2.8% real ales

[mmmmartin]

I prefer low alcohol bitter.
I believe that beer used to be mostly below 4% anyway.
I've also tried Tesco Value stuff

I agree. The Value stuff is quite tasty but you can still stand up afterwards. Shepherd Neame bitter was 3% and I grew up on it, good stuff. These strong beers are too much. Anyway, if I drink what Steve drinks, I'll be able to ride like him. Did I ever tell you that last year I got the same number of points as him? I was really pleased. OK, he got 81 points and I got 18, but the numbers were the same 

[Ewan Houzami]

I used to brew the odd pint. That seems a tad chere or have I lost the cost plot?

Start-up costs including bottles, keg, heating belt, and a humungous stockpot. I'll start to save money by the fourth batch. If I can drink that much!

[Dinamo]

Bought some Sainsburys Basics Bitter today.
4 cans for 99p.  2.1 % ABV.

Tastes ok, but does obviously lack any depth of flavour, drinkable though 

[Fast Bill]

Having grown up not far from Hartford End I do recall that Ridleys was usually considered to be like sex in a bath ...

[citoyen]

Eddie Gadd of the Ramsgate brewery is a pioneering spirit and brews some of my very favourite beers in the whole world. Last year, for larks, he brewed a low-alcohol bitter for the Planet Thanet Easter Beer Festival. Although by his own account, his first attempts were pretty disastrous, the beer that went on sale at the festival was a definite success. In the right hands, low alcohol needn't necessarily mean low flavour. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the festival myself but I heard good reports of it. He documented the experiment on his blog...
http://gaddsbeershop.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/28-worth-effort.html
http://gaddsbeershop.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/low-behold_12.html

I prefer low alcohol bitter. Bitter is a pretty good recovery drink and even better if it's low alcohol.

The German word for shandy is "Radler", which is also a Bavarian dialect word for cyclist... It's what I drink if an audax I'm on has a pub control. It's rocket fuel.

d.

[Bledlow]

I've never heard of these, but I'll keep a look out for them. Wasn't someone on here saying that beer has been getting progressively stronger since the early 20th century? In which case these beers might be like what people were drinking back in the 18th century!

Beer strength was declining at the start of the century, & dropped dramatically (due to government restrictions & shortages of materials) during WW1. It never regained its pre-war strength, & in WW2 the government required it to be weakened again.

It's been gradually getting stronger since the mid-20th century.

Average specific gravity, UK:
1900:  1055
1910:  1053
1919:  1031
1927:  1043

I'm pretty sure we're not up to an average of 5.5% ABV (rough equivalent of 1055 specific gravity) yet.


In the 18th century, there was a distinction between small beer (mentioned by some here already), which was weak, & drunk for refreshment, & stronger beers.