Table Beer Is The Key To Any Dinner Party
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If you try to please a whole crowd at a dinner party with your beer choice, chances are someone is going to complain. Maybe you picked something too strong or too hoppy or too fruity. This is where table beer comes in. Belgian-style table beers typically have a low ABV and historically they’ve been made for both kids and adults to enjoy.
Table beers range from light blond to dark brown to black in color. They’re usually light bodied with low carbonation and have barely any aftertaste. You’ll find table beers are malt-forward and the hops serve more as background noise. Because table beers have a light mouthfeel, they’re easy for anyone to like. This style of beer is meant to be the ideal dinner time drink since you can have a couple without feeling drunk, but it still has enough flavor to pair with any dish you’re making
Back in medieval Europe table beers contained less than one percent ABV, so nothing too crazy, but kids drank them at the dinner table. It wasn’t a rebellious thing to do, their parents just let it happen. This was mainly because the water during that time was polluted, soft drinks didn’t exist and fruit juices and wine were too expensive.
You might find spices like coriander, lemon and orange peel in your table beer, but in very small amounts. Modern table beers have a slightly higher ABV than in medieval times, somewhere between two and four percent. Think more along the lines of a saison, a Belgian farmhouse ale. London’s The Kernel Brewery and Brooklyn’s Threes Brewing both have table beers in this style while Allagash has a popular hoppy table beer.
Although certain breweries might get a little extra hoppy or go darker toward porter status, all table beers have common ground: You can easily knock back a few during a meal. Instead of stressing over which beer will go best with your dinner, pick a table beer that everyone can join in on. Here’s a list of examples.
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