Can I Get A DUI From Non-Alcoholic Beer?

Some of life’s great mysteries may never be solved. What happened to Amelia Earhart? How was Stonehenge built? Is Elvis really alive and living on an island somewhere?

Others, though, are a little easier to parse out—like “can I get a DUI if I was only drinking O’Doul’s?”

Non-alcoholic beer isn’t exactly a huge seller at bars, but many people do enjoy knocking back a cold one, especially if they’re prohibited from drinking alcohol due to medications or a court order (there are other reasons, too). But if you’ve had a few non-alcoholic beers and you get pulled over, could you end up in hot water?

Non-Alcoholic vs. Alcohol-Free

Though the name “non-alcoholic” may give you the idea that there’s zero alcohol in your near-beer, that’s not exactly true. The difference between a drink that is “alcohol free” compared to one that is labeled “non-alcoholic” can be as much as half a percent.

That means that if you had enough non-alcoholic beers (or glasses of non-alcoholic wine) it is entirely possible that your blood alcohol level would register as something above zero.

Still, you would probably have to suck down a lot of non-alcoholic beer or wine to raise your blood alcohol level to a substantial amount to incur a DUI, especially if you weren’t impaired.

DUI vs Open Container

That said, it’s probably not a good idea to drive around with a bottle of Beck’s at your side, in large part because it could be read as a violation of the open-container laws, which prohibit any open containers of any alcoholic beverage (even those which have just a half a percent of alcohol by volume). RCW 46.61.519 reads:

It is a traffic infraction for a person to have in his or her possession while in a motor vehicle upon a highway, a bottle, can, or other receptacle containing an alcoholic beverage if the container has been opened or a seal broken or the contents partially removed.

Depending on  the officer’s mood, they may consider an open bottle of .3% ABV to be enough to count under the law.

It’s unlikely that you’ll ever find yourself getting breathalyzed after drinking a glass of non-alcoholic merlot, but if you do, it’s a good idea (as always) to call an attorney as soon as possible. A criminal lawyer who’s well versed in DUI laws can help get the best possible outcome in your case, even if the reason you got stopped was a technicality.

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