What beer is everyone drinking?

Working round various breweries that deliver.

Currently it’s Hawkshead. Wheat beer, Gold and session ipa. No booze on a school night but I’ll enjoy a couple with a curry after tomorrow’s run.

I find a lot of the lesser known beers to be too much of a gamble so I stick with
Purity
Abbott
Hook Norton
Theakstons
London Pride

I’m enjoying a half pint of this.

Yes! Definitely going in for the Deya. I managed to get some reductions on here: https://www.curatorsofcraft.co.uk/deya… I think they are based close to Vocation as well.

Not sure about Special Brew, think it needs a hint of Citra to give it a clean finish 😉

Supermarkets are definitely upping their game. Any of the Morrisons in North Yorkshire are stocking North Brew stuff, which is massive win to go with my roll du-sausage.

Why so hard to get beer below or close to 4% ABV, sometimes you want a couple, even on a school night. In my youth, Newcastle Brown Ale was regarded as looney juice as it was stronger than average, but is “just” 4.7%. I do like the Belgians and wheat beers on occasion, but the whole US IPA and sours thing does nothing for me. Banks’s Amber Bitter is my standby, then I’ll go sample a few wildcards if we’re having a do.

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.