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Those light beers are also low ABV, which is ideal for warm summer days where to just want something refreshing without getting plastered. A simple tasting 4% b

Those light beers are also low ABV, which is ideal for warm summer days where to just want something refreshing without getting plastered. A simple tasting 4% beer works great for that. A complex, bitter 12% double IPA? Not so much. I’d much rather drink an amber ale on a nice warm day than yet another IPA.

giantg2 3y ago
Just a point to the marketing and shifting norms... I would call a 4-5% beer normal, not low, ABV.
- jamiek88 3y ago
  5% used to be considered high or an ‘export’ lager when I was a lad. We called Stella Artois at a massive 5.2% “wife beater”. Typical session lagers like Heineken were around 3.5%.
  - bartread 3y ago
    Yeah, I'd call normal anywhere between 3.5 - 5%, with session beers being anything < 3.5%. Anything above 5% is strong and where, 15 years ago, beers used to top out at around 6.5% in your average supermarket (Carlsberg Special Brew aside), nowadays beers at 8 and 9% are commonplace, although perhaps not to the extent they were 5 - 8 years ago. A lot of these are just too much, and too weird (as I and many others have commented), for day to day drinking. Nowadays I mostly drink session beers because I normally have to worry about driving, getting up early, or functioning in some at least semi-useful way later in the day.
    - jamiek88 3y ago
      Jesus, that ‘speccy brew’ burning tyre taste. We got a couple cans once when properly skint and choked them down. Some of these 12% burned hops ipa’s taste like special brew to me.
      - bartread 3y ago
        > Jesus, that ‘speccy brew’ burning tyre taste. Yeah, it's basically undrinkable. It was a bit of a staple at 6th form parties in the early 90s because it was cheap and strong, although I always struggled to get it down. I did buy a can many years later to try for a laugh as a fully fledged adult (is it really as bad as I remember, etc.?)... and couldn't finish it. Just awful.
yamazakiwi 3y ago
To take that one step further I think most new drinkers find seltzers more refreshing in the heat than low abv light beers.
- throwawaymobule 3y ago
  Worth noting that most 'hard seltzers' like whiteclaw are still brewed sort of like beers for tax reasons. Since brewed drinks have less excise on them than premixed drinks.
  - fennecfoxy 3y ago
    Well nah, the ingredients just like "alcohol": https://ussupport.whiteclaw.com/en/support/solutions/articles/36000315332-what-are-the-ingredients-and-nutrition-information-of-white-claw-hard-seltzer-surge-#:~:text=Ingredients%3A%20Purified%20carbonated%20water%2C%20alcohol,%2C%20citric%20acid%2C%20sodium%20citrate https://ussupport.whiteclaw.com/en/support/solutions/article.... You could argue that the alcohol in it was fermented, but all alcohol is fermented, aha. Apparently WC base alcohol is a pure spirit "5 times distilled from corn & gluten free".

giantg2 3y ago

Just a point to the marketing and shifting norms... I would call a 4-5% beer normal, not low, ABV.

jamiek88 3y ago
5% used to be considered high or an ‘export’ lager when I was a lad. We called Stella Artois at a massive 5.2% “wife beater”. Typical session lagers like Heineken were around 3.5%.
- bartread 3y ago
  Yeah, I'd call normal anywhere between 3.5 - 5%, with session beers being anything < 3.5%. Anything above 5% is strong and where, 15 years ago, beers used to top out at around 6.5% in your average supermarket (Carlsberg Special Brew aside), nowadays beers at 8 and 9% are commonplace, although perhaps not to the extent they were 5 - 8 years ago. A lot of these are just too much, and too weird (as I and many others have commented), for day to day drinking. Nowadays I mostly drink session beers because I normally have to worry about driving, getting up early, or functioning in some at least semi-useful way later in the day.
  - jamiek88 3y ago
    Jesus, that ‘speccy brew’ burning tyre taste. We got a couple cans once when properly skint and choked them down. Some of these 12% burned hops ipa’s taste like special brew to me.
    - bartread 3y ago
      > Jesus, that ‘speccy brew’ burning tyre taste. Yeah, it's basically undrinkable. It was a bit of a staple at 6th form parties in the early 90s because it was cheap and strong, although I always struggled to get it down. I did buy a can many years later to try for a laugh as a fully fledged adult (is it really as bad as I remember, etc.?)... and couldn't finish it. Just awful.

yamazakiwi 3y ago

To take that one step further I think most new drinkers find seltzers more refreshing in the heat than low abv light beers.

throwawaymobule 3y ago
Worth noting that most 'hard seltzers' like whiteclaw are still brewed sort of like beers for tax reasons. Since brewed drinks have less excise on them than premixed drinks.
- fennecfoxy 3y ago
  Well nah, the ingredients just like "alcohol": https://ussupport.whiteclaw.com/en/support/solutions/articles/36000315332-what-are-the-ingredients-and-nutrition-information-of-white-claw-hard-seltzer-surge-#:~:text=Ingredients%3A%20Purified%20carbonated%20water%2C%20alcohol,%2C%20citric%20acid%2C%20sodium%20citrate https://ussupport.whiteclaw.com/en/support/solutions/article.... You could argue that the alcohol in it was fermented, but all alcohol is fermented, aha. Apparently WC base alcohol is a pure spirit "5 times distilled from corn & gluten free".