We Poured Non-Alcoholic Cocktails at a Craft Beer Festival. Here's What Happened.
GLDN SVN at the 2026 Hamlin Craft Beer Festival
March 28th was our first public appearance and we couldn't have asked for a warmer reception.
We set up our bar on a blustery day at the Hamlin Craft Beer Festival, surrounded by local breweries and community hot spots, beverage vendors, a crowd of over 1,000 people who came to drink beer, and a lot of genuine curiosity about what GLDN SVN was doing there.
That curiosity turned into conversation. Conversation turned into orders, and somewhere in those few hours we served nearly 200 non-alcoholic cocktails.
We walked away with an endless list of learnings. We discovered that a sizable amount of people were non-drinkers attending with friends, a spouse, or partner. Then there were the flavor explorers and sober-curious folks who loved being able to switch between alcoholic and non-alcoholic options. The main theme among the flavor-exploring crowd: GLDN SVN challenged what they thought they knew about non-alcoholic drinks. The expectation was juice. What they got was something else entirely.
The enthusiasm didn't stop there. People wanted to know where our brick-and-mortar was, where they could buy the cocktails, and where we were popping up next.
Coming back for another round of Black Ginger Mules because you can never have too many.
What We Learned
On a windy day, you can never have too much weight on your tent (filed under: things we know now).
We're still learning and building, and every event, tasting, or pop-up gives us an opportunity to refine the recipes, systems, and experience.
But here's what this event confirmed for us: the non-alcoholic and zero-proof space isn't a niche, it's a movement, and there's plenty of data to back up the growing interest in elevated non-alcoholic beverages.
Non-alcoholic and zero-proof spirits are still in their infancy. Brands are creating genuinely beautiful products: complex, layered, botanical. But working with NA spirits is its own craft. They behave differently than their alcoholic counterparts. Some require more ingredients to reach the right balance. More thought. More iterations. Tighter curation. And all of it still has to sit on the same foundation of mixology principles that guides everything we do at GLDN SVN.
A passionate founder describing flavor profiles
GLDN SVN is a non-alcoholic and zero-proof botanical cocktail concept based in Horizon West, FL. We build menus grounded in mixology, sourced from premium NA spirits, and served with the same intention you'd expect from any great bar.
A new friend coming back for a third GLDN Black Ginger Mule
The Event
The Hamlin Craft Beer Festival is organized by Legacy for Education, a nonprofit committed to supporting education in our community. That afternoon, they raised over $13,000. As their founder puts it: " it takes a village to raise the next generation. " We were beyond grateful to be part of that village, even in a small way.
Being a non-alcoholic and zero-proof brand at a craft beer festival is a real test. While some folks were looking for non-alcoholic options, most weren't. They came for craft beer, but chose GLDN SVN, stayed for a conversation, and left with a smile.
Event figures shared with permission from Legacy for Education and reflect the March 28, 2026 Hamlin Craft Beer Festival.
Can you have just one Black Ginger Mule?
The crowd-pleaser: The Elderflower 75
