By Damien and Jessica Zouaoui, Oakwell Beer Spa
If you cater events or plan them for a living, you’ve probably felt the ground shift.
The open bar isn’t the centerpiece it used to be. More guests are reaching for something non-alcoholic without a second thought, and they’re not apologizing for it. This isn’t a passing trend. According to a 2025 NCSolutions survey, nearly half of Americans—49 percent—planned to drink less in 2025, a 44 percent jump from 2023.
And in 2026, the trend continues, reaching across age groups and every kind of gathering, from a corporate luncheon to a milestone birthday.
Here’s the encouraging part: drinking less hasn’t meant gathering less. It’s meant gathering differently.
The same guests pulling back from alcohol are spending freely on experience and wellness. Despite making up roughly a third of U.S. adults, Gen Z and Millennials now account for an estimated 41 percent of all annual wellness spending—more than $500 billion in the U.S., growing 4–5 percent a year, according to McKinsey & Company. People still want to come together. They just want to leave feeling good the next morning.
Why We Named a Wellness Concept After Beer
We built Oakwell Beer Spa in Denver—and are now franchising it nationwide—around a small but important idea hiding in our own name.
Yes, there’s “beer” on the sign. Yes, there’s a taproom. But the beer was never really the point. Guests come for beer-infused hydrotherapy baths made with hops, barley and therapeutic herbs—not fermented beer—along with infrared saunas, rain showers and zero-gravity massage. The taproom rotates craft beer, wine, cider and a full slate of non-alcoholic options.
The social ritual is to “have a beer”—the invitation, the gesture, the reason to gather. The drinking itself is secondary. A craft IPA, a hop-water mocktail and a glass of cider all do the same job here: they’re the thing in your hand while the real point of the event unfolds around you.
For an industry built on hospitality, that’s a meaningful reframing. You’re no longer selling rounds. You’re selling the occasion.
The “Mixed” Crowd Is the New Normal
This is exactly what the sober-curious guest is looking for, and it solves a problem planners know well.
At almost any event today, the group no longer agrees on whether they’re “drinking” that night. Some will. Some won’t. The trick is designing an experience where no one feels like the odd one out for ordering a zero-proof option.
A venue or a menu built around an experience absorbs that mixed crowd gracefully. The self-guided format at Oakwell Beer Spa—no one-on-one therapist interaction required—does the same thing, giving younger guests the privacy and control they value. The same suite welcomes the craft-beer enthusiast, the sober-curious friend, the wellness seeker, and the couple after a different kind of date night.
Planning Events Around the Experience
For event planners, the appeal is flexibility. A milestone birthday, a bridal party, a team offsite, a friends’ reunion—each one lands differently than it would at a traditional bar or banquet hall, because the experience carries the evening rather than the alcohol.
Food is part of the equation, too. We allow outside food and catering to be brought in as part of a private group event, which gives planners the freedom to build a full evening around the experience rather than working around a rigid venue menu. We can accommodate everyone from two couples to groups of 35 for private events.
The lesson is portable, and you don’t need a beer spa to apply it. The group that once booked a bottle-service table is increasingly the group booking a shared experience—and they’ll spend on it, because it’s the kind of wellness-forward outing this generation has decided is worth the money.
Sober-Curious: Not a Passing Fad
It’s tempting to file “sober-curious” under passing trend. The spending says otherwise.
Wellness is one of the last categories consumers cut, even in today’s economy—more durable than entertainment or clothing. Layer on the “daycap” shift—where roughly a third of legal-age Gen Z favor earlier outings over late nights, according to a 2026 Bacardi survey—plus the move toward activity-centric occasions like games, workouts and concerts, and the direction is consistent. People want to gather earlier, healthier and around something to do.
Meet your guests where they are. Make the experience the headline, treat the drink as one option among many, and you’ll be catering to where the social scene is actually going—not where it used to be.
About the Authors
Damien and Jessica Zouaoui are the co-founders of Oakwell Beer Spa. To learn more about the Oakwell Beer Spa, visit Oakwell.com.
