In 2024, says beer expert Mark Dredge, big flavour doesn’t have to mean high strength
Beer school.
If you could time-travel back to the mid-1800s, step inside a pub and order a pint of the most popular beer, you’d likely be handed something dark and strong – probably 6% alcohol by volume (ABV) or more. That was the normal strength of mild ale, the most common beer at that time, and it’s quite different from the pale 4% ABV beers you’re most likely to find today.
Our preferences for beer change generation by generation, with many influences having an impact. It could be changes in our working lives (when there were more manual jobs, those stronger ales combined sustenance with refreshment, and we drank them all day long, while today the lunchtime pint is a thing of the past and we get enough calories from our diet). It could be changes in laws or social pressures (tax changes, ingredient restrictions during war, crackdowns on drink driving, health consciousness). It might be new brewing processes and ingredients (efficiencies in breweries led to lighter, brighter beers; we became lager drinkers; modern hops give us beer with more intense fruity aromas).
Today British beer is well known for being thirst-quenching, often fruity in aroma and with a depth of flavour, all while being around 4% ABV. Now new trends are giving us beers with even more hop aroma and even less alcohol, which seems to be the coming thing for 2024: lots of new and flavoursome beers under 3.4% ABV. markdredge.com
Find more beer selections at deliciousmagazine.co.uk/beerschool
3 TO TRY
GIPSY HILL BANDIT, ENGLAND 3.4%
Brewed in south London, this gluten-free p
