It wasn't just WW I and taxation that drove down British beers gravities. Public taste and changing fashion payed a part, too. As did being able to drink considerable quantities without getting plastered.
"People generally drink much more beer now than ever they did but the proportion of alcohol consumed is not any greater. Statistics of all countries show this, even in spirit drinking countries, ie that the amount of alcohol consumed per head is a steady quantity. The beer brewed now is much lighter than the beer of former days. Men will have beer. Coalheavers and all who want a quantity of drink don’t care for water but on the other hand they don’t want to get drunk. they are insisting more and more on a light beer. Brewers are now recognizing this demand. The great bulk of beer drunk is "four ale". Those higher in the social scale who have no extraordinary thirst to quench prefer something heavier. They drink less in quantity but as far as alcohol is concerned there is not much to choose between the two."
Interview with Mr Reeve, manager of Truman, Hanbury and Buxton's Brewery, Brick Lane, 22 October [1897] (Booth B348, pp62-69) http://booth.lse.ac.uk/notebooks/b348/jpg/62.html
It wasn't just WW I and taxation that drove down British beers gravities. Public taste and changing fashion payed a part, too. As did being able to drink considerable quantities without getting plastered.
Ron, I find this a little hard to understand. Wasn't four ale at least 5% ABV if not more? How could people drink more of it than formerly yet not take in more alcohol?
ReplyDeleteHow could, also, a beer be more heavy yet not stronger in alcohol? Does he mean sweeter (less attenuated), using the terms in a Scots way?
I find the use of the term light inconsistent in the 1800's. At different times it seems to have meant lower in alcohol, body or colour.
Gary
The heavier beers were stronger according to the quote. Manual workers drank large quantities of light, refreshing beer. Other people drank stronger beer, but less of it.
ReplyDeleteGary, at 5% ABV four ale was a relatively weak beer. 30 or 40 years earlier an X Ale would have been considerably stronger.
ReplyDeleteOkay got the first point, I hadn't realized gravities had declined even by then, thanks.
ReplyDeleteBut on the second, doesn't he say at the end that the heavier beer is the same in alcohol as the lighter ("there is not much to choose between the two")?
Gary
"doesn't he say at the end that the heavier beer is the same in alcohol as the lighter ("there is not much to choose between the two")?"
ReplyDelete"They drink less in quantity but as far as [ie total consumption of] alcohol is concerned there is not much to choose between the two."
This means that the total alcohol consumed by the two groups is the same (approximately) - one group drinks larger quantities of weaker beer, the other drinks less quantity of a stronger beer.
In the end it more or less evens out.
OK now?
"I find the use of the term light inconsistent in the 1800's. At different times it seems to have meant lower in alcohol, body or colour."
ReplyDeleteYou'll find the term "light" still used in Britain to mean exactly the same things today, I'm afraid.
Rod, you're right, thanks.
ReplyDeleteGary