An Ale-gebra Formula To Drink By
When I founded my business School of Booze to educate about and celebrate alcohol I could not have imagined that I would be espousing Low-No Alcohol beer and wishing that pubs had a better selection. Like many people my first experience of alcohol-free was a near beer version of pale lager, lacking hops and body, tasting of cardboard, and resembling soap suds in water. Never again I pledged. And that’s how it remained until years later when I was commissioned to write a feature about the growth in low and non-alcohol beers. For research I sampled several different styles and particularly enjoyed the highly hopped pale ales and milk stout. Soon I felt rather buzzed and repeatedly checked that they really were no more than 0.5% ABV. Then I realised that because it tasted like beer my brain responded by rewarding me with all the pleasure and none of the pain. Sisters and brothers, I’ve seen the light!