Ah, yes. It’s definitely not that standardized here. Like pkbites says, the corner pub is not likely going to have ABVs listed. I wouldn’t go so far as to say only the fancier places will have it; quite a few of your typical suburban restaurant chains seem to have it, too, but it is a more recent thing (within the last decade). You may even find calorie count information on the menu–this seems to be becoming more and more popular, but still is on the rare side. But any “beer bar” or gastropub should have ABV info (at least in my experience around here in Chicago.)
Yes, beers in that range from the craft industry here in the US are, indeed, typically difficult to find. They certainly do exist (like in my previous menu that had a 3.5% beer on the menu. And one of the reasons I like Goose Island brewpub here in Chicago is they almost always have an English Mild or ordinary bitter or something in the under 4% ABV on tap.) But they are rather uncommon. Even something like Founders All-Day IPA, which is intended to be a session IPA (hence the name), is only a little bit shy of 5%, at 4.7%. Under 4% is nearly unheard of.
It is something that annoys me a bit about the industry here. I assume it’s mostly consumer demand–that American beer drinkers generally want “bigger” beers, with more alcohol, more in-your-face flavors, and more bang-for-buck, but I wonder if it’s not a bit of a feedback loop, too, that people think they want it because breweries make it, and breweries make it because people think they want it. I keep thinking there’s a low ABV beer trend around the corner, but I’ve been thinking that for a couple of years now, and I’m not seeing any definite wide-scale push to that. Currently, the beer trend has been sours. (Or most recently, that’s been the trend. I haven’t noticed if it’s moved on to something else since, but sours have become quite represented on beer menus in the past two or three years where a decade ago, they were nearly non-existent. I enjoyed sours back then, but there were maybe three Belgian brands and one German brand I could find. Now there are dozens and dozens domestic ones to choose from at my local giant liquor store.)
“5%” means the same thing everytime you drink the same beer, but out of interest note that a “7.5%” wine is actually an 8% wine: they are given some latitude in the description, and always blend up to the top of the range. I would be surprised if the same isn’t true for beer.
This is correct. For wine below 14% ABV the variation can be +/- 1.5%. Above 14% the tolerance drops to 1%.
For beer it’s .3%. The exception is for non-alcoholic brews which cannot exceed .5% ABV. This is per United States federal law. YMMV if you’re somewhere else.
Heh. During the last 4 years of my first career I was a compliance investigator on the vice unit. I actually had to know all this even though I never ever used it. But there were questions about it on some of the tests I had to take to get certain certifications from the state Dept. of Revenue.
I think Duvel may well be the most dangerous beer known to man. I drank it once unaware at a friend’s house in Zaventem and nothing in the taste suggested it was anywhere near 8.5%.
I have lived 10+ years in Amsterdam and of cource you can find German and British beers in Amsterdam. My suggestion is that you leave The Red Light District and the tourist district and go to a pub where you can find the real dutch beer drinkers. .
Every other touristy area in Europe has German beer in their taverns. I know, I’ve been there. You’ll be hard pressed to find an abundance of people as well traveled as I*.
There are bad local beers too. Just because it’s made in Germany doesn’t mean it’s great just like all American beers are not shit. When I lived in Germany the local places had Eichbaum which was awful and Binding which was just passable. This is ancient history by now but then there was little or no variety. You ordered by type not brand because there was only one brand of each type. Weissen was always in bottles I don’t know if that’s changed. Often they also had Guinness on tap and knew how to pour it correctly.
It is on no way only in hipster or fancy places here. Many neighborhood places have local microbrew taps and have the alcohol content posted.
Not around here they don’t. Doll and I make it appoint to visit at least 2 bars we’ve never been to per month (this is Milwaukee. There’s a zillion of them!) in addition to the places we usually go. And very, very few have the ABV on the menu or the tap.
Not too long ago we were in Louisville and many of the bars there also didn’t have any listing for the ABV.
I make careful note of that because I rate beers on Ratebeer.com and if the correct ABV isn’t listed I correct it.
