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Beer For Bowser? It's Been Around For A While

Our friends at Morning Edition picked up on the news from Newcastle, England, that The Branding Villa pub has created a non-alcoholic beer for dogs and is inviting its customers to bring their four-legged friends in to have a pint or two.

Quite a few listeners seem to be clicking on Morning Edition's short report, so we set off in search of more on the story. As The Daily Mail explains, not only is the pub serving the meat extract-flavored brew for pups, it has also created a dog-friendly menu that includes a Sunday roast with "cat-flavored gravy" (calm down, everyone, it's actually "a beef stock with fish sauce").

But it seems that brewing a beer for dogs has been done before. Here in the U.S., there's Bowser Beer — a non-alcoholic brew made with malt barley and either beef or chicken. In the Netherlands, there's Kwispelbier — another beef and malt brew ("kwispel" is the Dutch word for wagging a tail, The Associated Press says).

So, if you wish to enjoy a round with Rover, options seem to be available.

As for cats: we're not coming across any non-alcoholic beer made especially for them. If you know of any, let us know in the comments thread.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.