Table Beer is a long-time favorite of mine. The reason is easy. When I was little I drank table beer at home and this roused my interest in beer at an early age. But, as with all beer styles, also this particular beer style (or maybe it is better to talk about term/noun) has had different faces through the ages. This article aims to give my (abbreviated) historical overview of “table beer”, mainly focused on Belgium. 

A map is available for the Cloister of Sankt Gallen (so called because it was erected by the saint Gallus) for the year 820, showing a huge compound, considered the ultimate in abbey building. Although plenty of beer writers refer to this map, and consider the buildings were erected, Martyn Cornell (in his book “Beer”) proved that it was never built as the terrain is too small to hold such huge real estate. The reason for that beery interest lies in the fact that the map includes three breweries, one for the patrons (visitors with money), one for the monks, and one for the (poor) travelers and pilgrims. And is considered proof that there were different types of strength for beer for hundreds of years. Additionally, all consider that the beer for the poor people was “table beer”, a low alcohol beer. At that time, brewing was either done by monks or by the ale wives, meaning the ladies at home. There were no large commercial breweries so to speak of. And both the monks and ale wives wanted a drink that was both nutritious (fermentation was not optimal, leaving residual sugars and thus calories) and healthier than water.

From the 12th century on, brewing activity shifted from ale wives to men for a profession, who started to see brewing as a viable commercial activity, while the monks (with their privileges of having to pay no or very low taxes) continued as well, and advanced the technology. Over the following centuries, frequently sources show that (all types of) brewers were brewing different strengths. I would consider that very quickly brewers found out that low alcohol beer did not need separate brewery equipment/set-up, but that second and more runnings extracted further sugars from the malt, and resulted in lower alcohol beer, and huge cost savings. 

Most historical sources talk now about the habit of having three runnings, with the third running to be the table beer, i.e. the low alcohol beer (for the poor). However, most Belgian (local) sources I have found mainly talk about 2 runnings (and a maximum of three) up to the 19th century. But, in certain special circumstances (e.g. when the harvest failed, during war times, ….) four and more runnings were not uncommon. 

An example from my home town Kortrijk. Early 1700’s, an edict stipulated the details for the strong and the small beer, i.e. the method of production and the ingredients to be used, plus the detailed costs and sales prices. Indeed, 30 rasieren (1 Kortrijk rasier is about 85 liters) of brewing grain (barley) and 2 rasieren of oats resulted in 28 casks (approx. 154 liters) of strong beer and 20 casks of small beer, meaning two runnings. And an 1772 edict clearly specifies : “the small beer, coming from the strong beer malt, …” 

All table beer was top fermenting, similar to other beers. 

Not only did Belgium produce table beer. All countries used this term for low alcohol beer, sold on the cheap. There were a few differences though in between countries. More especially in England where brewers long had special ways of doing things, a.o. with the addition of herbs and spices (mainly liquorice, but sometimes even dangerous and hallucinatory, like cocculus indicus), sugar (treacle, syrup, …) and coloring. 

An important reference is G. Lacambre’s book of 1851 (available for free via books.google.com). In his “Traité complet de la fabrication des bières…”, mention is made of the fact that in Lille (France), the three runnings are called resp. double bière de garde, brown ale and small beer, while emphasizing that the brown beer (probably at around 4,5 to 6 % ABV) is considered the “table beer” of the bourgeois. So, we note a second use of the term, i.e. the one that is to be taken literally, namely the beer that is drunk while eating, sitting at the table. This use of the term is also to be found in Scotland where all dinner beer was called table beer, independent of its strength. 

1914 -18 (and 1940-1945)

Up until WW I, beers of different strength were available. However, during the war, because of shortage of ingredients, all beers were weaker, and could be considered table beer. 

In between the two wars, as ingredients became gradually more available, strength started creeping up again. But, history repeated itself in the second World War. 

1946 and on 

It also took some years after WW II for the brewers to have sufficient malt, etc. for brewing their stronger beer styles. But, they continued making low alcohol beer as people were used to it, drank it with their meals, for quenching thirst, etc.  All in all, the table beer market continued to thrive though bottom fermenting beers (lager, pils at around 5 % ABV) came on heavily because of advertising, economies of scale, etc. But, what happened then is that brewers, used to multiple runnings also did it while making their lager, a bottom fermenting beer, and called that table beer as well. 

1986

Given the renewed importance of beer, due to 1986, being named the “Year of Beer” inBelgium, there was momentum for open and enthusiastic communication about the different aspects of beer and its economic importance by the Belgian Brewers Association. In that communication, e.g. annual reports, numbers were given per (aggregate) beer styles, with table beer a separate category. This shows table beer’s importance.  

1993 

On 31 March 1993, Belgium released a Royal Decree, dividing the beer world in four categories, depending on the base wort’s extract, expressed in Plato (g per 100 g):

·       "S" for an extract content of more than 15.5;

·       "I" for an extract content from 11 to 13.5;

·       "II" for an extract content of 7 to 9.5; 

·        "III" for an extract content of 1 to 4.  This category could only be marketed under the “table beer” name. This represents approx. 0.4 % to 1.8 % ABV.

As far as I know, this is the only worldwide official definition ever of what table beer was/is. However, as the EU took over large chunks of legislation, this Decree is no longer valid. 

From 2000 onwards 

Continuous heavy consumption decline was noted as the elders, used to drinking this with their meals, had health issues or started dying out with the younger generations not interested as they had switched to soda-pops and water for drinking with their meal.

Because of this, the (Belgian) Brewers Association in their communication abolished the table beer category and added the numbers to a new category “other pils”, containing not only table beer, but also “no or low alcohol and luxury pilsner”. This was a sign of the times that table beer to a large extent had become bottom fermentation beer.  

A number of beer minded people did not like this decline. So, initiatives to revive the style and to make it attractive to a younger crowd were taken. Two examples :

·       “Maes Natuur” where the brewery tried to hook into the themes of nature and health and on purpose did not use the term table beer because of its old-fashioned image. However, it was not very successful, and after some initial interest and commotion, it vanished from the market, to be replaced by N/A or 0.0. 

·       ZYTHOS (the Belgian beer consumers organisation) launched a campaign to promote table beer in school refectories. It received a lot of press coverage, but also did not amount to anything concrete. 

2006

Personally, I also felt pity for this disappearing beer style. The international interest for anything related to Belgian beer was and is enormous, and virtually no one had heard of table beer. So, it made sense to have a specific (sub-) category added in the style list of the largest beer competition, the World Beer Cup (organized by the American Brewers Association. In cooperation with Peter Bouckaert (former Rodenbach and New Belgium), I then wrote down what was then the essence of what you could get under the term “table beer” in Belgium. Here is the lengthy and detailed description : “These ales and lagers are very low in alcohol and traditionally enjoyed with meals by both adults and children. Pale to very dark brown in colour. Additions of caramel colouring are sometimes employed to adjust colour. They are light bodied with relatively low carbonation with limited aftertaste. The mouth feel is light to moderate, though higher than one might anticipate, usually because of unfermented sugars/malt sugars. Malted barley, wheat and rye may be used as well as unmalted wheat, rye, oats and corn. A mild malt character could be evident. Aroma/flavour hops are most commonly used to employ a flavour balance that is only low in bitterness. Traditional versions do not use artificial sweeteners nor are they excessively sweet. More modern versions of this beer incorporate sweeteners such as sugar and saccharine added post fermentation to sweeten the palate and add to a perception of smoothness. Spices (such as orange and lemon peel, as well as coriander) may be added in barely perceptible amounts, but this is not common. Diacetyl should not be perceived.

• Original Gravity (ºPlato): 1.008-1.038 (2-9.5 ºPlato) 

• Apparent Extract/Final Gravity (ºPlato): 1.004-1.034 (1-8.5 ºPlato) 

• Alcohol by Weight (Volume): 0.4-2.8% (0.5-3.5%) 

• Bitterness (IBU): 5-15

• Colour SRM (EBC): 5-50 (10-100 EBC)

This description speaks for itself, and also links back to history, as mention is made of spices (and extra sweetness – be it treacle or aspartame or sugar, …). Since then, during my travels I have regularly seen brewers producing a beer they consider table beer, according to this description. Meanwhile, the (American) Brewers Association has declared ‘table beer’ as a subcategory of ‘Belgian-Style Table Beer or Belgian-Style Session Ale, and has tweaked the description to better reflect the actual brewing situation.  

Current 

The history of beer making in most of the world was one of beers in three different strengths, achieved by consecutive runnings.  Light beers were made for rehydration, the fact that they were boiled during production making them a safer bet than water, a role in which they were unrivalled until the arrival of tea and coffee and chocolate. 

There are now modern equivalents which we term in increasing level of alcohol, session beers, sampling beers and sipping beers.

The low alcohol beers may now be called small beer, single beer, thin beer, session beer, table beer, thirst quencher, N/A, 0,0 or other. But in a few cases, and especially in certain countries there seems to be a (rather high) alcohol tolerance, certainly (much) higher than what was historically allowed or aimed for. 

The production method also varies. Where the original way was to use second or further runnings, now: 

• “Normal alcohol” beer is thumbed down by adding brewing water to the finished product.

• There are specific technical brewing methods such as reverse osmosis and other to obtain low alcohol beer. 

• Special yeast is used that does not create a lot of alcohol, etc. 

Conclusion 

In history, the term “table beer” has had two meanings.

The first and foremost being the “small beer” or low alcohol beer, mainly achieved by second or consequent runnings. Some beer writers hence also consider Meerts to be table beer as it was normally achieved (some say) by the second or later running for making lambic. 

The second is the literal one, i.e. beer drunk when at the table while eating which was not necessarily low alcohol. For some, typical Belgian examples of this are the Trappists singles, i.e. Westmalle Extra, with 4.8 % ABV. 

Originally, table beer was top fermentation only. In recent times (more specifically after WW II), table beer became dominantly bottom fermentation. 

Clearly, low alcohol beer will survive after all, but the name table beer may be considered so old-school that it will disappear from memory with modern sounding terms taking over.  

So, the main advice is always to check alcohol strength before trying/buying a beer, even though it may be labeled “table beer” (there are now Imperial TB’s out there – crazy). Me, I like both low alcohol beer and beer with my meals. So, I am and will continue to be a fan of the real thing. Cheers.