How big is that beer?
Alcohol content varies among beers; a 'facts' label may be next
Thursday, October 06, 2005 By Bob Batz Jr., Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Even if you really love beer, your beer can be too big.
Or too "huge," to use a term in vogue for "high alcohol."
Some of my favorite brews are powerful seasonals such as Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s Halloween-inspired Nosferatu and those Christmas-time treats, Great Lakes Christmas and Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale.
If you're sitting by a fire and slowly sipping one, any of those beers is a delicious experience.
But if you just want to have a beer or two after work and still be awake to do anything else, you might want to drink something a little less potent.
This hit me hard last month when I bought a case of the new canned beers from Oskar Blues Brewery in Lyons, Colo. In mixed cases made especially for Pennsylvania, where distributors must sell it by the case, the offbeat brewery offers a dozen cans each of its Dale's Pale Ale and Old Chub Scottish Style Ale. I wrote about the brews' Pittsburgh debut last month because canned craft beer is rare and Dale's had been named the top American pale ale in a New York Times tasting.
Both beers are quite tasty, but whoa -- on the night I tasted three of them, I woke up in the middle of the night with a dry mouth and a slight headache.
The next morning I looked up the alcohol content and the pale ale is
6.5 percent alcohol by volume and the Scottish ale -- whoa, 8 percent alcohol by volume.That's twice the alcohol content of some regular beer. Or "gonzo," as put by Oskar Blues.
But it's not an uncommon level these days, as certain brewers keep raising the alcoholic stakes. Oskar Blues has an Imperial India Pale Ale that weighs in at 9.2 percent alcohol by volume. At a recent farewell for a newspaper colleague, I sipped a 9 percent 90 Minute IPA (India Pale Ale) from Dogfish Head, which is renowned for its big brews (its 120 Minute IPA claims to be the biggest ever at an unbelievable 21 percent).
Alcohol can be measured two ways: by volume, which is the world standard, or by weight, which still is the legal standard in some states that regulate beer's alcohol content. Pennsylvania does not. According to Liquor Control Board spokesperson Molly McGowan, brewers don't have to, but they may print on packages the alcohol content as a percentage of volume only.
The federal government lets states determine whether to require alcohol content declarations, but currently is considering changes to labeling rules.
Some consumer groups have petitioned federal regulators that all alcoholic beverages should bear standard "Alcohol Facts" labels to show both percentage by volume and amount in fluid ounces per serving, as well as calories per serving, ingredients, the number of standard drinks per container and the U.S. Dietary Guidelines advice on moderate drinking for men and women. An extended public comment period ended on Sept. 26.
Tens of thousands of comments poured in, said federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau spokesman Arthur Resnick. "This is a hot topic," he said, noting that the final ruling could take some time.
Again, I love generally stronger craft beers and many of the big bruisers, but for a beer after raking leaves or while watching a football game, I'd rather have something less potent.
The English coined the term "session beer" for such brews, because you can drink a couple during a session with your buds at the pub and still make it home.
But being "mild" in alcohol content doesn't have to mean mild on flavor.
Here are a few ideas:
You could try many of a number of classic British brews of a style called "bitter" (though it almost never is). My beer buddy and I recently split a case of LongLeg (named for stilt-wearing hops pickers) from the U.K.'s Cameron's Brewing that is 4.8 percent alcohol by volume.
Beer aficionado Ed Vidunas also gets peeved about all the big beers, in part because he practices moderation because he's diabetic. He loves drinking "milds" on his trips to England.
We're planning to talk about this over a 3.1-percent alcohol dark mild made by Heavyweight Brewing Co. (and available at a few places locally, including the Sharp Edge in East Liberty and Mad Mex in Oakland).
Heavyweight, despite its name, is pushing the pendulum the other way with an experimental line of four draft-only milds it started releasing in July. As founder Tom Baker told the Celebrator Beer News, "I like to make beers nobody else is making."
There are a few voices out there for smaller beers -- or at least smaller glasses of big beers -- including Vecenie Beer Distributor salesman Tony Knipling, who agrees, "You don't need high alcohol to have good beer." Besides the Brits he carries, such as Bluebird Bitter at 4.2 percent, he suggests Harrisburg's Troeg's Rugged Trail brown ale at 4.4 percent and almost any pilsner such as Victory Prima Pils at 5.3 percent.
Don't think that darker beers are necessarily stronger: Canned "draught" Guinness Stout is 4.2 percent. Types that are high in alcohol include malt liquors and barleywines as well as brews described as "imperial" and "strong" or "double," "triple" or "quadruple." If the alcohol content isn't on the label, you should be able to get the percentage from your distributor or the brewery's Web site.
It pays to know about and respect the amount of alcohol you consume for reasons from DUI laws to health. There's no shortage of information about how abusing alcohol is bad for you. One food-for-thought Web site that focuses on alcohol in moderation is
Go to
Some quality choices that are widely available and below 5 percent including Pilsner Urquell at 4.3 percent and Anchor Steam at 4.9 percent. San Francisco's Anchor even makes an Anchor Small Beer, a revival of an old-recipe table beer, that's only 3.3 percent. (Interestingly, it's made by making a second brew from the mash, or malt, used to make its highest-test beer, 8- to 10-percent Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale.)
Alas, the Small Beer only comes in big -- 22-ounce -- bottles, packaged six to a case and not available here. One factor is, Pennsylvania requires beer to come in a case of 24, which, according to a brewery sales representative, "would obviously not sell in quantity."