The next time you go to Dancing Grain Farm Brewery, beer isn’t the only thing that’ll be on the menu. This summer, the brewery introduced a new line of lightly carbonated, zero-calorie, zero-sugar, non-alcoholic functional beverages that may just change the way you show up for others—and yourself.
“IMAGO came from a really personal place for me,” Dancing Grain owner Rachel McDermott says. “After I had my second son last August, I hit a point where the weight of everything I was trying to be really caught up with me—mom, wife, sister, friend, business owner, farmer, employer. I had this moment where I thought, I should feel so grateful. I worked so hard for this life. So why do I feel like I’m barely present in it?”
That realization led her to re-evaluate her relationship with alcohol, and to consider all those moments in a day that you don’t appreciate until they’re gone: Sitting with your kids. Laughing with your husband. Having dinner with friends. Being outside on a beautiful night. “I wanted to actually be there for those moments,” she says. “I wanted my attention to be there.”
IMAGO, she says, was born out of that idea. The beverage itself doesn’t drink like a beer, soda, or typical seltzer. The carbonation is intentionally soft, and ingredients include mushrooms, amino acids, chamomile, and magnesium. The canned drinks come in flavors like Pineapple + Mango + Lime and Hops + Lemon Balm, and each serve a different purpose, such as focus and energy, and winding down. They’re meant to be sipped straight from the can, or used as a base for mocktails. For now, you can get them at Dancing Grain in Gansevoort, but McDermott has big plans to partner with boutique hotels, wellness destinations, cafés, specialty markets, fitness studios, and bars with thoughtful nonalcoholic programs to carry or serve the product.
“The more I talked with my husband and our friends, the more I realized this wasn’t just my experience, or even just a woman’s experience,” McDermott says of the thinking that inspired IMAGO. “A lot of us are overwhelmed, distracted, stretched thin. IMAGO isn’t about becoming someone completely different. It’s about becoming more fully yourself.”
