s a nice upsell. And it’s unique.”
