Don't judge a book by its cover

I'm known as someone who is prone to making outlandish statements. For example, I still stand by my belief that Premiership footballer of the year Ronaldo isn't much of a player.

So while I'm about it, here's another one: as a nation we don't know how to drink beer. Now before the smart alecs out there suggest that it's a simple matter of pouring it down your throat, my meaning has rather more to do with the issue of strength and Alcohol By Volume (ABV) than simple practicality.

Last week we printed a piece about Banks's Original and it was fascinating to learn the history of that brand and Mild beers - how they were used as a means of rehydration for industrial workers; in other words they would drink seven or eight pints in a session to slake their thirst.

However, I feel that one of the major reasons we now have problems with so-called 'binge-drinking' is that we still have this culture of session drinking.

Over the last 15 years, we've seen the emergence of premium beers with higher ABVs but despite this our thirst for session drinking remains. So instead of drinking seven or eight pints of a beer that sits below four per cent ABV, we are seeing people drinking seven or eight pints of Stella Artois, which sits at five.

Why are we not treating premium beers with more care and attention, as something to be savoured rather than sessioned? ABV has almost become a meaningless term now - in many ways drinkers see a low ABV as a sign of weaker taste rather than simply an indication that a drink is more easy-drinking and less potent than another.