Editing Small beer

{{Short description|Beer variety, with low alcohol content}}
{{for|related companies|Small Beer Press|Small Beer Brew Co.}}
{{Infobox drink
| name         = Small beer 
| image        = Bier bioshopenmout.jpg
| image_alt    =
| caption      = A modern [[Belgium|Belgian]] ''tafelbier''
| type         = Lager or ale 
| abv          = Between 0.5% to 2.8%
| proof        = 
| manufacturer = 
| distributor  = 
| origin       = Europe and North America
| introduced   = 
| discontinued = 
| colour       = 
| flavour      = 
| ingredients  = 
| variants     = 
| related      = 
| website      =
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}}

'''Small beer''' (also known as '''small ale''' or '''table beer''') is a [[lager]] or [[ale]] that contains a lower amount of [[alcohol by volume]] than most others, usually between 0.5% and 2.8%.<ref>{{cite web|title=Foods of England|url=https://www.foodsofengland.info/smallbeer.html|access-date=20 April 2025}}</ref><ref name="tdb" /> Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in [[Medieval Europe]] and colonial [[North America]] compared with more expensive beer containing higher levels of [[alcohol (drug)|alcohol]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/could-you-drink-beer-instead-of-water-and-still-survive-457081579|title = Could you drink beer instead of water and still survive?| date=20 March 2013 }}</ref> Small beer was also produced in households for consumption by children and by servants.

==History==
At mealtimes in the [[Middle Ages]], persons of all ages drank small beer, particularly while eating a meal at the table. It is hard to establish the associated alcoholic content, since systematic records of brewing practice do not exist much before the [[Georgian era]].

It was common for workers who engaged in laborious tasks to drink more than ten [[Imperial units|imperial]] [[pint]]s (5.7 litres) of small beer a day to quench their thirst. Small beer was also consumed for its nutrition content. It might contain traces of wheat or bread suspended within it. 

In 17th century England, it was an [[excise]] class which was determined by its wholesale price. Between the years 1782 and 1802, table beer was said to define that which cost between six and eleven [[shilling]]s per barrel and the tax on this class was around three shillings. Cheaper beer was considered ''small beer'' while the more expensive brands were classed as strong (big) beer. The differences between small beer and table beer were removed in 1802 because there was much fraudulent mixing of the types. 

Small beer was socially acceptable in 18th-century England because of its lower alcohol content, allowing people to drink several glasses without becoming [[Alcohol intoxication|drunk]]. [[William Hogarth]]'s portrait ''[[Beer Street and Gin Lane|Beer Street]]'' (1751) shows a group of happy workers going about their business after drinking table beer.<ref name=tdb>{{cite news|url=https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/11/ex-sipsmith-gin-duo-launch-first-brewery-dedicated-to-small-beer/|title=Ex-Sipsmith Gin Duo Launch "First" Brewery Dedicated to "Small Beer"|work=The Drinks Business|date=27 November 2017|access-date=25 March 2018}}</ref> It became increasingly popular during the 19th century, displacing [[malt liquor]] as the drink of choice for families and servants.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Brewing Industry in England 1700–1830|url=https://archive.org/details/brewingindustryi0000math|url-access=registration|author=Peter Mathias|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1959|page=xxv}}</ref>

In his ''A Plan for the Conduct of Female Education, in Boarding Schools'' published 1797, writer [[Erasmus Darwin]] agreed that "For the drink of the more robust children water is preferable, and for the weaker ones, small beer ...".<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rLVLAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA110| title = Page 110| last1 = Darwin| first1 = Erasmus| year = 1797| isbn = 9781535808552}}</ref> [[Ruthin School|Ruthin School's]] charter, signed by [[Elizabeth I]], stipulates that small beer should be provided to all scholars, and larger educational establishments like [[Eton College|Eton]], [[Winchester College|Winchester]], and [[Oxford University]] even ran their own breweries.<ref>{{cite book| last = Rogers| first = James E. Thorold| title = A History of Agriculture and Prices in England: From the Year After the Oxford Parliament (1259) to the Commencement of the Continental War (1793)| publisher = Cambridge University Press| volume = 5. 1583–1702| date = 2011| pages = 704–708| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tqlp9Z-URnUC| isbn = 9781108036559}}</ref> 

To a large extent, the role of small beer as an everyday drink was gradually overtaken in the British Isles by tea, as that became cheaper from the later 18th century.{{cn|date=April 2022}}

== Contemporary usage ==
Small beer and small ale can also refer to beers made from the second runnings from the stronger beer (e.g., [[Scotch ale]]). Such beers can be as strong as a [[mild ale]], but it depends on the strength of the original mash. This was an economic measure in household brewing in England until the 18th century, and still produced by some [[Homebrewing|homebrewers]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Brad |title=Parti-Gyle Brewing – Two Beers from One Mash Revisited |url=https://beersmith.com/blog/2015/05/22/parti-gyle-brewing-two-beers-from-one-mash-revisited/ |website=Beersmith |access-date=27 July 2023}}</ref> it is now only produced commercially in small quantities in Britain, and is not widely available in pubs or shops.

In [[Belgium]], small or table beer is known as ''bière de table'' or ''tafelbier'' and many varieties are still brewed there. Breweries that still make this type of beer include De Es of [[Schalkhoven]] and Gigi of [[Gérouville]] in the [[Province of Luxembourg]].<ref name=Oxford>{{citation |title=Table beer |page=783 |author=Tim Webb |work=The Oxford Companion to Beer |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-199-91210-0}}</ref> In the US, a Vienna lager was a popular table beer before [[prohibition in the United States|prohibition]].<ref name=Nelson>{{cite book|title=North Dakota Beer: A Heady History|author=Alicia Underlee Nelson|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2017|isbn=978-1-625-85919-8|page=38}}</ref> Small beers are also produced in Germany and Switzerland albeit using local brewing methods.

==In art and history==

===Literature===
{{ref improve|section|date=March 2018}}
Metaphorically, ''small beer'' means a trifle, or a thing of little importance.

* "Small ale" appears in the works of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]],{{efn|For example, in Henry IV part 2, scenes i-ii, Prince Hal makes fun of Falstaff, who braggingly quaffs pints of small beer and is never really drunk.}} [[William Makepeace Thackeray|William Thackeray]]'s ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)|Vanity Fair]]'', and in [[Edith Pargeter|Ellis Peters]]' [[Brother Cadfael]] series, and "small beer" appears in Thackeray's [[The Luck of Barry Lyndon|Barry Lyndon]].
* [[Graham Greene]] used the phrase "small beer" in the metaphorical sense in ''[[The Honorary Consul]]''. 
* When David Balfour first meets his uncle Ebenezer in [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s novel ''[[Kidnapped (novel)|Kidnapped]]'', Ebenezer has laid a table with his own supper, "with a bowl of porridge, a horn spoon, and a cup of small beer". The small beer, horn spoon, and the porridge, indicates Ebenezer Balfour's miserliness, since he could afford much better food and drink, but it may also be meant to convey the "trifle" meaning as an indication of Ebenezer's weak, petty character.
* In the song "There Lived a King" in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera ''[[The Gondoliers]]'', small beer is used as a metaphor for something that is common or is of little value.<ref>{{citation|url=http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/gondoliers/gn_lib.pdf|author=W.S. Gilbert|title=The Gondoliers|year=1889|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050610/https://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/gondoliers/gn_lib.pdf|archive-date= 4 Mar 2016|page=30}}.</ref>
* Cold small beer appears in ''[[The Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous)|Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism]]'' in Chapter 1. The narrator of "Bill's Story" recalls seeing the tombstone of the Thomas Thetcher, the Hampshire Grenadier, and taking it as a warning against drinking strong liquor to excess.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=William G. |title=Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism |publisher=Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc |year=1939 |isbn=978-1893007178 |edition=4th |location=New York City |pages=1 |language=en}}</ref>
* Adam Smith uses small beer in a few examples in ''[[The Wealth of Nations|An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations]]''. These include a comparison of the value of small beer and the value of bread,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Adam |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38194/38194-h/38194-h.htm |title=An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations |publisher=W. Strahan and T. Cadell |year=1776 |location=London |pages=13 |author-link=Adam Smith}}</ref> and a longer description of why cheap alcohol does not result in greater drunkenness.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Adam |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38194/38194-h/38194-h.htm |title=An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations |publisher=W. Strahan and T. Cadell |year=1776 |location=London |pages=376 |author-link=Adam Smith}}</ref>

===History===
* [[Thomas Thetcher]]'s tombstone at [[Winchester Cathedral]] features a poem that blames his death on drinking cold small beer. 
* [[Benjamin Franklin]] attested in his autobiography that it was sometimes had with breakfast. [[George Washington]] had a recipe for it involving [[bran]] and [[molasses]].<ref>{{citation|author=George Washington|url=http://www.nypl.org/locations/tid/36/node/40921|title=To make Small Beer|year=1757|work=George Washington Papers}}. New York Public Library Archive.</ref>
*[[William Cobbett]] in his work "A History of the Protestant Reformation" refers to a 12th-century Catholic place of hospitality which fed 100 men a day – "Each had a loaf of bread, three quarts of small beer, and 'two messes,' for his dinner; and they were allowed to carry home that which they did not consume upon the spot." (Pg. 90, TAN Books, 1988)

==See also==
{{portal|Beer}}
* [[Amazake]]
* [[Gamju]]
* [[Jiuniang]]
* [[Kumis]]
* [[Low-alcohol beer]]
* [[Podpiwek]] 
* [[Svagdricka]]
* [[Kvass]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Alcohol and health}}
{{Beer styles}}

[[Category:Types of beer]]