What’s ‘Dry January’? A Lafayette business offers sober options

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — With the start of the new year, there’s been a new buzzword traveling around town, that being, “Dry January.”

But what exactly is “Dry January?”

Rob Theodorow, owner of Generation NA, poses for a photo as he prepares his shop for “Dry January,” on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022, in Lafayette, Ind.

It’s a challenge where people give up drinking any alcoholic beverages for the month of January for either the health benefits or to test their willpower.

And at the end of the month, people will normally go back to their old drinking habits and go on with their year.

But this year, Rob Theodorow, the owner of Generation NA in Lafayette, is hoping to use this annual trend to help people transition from a dry January to a more sober lifestyle, without the need of removing beers or wines from their lives.

Generation NA, at 504 Main St., is Indiana’s first non-alcoholic brew and bottle shop and has a large variety of non-alcoholic beers, wines, mocktails and more in stock.

Bottles of non-alcoholic spirits that can be found at Generation NA, on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022, in Lafayette.

“Dry January is a way for people once they’ve indulged with the holidays, they eat like crap, they drink a lot of alcohol. It’s just a way for their body to reset for the year,” Theodorow told the Journal & Courier.

“A lot of people want to cut back on alcohol or cut it out completely and go sober for the month, just to get the benefits like sleep, anxiety, better skin, better liver health, save some money on the checkbook. It’s just kind of a good way to be more mindful of one’s health.”

The idea of the event was originally inspired by Emily Robinson, after she took a month off alcohol in January 2011 to prepare for a half marathon and noticed the health benefits during that month.

But when it comes to “Dry January,” it’s sometimes a hard task for people to drop beer or wines abruptly.

Theodorow understands this and wants to help offer people alternatives to help them through the month and conquer this new year’s challenge.

Bottles of non-alcoholic spirits that can be found at Generation NA, on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022, in Lafayette.

Theodorow offers a variety of options for people to try out, such as Guinness non-alcoholic draught, Giesen non-alcoholic sauvignon Blanc, CUT ABOVE Zero Proof Agave Blanco, and Mash Gang non-alcoholic beers.

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“When it comes to the idea of relaxing, people always think of alcohol. But alcohol is only one option. We have like a hundred options that they can choose to relax. We have options on our shelves that will have a nootropic, an adaptogen, CBD, or Delta 8 drinks,” he said.

“A lot of people still want to drink, but maybe they go from 20 beers a week to 10 beers a week, and they want to make half of those NA. So, they can still drink 20 beers, but rather than drinking water, they can mix and match and drink every other one with a non-alcoholic beer.”

In hopes of making non-alcoholic beverages more approachable, Theodorow will be inviting several non-alcoholic founders to offer free taste tests to the community at his downtown Lafayette shop throughout the month of January:

Theodorow is hoping that offering these events will give people an opportunity to try something new, whether it be non-alcoholic beverages or a non-alcoholic January.

To find out more information about the events going on at Generation NA, people can follow on their Instagram @generationna. Generation NA is open Tuesday to Friday from 12 to 6 p.m.; and on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: What’s ‘Dry January’? A Lafayette business offers sober options