Charlie Sheen On The Launch Of Wild AF, His New Alcohol-Free Beer

After a seven-year-long hiatus, Charlie Sheen is back in the public eye. And as with anything involving the four-time Emmy Award-nominated actor (and legendary libertine), when he commits to something, he really commits. His reemergence this month is marked by three separate projects: a hit Netflix documentary, a raw and revealing memoir entitled, The Book of Sheen, and, now, his own line of beer—Wild AF.

Non-alcoholic beer, that is.

While Sheen’s passionate nature remains wholly in tact in this next chapter of life, his sobriety also plays a pivotal role in the reboot.

“I’m not calling it a comeback, I’m calling it a reset,” he tells Forbes.

To wit, Sheen’s been off the bottle for almost eight years. And so, the “AF” in the name of this new canned product stands for “alcohol free” — naturally. The “Wild” part is a reference to one of his most iconic roles in the hit baseball comedy, Major League.

To bring the liquid to can, Sheen enlisted the help of beverage industry all-star Ryan Perry, as well as Todd Christopher—an entertainment executive and entrepreneur. Teaming up over two years ago, the three co-founders went to work on developing a recipe. They partnered with Harpoon Brewery, a legend in its own field, with nearly 40 years of craft bonafides.

The lightly hoppy expression takes its flavor cues from a golden style ale. It flaunts tropical citrus aromas and a crisp, snappy finish characterized by subtly caramelized malt. To achieve this result, Harpoon administers a proprietary process that allows for full fermentation while simultaneously preventing advanced alcohol formation. It results in vibrant hop and malt character while capping the ABV at under .5%. Each can holds 68 calories and is expected to retail at $14 per six-pack.

Though it won’t hit shelves until early 2026, Sheen officially launched Wild AF with a YouTube ad late last week. It riffs on the cinematic trope of the McGuffin.

As you wait to get your hands on “the case,” you can whet your appetite with exclusive details on how it all came together in an exclusive Q+A with the actor below. But the introspective superstar shares much more than mere tasting notes. When it comes to all aspects of his life these days, fittingly, Sheen is an open book.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

There are so many different sub-styles of non-alcoholic offerings these days; NA Spirits, RTDs…Why did you decide to enter the sector with beer?

Charlie Sheen: “Because in my own taste experience, it’s really the only beverage that’s still identical to the original minus one specific element. I tried a lot the mocktails and a lot of the whiskey ‘lights’ or whatever they’re calling them. And a lot of it just tasted like liquid Now & Laters. At the end of the day you’re still wanting the thing it’s trying to be, right? With Wild AF, that’s exactly what you’re getting.”

Did you personally taste through a lot of beverages for the research and development on this?

CS: “I did. Our whole team did. I’d be in the supermarket and just grab a random one and then download it to the rest of the guys. We were all sort of out in the world just exploring the various offerings. And there’s some really good stuff out there. When I was drinking like I meant it, the last thing I was going to do was reach for an NA beer because what would be the point? But now, coming up on eight years off the bottle, I was so impressed with the progress of the technology of where it’s arrived and continues to be heading towards. We’re not trying to fool anyone here. We are trying to elevate the whole category.”

The timing is auspicious here with Wild AF launching right at the same time as your Netflix special and new book. Was this always the plan to launch it all in tandem?

CS: “Well, first of all, with the book, I think you’re going to enjoy it. It’s a fun read, is the feedback that I’m getting. People feel like they’ve stepped inside of a movie. They always say, ‘write to what you know,’ and I know movies…Along with a lifestyle that lead to some really compelling and funny stories, you know? But it’s important to point out that we didn’t try to capitalize on the moment. The beer and the book and the doc[umentary] all kicked off right around the same time—around two and a half, three years ago. And they were all churning in the same creative maelstrom.”

So it really was just a happy coincidence?

CS: “There was a mantra in my house with my kids about ‘book, doc, beer.’ They would come up to me and be like, ‘Dad, what’s up? Book, doc, beer.’ And I’m like, ‘Take it easy, man. I’m only one guy!’ It never felt like one of the three was taking away from the other two. But there were some days where I had to compartmentalize and meditate before each thing and say, ‘Okay, dealing with this thing now. The focus is here.’ What I didn’t want to happen was to get scattered and then everything suffers. We were able to navigate it surgically and give each project the time, the passion the energy that all three really demanded. But the timing worked out in such a way that I was ready to deliver the book right when [director Andrew] Renzi was ready to deliver the doc and then the beer was ready for the can. We just thought, if people are curious about what the hell I’ve been up to the past few years, then this is another item representing another passion project that was right in the heart of this whole reset. I’m not calling it a comeback, I’m calling it a reset.”

What will your involvement with Wild AF look like moving forward after launch?

CS: “I will be involved as much as I can while keeping an eye on the other projects. Some of those projects being my children, right? [laughs] So they are my first priority, obviously. But now it’s this next phase: doc released, book on the shelves, beer coming soon. So, I am turning my sights and my energies towards promoting book and beer. Because you can enjoy them both at the same time, which is pretty frickin’ cool. I’ll also be bringing this to concerts and sporting events, any other type of mass gathering place.”

What would be an ideal placement for the brand?

CS: “One of our goals—shoot for the stars and settle for the moon—is to be the official NA beer of Major League Baseball. If that became the case, I think we could declare that we have arrived. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure you could still drink a Wild AF after the seventh inning stretch. They do not sell [alcoholic] beer at that point. So, that would be a cool moment—you don’t have to retire your stein, just fill it with ours.”

But on a smaller scale, a sign of success here is simply some buddies cracking open a beer while watching the game?

CS: “Oh, absolutely. There are so many people that are having NA not because their life fell apart from booze; they just want to feel better and live healthier while still feeling like they’re connected to a beverage that is all things familiar for so many people. I think our beer goes with everything.

You speak of healthier lifestyle. Wild AF does an admirable job of keeping the caloric value down while sacrificing little to flavor. Did you pull your sleeves up and get into the lab for this formulation?

CS: “We didn’t want to be so, so low that it turned into brown bubbly water. But I like to feel like we hit the absolute sweet spot. As far as the science goes, I can’t sit here and pretend like I can make my own beer. I can co-found one [laughs], but I was in on the recipe development through every single stage from the very first tastings at Harpoon Brewery with Dan Kenary, the head guy, and his team of rockstars. They were getting an immediate sense of what I was responding to even though I couldn’t speak to it in their terms. So we just came up with this thing, ‘the Dig Factor.’ That’s how we narrowed it down, we got it down to like three that were a 10 on the ‘Dig Factor.’

Everybody involved here is kind of scattered about the country. How did you coordinate those tastings?

CS: “Yeah, I’m in Malibu. Harpoon’s in Boston. Todd’s in Westlake. Ryan’s in Chicago. It was really interesting doing taste comparisons and updates over Zoom. Because everybody was tasting at the same time. That’s how we kept that ball rolling.

Well, you made things logistically more complicated by choosing a brewery that happens to be on the opposite side of the US. Was there a compelling reason why you went with Harpoon as opposed to a brewery closer to home?

CS: “It was based upon the history they were steeped in. And I was told that they were all really good dudes—like, a really cool place to do business. Which is a very attractive factor. We’ve all wound up in jobs where the person we have to deal with is somebody we would never hang out with in real life. But I was following Ryan’s lead and Todd’s lead. And we could tell as soon as we rolled in and took a tour that there was a common vibe; that everybody was there for the right reasons. It was an easy conversation.

Was it obvious when you had all arrived at the winning recipe?

CS: “There was this thing, which happens in a lot of creative professions, when you know there’s a click. The click was internally audible and we could all feel it. We sat down one day with what we were really convinced was the recipe. We just knew it. I don’t know how else to describe it; it’s like when I’m working on a scene—especially a long one—and it’s finally memorized completely. It’s that same kind of feeling, where you’ve crossed this imaginary line and it’s this feeling of confidence and of satisfaction. We all simultaneously arrived at that moment. And I just said, ‘I’m signing off.’ And then the rest of the team was like, ‘So are we.’ It was bad-ass because sometimes you gotta, like, look to the guy to the left and you’re on the fence. But when that click was a shared moment we knew it was time to launch the rocket.”

That’s often the most compelling part of the artistic process. How does a painter know to stop adding brushstrokes? How does the musician know to stop adding instruments?

CS: “I think that’s what separates the extraordinary from the ordinary. Because I don’t think you can teach that. You can talk about it but until you live inside of that experience you won’t know what it feels like. It’s an innate thing and it’s weird that it happened with this, because I would expect it to be a little more mechanical, for lack of a better word. But it wasn’t. It touched that artistic thing. I was just talking about learning a scene, but even performing a scene. Or doing something great on a sports field. When rhythm and footwork and balance are in poetic concert, then you’re inside that moment. That’s why we’re confident that we’re not just throwing something out there because it’s the trendy thing to do right now. No, this is a company I want my kids to run one day.”