how much do you drink?

3% isn't quite right, but most beers were between 3.4% and 3.6%. Take Heineken, for example. It was brewed to the English palate with an ABV of 3.4% from the 1960's until the early part of this century. Heineken Export, which was the higher ABV, 'continental', more authentic version of the product wasn't introduced alongside it until 1991. The same went for keg bitters, which were between 3.4% and 3.8% during the same period.

Through the 90's, the ABVs of 'standard lagers' generally rose - I think Carling went from 3.8 to 4.1, for example, and after a number of years of decline, in the middle of the 'naughties' mainstream lagers like Carling and Carlsberg started to increase in volume for reasons that I've never quite understood. That was short lived, however, as those core brands are haemorrhaging volumes to 'craft beers' and are now suffering from existential crises.

The reason the British palate was so attuned to lower ABVs was (I think) because of the preponderance of heavy industry in the middle of the last century, where drinking large volumes of beer at lunchtime was commonplace. I've also got a feeling that ABVs were routinely and consciously reduced in WW1 in order to keep munitions production on track and they never went back when peace broke out, not least because the duty was lower and it suited the brewers to maintain the status quo for financial purposes.
I read somewhere that prior to WW1 you would routinely see beer at 10% and above. I think Guinness has been at around 13% at some time in its history. People started dying or going blind, hence the phrase "blind drunk".
 
3% isn't quite right, but most beers were between 3.4% and 3.6%. Take Heineken, for example. It was brewed to the English palate with an ABV of 3.4% from the 1960's until the early part of this century. Heineken Export, which was the higher ABV, 'continental', more authentic version of the product wasn't introduced alongside it until 1991. The same went for keg bitters, which were between 3.4% and 3.8% during the same period.

Through the 90's, the ABVs of 'standard lagers' generally rose - I think Carling went from 3.8 to 4.1, for example, and after a number of years of decline, in the middle of the 'naughties' mainstream lagers like Carling and Carlsberg started to increase in volume for reasons that I've never quite understood. That was short lived, however, as those core brands are haemorrhaging volumes to 'craft beers' and are now suffering from existential crises.

The reason the British palate was so attuned to lower ABVs was (I think) because of the preponderance of heavy industry in the middle of the last century, where drinking large volumes of beer at lunchtime was commonplace. I've also got a feeling that ABVs were routinely and consciously reduced in WW1 in order to keep munitions production on track and they never went back when peace broke out, not least because the duty was lower and it suited the brewers to maintain the status quo for financial purposes.
I'm sure when I started drinking around 1983 it was 10:30 last orders on a Sunday which had been carried over from the war ?
 
It was WW1. The 1914 Defence of the Realm Act restricted pub opening times which was repealed in 1988 when (legal!) all day opening was re-introduced.

They ruined drinking when they brought in all day drinking. Sunday used to be the best drink of the week. Pub opened at 12 and was full by ten past. 5 or 6 pints before last orders at 2 and then home for Sunday lunch and a snooze until the pub opened again at 7.
Great memories of those days and it was never the same when people could wander in at anytime and bring screaming kids with them too.
 
They ruined drinking when they brought in all day drinking. Sunday used to be the best drink of the week. Pub opened at 12 and was full by ten past. 5 or 6 pints before last orders at 2 and then home for Sunday lunch and a snooze until the pub opened again at 7.
Great memories of those days and it was never the same when people could wander in at anytime and bring screaming kids with them too.
Ahh memories. The landlord of my regular was always a bit miffed when we started banging on the doors if it wasn't opened prompt on the stroke of 7.
 
Parliament. Ruining drinking since 1988.

I had respect for the pubs that kept to the old hours, as some moved to staying open you could always move pub if you wanted to carry on, I still remember quite a few of them when I started drinking in pubs which was a couple of years after 88, as a teenager it was also great for the street cred if you were allowed to stay in the pub for a lock in be it in the afternoon or the evening, it wasnt long before many of the pubs that adhered to the old hours, changed owner or manager and the afternoon shutting soon became a thing of the past.
 

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