I think food in general has been doing this for a long time. Over time companies are switching out more expensive ingredients for cheaper ones that are close enough and as a result over time, food tastes different. It is part of the reason why many people try and avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup. It is much cheaper than sugar, and certainly changes the flavor of the things it is in compared to regular sugar.
I've definitely noticed for sure. Food generally tastes like nothing now. I used to love sushi growing up and now you can't even taste the difference between the fish and the rice.
I don't mind this. I like beer, but some styles I like can be 7% or more which is just too strong. I want to be able to enjoy the taste, not get buzzed after one beer with dinner.
I've tried the non alcoholic beers but they all have a similar off taste to them.
What's more worrying I wonder, preferring one strong beer because it's fewer overall calories per session, or wanting multiple low strength ones so you can do more drinking? I can't quite tell honestly
I used to like the higher ABV beers, imperial stouts, etc more, but even just one of those is just.. too much. Especially getting a full pint.
For that reason I don’t mind that the high ABV options are getting toned down. This might be a case of economics and preferences moving parallel to each other.
Kind of a good thing to be honest. I don't want to demonise alcohol, but people do tend to drink too much, and having slightly less alcohol in common drinks wouldn't be a bad thing.
If you really want to get drunk efficiently you use vodka anyway.
As someone who works in that industry, the reason that has been communicated to us is that they‘re testing the markets and demographics and so on and the results all say younger generations like to drink alcohol less, so there is a pivot to non-alcoholic drinks.