became cheaper from the later 18th century. Contemporary usage Small beer and small ale can also refer to beers made from the second runnings from the stronger beer (e.g., Scotch ale). Such beers can be as strong as a mild ale, but it depends on the strength of the original mash. This was an economic measure in household brewing in England until the 18th century, and still produced by some homebrewers. it is now only produced commercially in small quantities in Britain, and is not widely available in pubs or shops. In Belgium, small or table beer is known as bière de table or tafelbier and their many varieties are still brewed. Breweries that perpetuated in this type included De Es of Schalkhoven and Gigi of Gérouville in the Province of Luxembourg. In the US, a Vienna lager was a popular table beer before prohibition. Small beers are also produced in Germany and Switzerland albeit using local brewing methods. In Sweden beer with an alcohol content of 2.25 per cent by volume, or less, sold as lättöl ("light beer"), is legally classified as a soft drink (lättdryck), exempt from alcohol tax and age restrictions, made by virtually all breweries, sold in all grocery stores and commonly served in company lunch canteens. In art and history Literature Metaphorically, small beer means a trifle, or a thing of little importance. "Small ale" appears in the works of Shakespeare, William Thackeray's Vanity Fair, and in Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series, and "small beer" appears in Thackeray's Barry Lyndon. Graham Greene used the phrase "small beer" in the metaphorical sense in The Honorary Consul. When David Balfour first meets his uncle Ebenezer in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped, Ebenezer has laid a table with his own supper, "with a bowl of porridge, a horn spoon, and a cup of small beer". The small beer, horn spoon, and the porridge, indicates Ebenezer Balfour's miserliness, since he could afford much better food and drink, but it may also be meant to convey the "trifle" meaning as an indication of Ebenezer's weak, petty character. In the song "There Lived a King" in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera The Gondoliers, small beer is used as a metaphor for something that is common or is of little value. Cold small beer appears in Alcoholics Anonymous- the Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from