Mid strength beer

I’ve always been a fan of real ale and one of the things I like about it is the low strength.   I love the flavour of beer but quite often I don’t want to get drunk whilst enjoying a tasty jar – so this has always worked well for me.

In olden times in Europe fermented drinks were drunk all day as a way of preventing nasties from giving you food poisoning – but the key to this was that they were extremely low strength – so that people could get work done.

Whilst visiting a supermarket this week I was delighted to notice a whole new ‘mid strength’ section that is in reaction to the government’s plans to tax per % of alcohol.  I bought a massive selection, some of them ok (not sure Guinness works at 2.8%) and some of them pretty nice like Tolly English Ale.

I’m hoping that this will bring more drinkers to real ale since it is a drink that works so well at this percentage.  Lager starts to get a bit watery this low, although I enjoy it anyway.  The only problem is after getting used to this some Munchner Weissbier does blow your head off!

Anyway here’s an article from the Guardian with some more info about the government legislation:

Low-alcohol beers are now cheaper than their more alcoholic equivalents, thanks to a 50% cut in duty announced by the chancellor in the budget – which took effect last October – for those of 2.8% ABV and less.

Happy mid strength drinking!