Is beer a working class drink ?

[Maciamo]

In this article, the BBC makes a link between beer drinking and the working class.

BBC News : Belgian beer gets the travel bug

But Belgians themselves are drinking less and less beer. Over the past 25 years beer consumption in the country has fallen by a quarter.

Theo Vervloet is head of the Belgian Brewers Association and thinks social change is to blame for the decline.

"Big industrial companies are leaving Belgium", he says.

"More and more it is offices, banks and European institutions now. People drink less there.

"Ten years ago you had a factory with 10,000 workers, everyone finished work in the evening and all the guys went out to drink for an hour.

"That doesn't happen any more."

In short, blue collar workers drink beer after work, while white collar workers don't. The change toward less blue collar and more white collar workers correlates with the drop in beer consumption, despite strong cultural predisposition toward beer.

Belgium remains the 4th biggest consumer of beer per capita in the developed world, after Ireland, Germany and Austria. It has also the greatest variety of beers (about 800) per capita in the world, with about 80 kinds of beer per million inhabitants, against about 62.5 for Germany. 100 years ago, there were over 3000 sorts of beer in Belgium, and the number is continually decreasing.

[misa.j]

It's good that they are finding a big market in the US. Stella Artois, Franboise Lambic, Moinette, Duval are some of the Belgian beers I like and available in the US. I can get Stella in a 12 pack at a store in town.

A lot of good Belgian beer have a high alcohol content of around 7%~9% which makes it understandable why people are starting to drink less of it.

[Duo]

Ah well, we all know the fancy pancy crowd prefers wine or more exotic alcoholic drinks like maybe limoncello or amaretto or things of the type. However, I didn't know that this dinstinction was so apparent here in Belgium

[Aristander]

I love beer, so I guess I am forever going to be branded working class. But I guess I am a bit of a beer snob too because I refuse to drink the thin swill that passes for beer here in the US. I only drink Imported or micro-brews from specialty bars. God, most American beer is horrible.

[dmdiannemorales]

I think Drinking is the other way of people to skip boredom.

[Reinaert]

Hmm.. There is a difference between beer, and lager.

Real beer ferments at room temperature, while a lager like Heineken ferments at a low temperature.

The Pilsner low temperature fermenting variant is a typical workman drink, while the more luxurious beer is more there for people who enjoy the taste of it.

Heineken is in the southern part of The Netherlands considered as chemical waste. Therefor they sell it abroad.

[Regulus]

Until micro-brewing became established in the US, I had a hard time finding any beer that I liked.
It was considered almost soley a blue-collar drink here up until recent times. The mass-produced stuff that essentially was the only beer available was inseperable from working-class people when I was a kid.

[Reinaert]

Until micro-brewing became established in the US, I had a hard time finding any beer that I liked.
It was considered almost soley a blue-collar drink here up until recent times. The mass-produced stuff that essentially was the only beer available was inseperable from working-class people when I was a kid.

You have a point with this.

Belgium is a country with still a lot of small breweries.
Those brew beers of high fermentation.

The beers of low fermentation are owned by some large companies, both in Belgium and The Netherlands. They took over many small breweries in the past, but people don't like their cheap crap anymore.

Former beer drinking regions have a tendency to consume more wine.
In the Benelux wine is getting more and more popular.
And luxury beer of course. Small breweries even produce beer with a middle age way of brewing.

Instead the French show a tendency to consume more beer, while the drinking of wine is dropping.

[Regulus]

If the bigger companies now have less sales, that may have been part of the reason why Imbev bought Annhuyser-Busch over here. The point about smaller batches having higher fermentation makes sense. Mass-produced beers nearly always are low in alcohol content.

[Reinaert]

If the bigger companies now have less sales, that may have been part of the reason why Imbev bought Annhuyser-Busch over here. The point about smaller batches having higher fermentation makes sense. Mass-produced beers nearly always are low in alcohol content.

Hmm.. It isn't the alcohol % that is important, but the taste.

Luxury Beer is more like Guinness. Barly is processed at a higher temperature, so that the sugar caramelizes a bit, and giving it a somewhat bitter smoky flavor.

I give you an example, of which I know it is sold to the US.

http://corsendonk.apluz.be/

This product really deserves the name: Beer.

And of course this Abbey.

http://www.trappistwestmalle.be/

BTW... I don't have any financial interests in these small breweries.
But I like the idea to produce better quality.

It's normal that people in the middle class chose to drink less, but with a better taste.
Combine that with quality cheese, and you're in heaven. ;)

[Regulus]

Yes the taste of course is most important. I was just applying what I learned form your earlier post about the different rates of fermentation.
I have had some beer with high alcohol content that was in the swill range.
I have had Corsendonk once. It comes in a dark brown bottle here with a white printing on the bottle. I thought that it was quite good. I don't think that I ever saw Abbey here. I would look for it but, unfortunately due to a problem with Gluten that came up, I have had to go with the few beers that are made from Sorghum.

[geiserich]

Beer is a german drink and wine is a roman drink. basta

[Reinaert]

Beer is a german drink and wine is a roman drink. basta

There is a difference between Pilsner and Beer.

Even the Egyptians brew Beer.
You can't say Beer is German.

And Pilsner is from Pilzn in The Czech Republic.

So.. Not so basta as if you would have liked.

[Marianne]

I love beer! In my country wine has been way more popular since the ancient times (back then Greeks and Romans used to drink a lot of wine and always mixed with water) but I simple can't drink it. On the other hand beer is so refreshing!!! Alcohol affects me immediately so maybe this is why I only drink beer and nothing else.

I really like beers from Belgium and The Netherlands. I love Trappist beers and my favorite is La Trappe Tripel. When I can't find it I drink Paulaner weiss or Hoegaarden which are sold in every supermarket. I find Heineken tasteless...

I don't think beer is a working class drink... If you check the price of good imported beers here in Greece you will know what I mean...

[Reinaert]

I really like beers from Belgium and The Netherlands. I love Trappist beers and my favorite is La Trappe Tripel. When I can't find it I drink Paulaner weiss or Hoegaarden which are sold in every supermarket. I find Heineken tasteless...

Thank you Marianne, especially because my brother is working in the La Trappe Brewery.

[Marianne]

That is really cool!

I always order one when I go out for drinks and most of my friends also drink it ever since I told them to try it. Glad to support the brewery your brother works at!

The price here is around 7.5-8.5 euros for the bottle of 500ml if you order it at a bar since it's imported but I think it's worth it!

[jdanel]

Someone recommended Belgian ales as being excellent. Which ones, available in the US, would you suggest?

[faveseo]

Beer is another way to relax and get high.

[Invictus_88]

Nonsense. At least in the UK, beers are popular at all levels.

The statistics (anecdote?) in the OP just suggests that the working classes used to drink a lot of beer, and now they drink less of it, not that the happy consumption of it is a class based thing.

[Invictus_88]

Beer is another way to relax and get high.

Er, that's not "beer" you're thinking of.

[Knovas]

In my opinion is just a "Class Drink". I love beer from lots of countries, primarly Belgium, Germany, and some others from USA and Spain (Craft).

[Hal Fao]

I use to drink beer only in summer, just a bottle a day (500ml). All year round I use to drink wine (300 ml per day).
The tendency to regard beer as a working class drink, I think that relates to its higher needs for liquids. Add the effect of alcohol which beer contains.

[Carlitos]

I just like the Spanish and very cold beer, now just take it without alcohol and from time to time, I do not and do not know what class is associated, perhaps a few decades ago was considered a drink of the working class, but today I think not.

[iapetoc]

well I never bean in Belgium

but I was lucky cause a friend knew a brew maker in Belgium and he order enough fresh and brought in france when i was there,
orange smell beer
fresh beer is a to tottaly different

I like also some chech beers Pilsener, and the greek Fix which is a unique beer in taste due to the yeast, but you have to drink fresh and at least in 15 minutes after open bottle, after the 30 min is .... bliach

[Knovas]

Sounds good the Greek one. I'll try if travel to Greace again.