Do you mean that the inflationary process on the ABV for beers over the past couple of decades now appears to have plateaued and is now on the downward slope again? It seemed as if a number of brewers were prioritising the ABV over the taste but doubtless that had a lot to do with market demand. You could probably highlight a similar tend in wines also but I think they're probably a few years behind the curve on this one and it won't reduce to the same extent just yet.
With that said if you're drinking Stella for the effect rather than the taste (there's a golden opening for any beer snobs) then I can appreciate you not being especially happy if you've got to drink more to get the same effect.
Not sure if I've read you right, but I think it's wrong that beer should be taxed based on its abv. But, I'm a craft brewery fan and they'll feel the costs of high taxation more acutely than the major players IMO.
I wouldn't say that breweries 'prioritising' ABV (at least in terms of making it higher) over taste. I think the only prioritisation going on was cost vs. everything else which is why we are seeing less raw materials being used (though, the recent poor hop yields haven't helped I suppose). Good luck having a major brewery come out with a
strong beer, and not having their name and reputation dragged through the mud.
There has been a marked shift in advertising towards lower abv drinks, though I do think that this has died off of late. Becks Vier, Stella 4 and Carling C2 are the main proponents of this, and there is plenty of low strength wine around. Is this a reflection upon society? No, it's a reflection of the breweries trying to create a market to cash in.
I'm not sure that the few that drink Stella (or any other beer) for the 'effect' are going to really notice a very small drop in ABV. Sure, if they shifted Super Tennent's from 9 to 4.5, then I'd understand this viewpoint but a shift from 5% to 4.8%? No chance.
Local shops "import it" because it's cheap and generally tastes better. I work in the convenience sector, although not in shops but I still speak to lots of shop owners and a lot of them do this purely for price. Some may not even pay VAT on it
As for the taste a few of my mates have done a taste test and most of us picked the Imported stuff , Original stella and the new 4.8% version.
IMO heineken is the most obvious in taste difference along with Ashai brewed under licence in the UK against the Japanese version
If you hadn't noticed I enjoy a Lager
Well, those shops are pretty unscrupulous and shouldn't be doing that. I don't know of any shops local to me that import a branded beer that you can get in the UK easily for reasons of cost. And I know a lot of off sales.
The trouble with tests is that they are very hard to conduct properly at home, as it's pretty hard to control all the variables. Though, I'm not doubting you can prefer one over the other; I question the level of preference. I reckon if I gave you 3 glasses of imported Stella and 3 glasses of British brewed Stella and didn't tell you that one was imported and one was 'local', then you wouldn't be able to tell a difference.
I wouldn't drink Heineken or Ashai, so couldn't really comment. But how they can make Ashai anything but boring and bland I do not know.
everything else you could get 8 cans for £8 but all taste nasty and just end up in the loo.
