It may be “double refreshment” but there is “zero chance” of me drinking this.

A while ago I decided to stop using Untappd. You can read about that here and here – because they’re great pieces of writing and clicking on them will inflate the hit count for my blog.

The obvious benefit for me was the end of that compulsion to reach for my phone and check in every single beer I drank. Coupled with that was the uneasy feeling I got when I was having a beer at home downstairs and my phone was upstairs. The mild obsessive-compulsive in me could not rest until I’d walked upstairs to get the damn phone, just so I could check in a frigging beer and see if I won some imaginary badge.

Something I hadn’t really thought about when I kicked Untappd to the curb was the money it would save me. This, I only realised this week when I saw my local Dan Murphy’s was stocking DB Export Citrus (presumably they just call it DB Citrus in its New Zealand homeland).

Part of my Untappd compulsion included the need to buy any new beer I saw, because it represented a unique check-in. This included beers that I knew I wouldn’t like, beers that I would not buy were I not on Untappd.

And DB Export Citrus is a perfect example of this. I’m not going to make any judgment on the quality of the beer – because we have a rule here that you can’t do that without trying the beer first. But I can choose not to try a beer because I’m no fan of the style. And DB Export Citrus is a radler – and I HATE radlers. I’ve got a sweet tooth for almost everything else but when it comes to beer I don’t want them to taste soft-drinky.

In my Untappd days, I would have bought a bottle of this (maybe even a six-pack if I was feeling particularly stupid). But now that I’ve given up the check-in race I have no urge to buy a DB Export Citrus at all and so I save $3.89 (or $14.90 if I were stupid enough to buy a six-pack).

Without Untappd, I’ve returned to being a beer drinker and not a box-ticker.