Tim Jenkins

Tim Jenkins (Twitter @afbeerexplorer)  E-mail: Afbeerexplorer@gmail.com

Hi I'm Tim originally from South Wales but living in Gloucestershire.  I'm a single parent to a son.  So as you can imagine most my time is taken up with him but in my spare time I enjoy going to football and rugby games and gigs. 

Why Alcohol Free

Quite a few years back now I went through a tough situation with my ex which ended up with police getting involved and eventually me ending up with full custody of my son (4 at the time) .   As you can imagine this left me with little spare time.  But on the occasions that I did get spare time I tended to go out drinking and this would often lead to me drinking excessively and quite often becoming abusive to people I was with or even complete strangers.  I'd often wake up the night after with no recollection only to be reminded by friends what I had done.     For many years I thought I could control the drinking and change things but this never happened.    I'd stop for a few months and then think I could control it but start up again with the same result.   I have lost friends through this behaviour who I know have tried to help me but came to a point they couldn't help me if I didn't help myself. 

This all came to a head when I went for a weekend away to Krakow.  First night there I went out for a few beers ended up being persuaded by a lady to go to a strip club.   Where I paid for unlimited drinks and drank a lot of vodka which resulted in me waking up the following day with a lost phone and my bank account emptied.   

After this I realised I could not go on drinking like this I had a son who relied on me and couldn't keep getting in these states as it was only a matter of time before something happened.

Since then I have been diagnosed as having depression and realise a lot of the drinking was down to me trying to push feelings I had never really dealt with away. 

So I started to explore the alcohol free market.  To begin with it was in conjunction with alcoholic drinks in a way to cut my intake but has more recently been just alcohol free. 

I have discovered that most the things I was looking for in alcoholic drinks I can find in alcohol free.   I can still explore all the different tastes and the large range that is now available.    Just without the problem of ending up in a drunken mess. 


Whether I eventually go back to alcohol and just moderate better with a mixture of alcoholic and non alcoholic Beers  I don't know but for now alcohol free seems the best for me. 

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