What beer is everyone drinking?

Why so hard to get beer below or close to 4% ABV

it isn’t. At all. There will be plenty of breweries local to you offering 3.x% ales, they’re a staple and always have been. Even the trendy craft breweries do them now (or even lower) as “table” or “small” beers.

Why so hard to get beer below or close to 4% ABV

Session IPAs are usually close to 4% - Brewdog Dead Pony Club, Beavertown Neck Oil, Mondo Little Victories, Vocation Heart and Soul or Life and Death Session Edition. Ideal for a school night. I've also found that the Flavourly mixed cases are all pretty much session strength - strongest in this case is 4.8%, most are less.

Had a bottle of Lidl Porter last night (branded as Hatherwood?), it was really quite good.

Brewdog Dead Pony Club, Beavertown Neck Oil, Mondo Little Victories, Vocation Heart and Soul or Life and Death Session Edition

All leaning to the USA IPA style, or marketing as such. We have good pubs here, so I can get good beer out, but less choice in the supermarkets. Maybe I should do more mail order or carry-out.

branded as Hatherwood

don’t be fooled, it’s Shepherd Neame (brewed just down the road from me!) I’m sure it’s fine, they know how to make beer, but it’s basically OEM beer punted out in a discount supermarket, it’ll be made to hit a price point and general flavour profile, basically the exact opposite of craftsmanship 😀

but less choice in the supermarkets. Maybe I should do more mail order or carry-out.

yes, supporting local breweries is always favourite over generic supermarket piss! Most real-ale style pubs will do takeaway, I’m sure your local brewery will do delivery and/or collection too (since Covid they pretty much all do now!)

Why so hard to get beer below or close to 4% ABV

Try looking. Because of tax, 3.8-4.2abv is far more common, 4.8is on the higher end. Wadworth’s 6X which is a staple of one of our oldest local breweries, used to be 5.0abv, but dropped down from that ages ago, in fact it’s now 4.1, 4.3 in cans and bottles.

They do a 6X Gold, which is 4.5, Bishop’s Tipple, which is 5.0, Horizon, which is 4.0, IPA which is 3.6, Swordfish which is 5.0, and Old Timer, which is 5.8!

Lots of choice, from just one of many breweries local to me, there’s even one about a couple of hundred metres from my regular pub in Melksham.

don’t be fooled, it’s Shepherd Neame (brewed just down the road from me!) I’m sure it’s fine, they know how to make beer, but it’s basically OEM beer punted out in a discount supermarket, it’ll be made to hit a price point and general flavour profile, basically the exact opposite of craftsmanship

Erm, I wasn't fooled and I just wanted a nice beer while watching TV - which this was.

The bottled IPA they make for Lidl is also really nice and I'll continue to buy it, ta.