Low-Test

This will probably earn me the scorn of the hard-drinking LGM crew, but I was very interested to see this post on the return of low-alcohol beers. I may have written about this type of thing before, but while there is definitely a place in the world for an 8 or 9% ABV beer, there is also plenty of room for very tasty brews with 4 and 5% ABV. There are more reasons to have a beer than to get loaded, but these days it’s very easy for quality beers to sneak up on you. To take an example, I am highly enamored with the Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. It’s extremely delicious. It’s also 10% ABV. If it were 5-6%, I would drink more of them and be willing to pay the same price.

In reading down the article, I was interested to note that New Belgium is going to build a brewery in the east, either in the rising hipster capital of Asheville or in Philadelphia. This means New Belgium will finally be available in the east. Of course, the least desirable thing about this is that people in the east will be excited to drink Fat Tire, arguably the most overrated beer on the American continent. Despite this, New Belgium’s 1554 is excellent and they do a great job with lighter beers so this is good to see and will be a welcome addition to the shelves of Rhode Island. In looking at the New Belgium distribution map, I was amused to see they are all over the west and increasingly the south but refuse to distribute to Utah or Oklahoma. I’m sure Utah has to do with the low ABV laws, but Oklahoma, I don’t know what that’s about.