The Kernel

Table Beer as a term has had a pretty wild ride over the years. While most modern (craft) adaptations don't seem to fully respect its original recipe, they do manage to get the low-abv aspect of them right.

If you've been brushing up on your French in anticipation of a summer trip to the continent, you might think we could compare these bières de table with the perhaps more widely known term vin de table. Vin de table simply meant the wine was made outside of any appellation, generally leading to the thought that they were of low(er) quality (chat/drink with enough independent winemakers and you'll find that this isn't necessarily the case). In fact, modern table beer probably evolved from a style made in one of the few beer appellations in existence (see below) so the translation doesn't quite work here.

Long ago, Table Beer was important terminology in the tax world, indicating a bracket for lower alcohol brews that could be enjoyed without too much of your pay check ending up in the government's piggy bank. Table Beer was also in Trappist Belgium (an appellation of sorts), which is where modern brewing picked it up from. It was on the bottom end of the abv scale, something the monks would brew for themselves that they could indulge in and still make it out to mow the lawn in straight rows.

Today my Table Beer is more of a low-abv Pale Ale (The Kernel even does us the service of writing PALE ALE on the back label) and this seems to be the status quo for most of the ones I've tried outside of Belgium in the last three years or so. They may be more hop-forward, more bitter than the monks would have appreciated, but I think it works better for a modern audience.

Table Beer | Pale Ale

^{Alc 2.8% | Bottled on 1.12.2020 | Azacca Hops}

Colour

Pale Gold

Nose

Not much going on here. Generic orchard fruit maybe?

Mouth

re: mouthfeel there's more than you'd expect, but it comes off a bit watery. Really really dry throughout with a very mild negroni-bitterness towards the end.

I think I left this too long, so I didn't give it a score. Two+ months is a long time for a beer like this. It really relies on that hop freshness for the nose and for much needed complexity in the mouth. What I'm getting as negroni might've been a juicy orange six weeks ago. Its not bad by any stretch, but it could be better. I'll come back to this as soon as I get the chance.

jay