Wekiva Island located at 1014 Miami Springs Drive in Longwood is an environmentally friendly spot on the Wekiva River. If you’re looking to have a good time with family or friends without overindulging Wekiva Island offers a variety of non-alcoholic beers, you can try!
Owner of Wekiva Island and retired engineer, Bill Weinaug Jr. created Wekiva Island to follow their three pillars: sustainability, education and art. Weinaug explained that a big part of what they do is not only to socialize and have fun but to also move the needle. Weinaug’s family and close friends help in all the work they do to maintain these values.
Weinaug remembers drinking in New York as early as the age of 18. However, he would originally drink before this with his mom and dad at their built-in basement bar. When he went to college at Penn State, he built a bar and once he moved to Jacksonville then Orlando he built another bar.
“Everywhere I’ve been in my whole life, I’ve had a bar,” said Weinaug. “It’s kind of like a social thing, I would invite friends over, you could tell I’m a people person, we would play games and that was just my life.”
However, it wasn’t until his daughter, Ashley Weinaug, planted a seed in his head. He explained that his daughter who is also very social and likes to party went cold turkey a couple of years ago.
“We were all like, you’re kidding,” explained Weinaug. “But she started to ask the question what if I go out and have fun with my friends but I come home and I’m not buzzed?”
Weinaug explained that this question is one of the main focuses of the term “sober curiosity”. As Dry January and Sober October become more talked about there is a bigger movement in America as the younger generations shift their views on alcohol consumption. How will alcohol affect my life and relationships?
Carrie Vanderhoef, Weinaug’s niece and Manager at Wekiva Island, who doesn’t partake in Dry January still chose to slow down drinking with her husband after COVID-19.
“I’m excited to see what is happening in the NA world, it’s a whole movement,” said Vanderhoef. “There’s a shift in the younger generations where they are not drinking like we did; there’s other options and they can still socially have fun.”
For Weinaug it’s not a challenge to go a month without drinking. What he will do is take part in Dry January and then drink light in February. He advises to drink responsibly and not to binge once the challenge is over.
While Weinaug’s daughter challenges him to Sober October and Dry January he explained that they have fun finding different bars with cool mocktail and NA beer options.
Doing these challenges inspired Weinaug to challenge Vanderhoef and their team at Wekiva Island to have a menu. Now they have around 12 “nana” beers as their family likes to call it that their customers can choose from year-round.
For their Otter Fest Wekiva Island likes to incorporate a sober station and include NA beers in whatever event they are holding because for them they want those options to be available to their customers beyond Dry January and to have a good time socially in whatever way they choose
