This weekend is your last chance to snatch up the limited-edition, non-alcoholic lager created by Peking Duk and Sobah Beverages.
Canberra boys, Reuben Styles and Adam Hyde, are encouraging Aussies to get on the non-alcs in time for summer, protecting their physical and mental health by breaking bad pandemic drinking habits.
Non-alcoholic beverages may seem like an unusual choice for the electronic music sensation, who have most certainly been the soundtrack to big boozy nights across the continent. Even more so when considering these hometown rockers happen to own a block of the Melbourne bar scene.
However, Sobah’s mission to destigmatise sober socialising resonated with the duo, who have been riding the non-alcohol wave on tour for a while now, leading them to lend their creativity and taste buds to the new brew.
Their chosen secret ingredient? Lion’s mane mushroom.
“To get the cognitive stimulation flowing,” smiles Hyde.
Fake Magic is both an ode to the duo’s dance floor filler and the properties of the hero ingredient.
“Lion’s mane mushroom is something we’ve been a fan of for a while,” says Styles.
“It’s not magic mushrooms in the beer. It’s fake magic mushrooms that make you feel amazing but aren’t necessarily going to send you on a 10-hour trip into the mountains,” he laughs.
Hyde says he wants young fans to know there’s nothing wrong at all with not wanting to get out of it.
“If anything, It should be the other way around. Everyone has the right to choose,” he says.
“Everyone will love you just as much, if not more, because you’re not making a fool out of yourself.”
“And t’s going to be a hot summer,” adds Styles. “Getting completely blotto and dehydrated from booze is just going to absolutely kill you. Stay fresh, stay safe.”
Styles shared with Canberra Daily his own experience of drinking during lockdown.
“I feel like COVID went really quickly because I did probably overdo it a little on the booze in lockdown, because it made time fly, and it was just about getting through it.
“But there was a little piece of me saying ‘I need to change something’. Reducing alcohol intake was the smartest thing by a mile to do; I’m just an infinitely happier person all around,” says the Duk.
“It’s about getting more out of it, creating memories that you actually remember with your mates. Good banter, good conversations, good dancing, minus getting obliterated.”
“When you have a delicious alternative like Fake Magic Lager, then you got no excuses to not not drink,” says Hyde.
All proceeds from Peking Duk’s Fake Magic Lager will go towards Sobah’s work promoting First Nations culture, arts, language, and history.
“We literally could not think of anyone better to collaborate with,” says Hyde.
“Out of all canned beverages, Sobah is the one putting in the hard yards when it comes to helping First Nations communities,” agrees Styles.
He notes Sobah’s financial backing of halfcut.org, a charity buying back unprotected land in the Daintree Rainforest and returning it to the traditional owners.
“Which is just incredible because we could wait f**king a hundred years for Australia to take that kind of initiative.
“For Sobah to already be backing those kinds of movements makes it such a no-brainer on why we want to work with them.”
Peking Duk’s Fake Magic Lager is one of four collaborative products to launch exclusively on INGgoodfinds.market across the month. The online market opens on four Saturdays, coinciding with the launch of each product, until 19 November.
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