That pint won't impress the boss

Though it may not be to the taste of Tory leader William Hague - who claimed to have downed 14 pints in one day - a new low alcohol beer by Henley brewer Brakspear may find favour with his shadow cabinet colleague Michael Portillo.

The new bitter - at 2.5 per cent alcohol by volume - is about half the strength of most lagers.

Mr Portillo, in his shadow budget last November, suggested cutting the duty on beer between 1.2 and 2.4 per cent to the French rate - as a way of discouraging cheap imports. Few beers, however, aside from some supermarket "budget" buys, are this weak. Now Brakspear has picked up the Portillo challenge and plans to present it to Chancellor Gordon Brown in the run-up to the Budget in March.

Inspired by Mr Portillo's proposals, Brakspear has brewed Brakspear 2.5, a bitter which the company claims is in the great tradition of British real ale, and is "satisfying and tasty" despite being only 2.5 per cent alcohol. For every pint of Stella Artois you could drink two pints of Brakspear, and for a pint of Guinness the equivalent is 1.65 pints of Brakspear.

Chief executive Jim Burrows has written to Mr Brown proposing what he called "bantamweight" beers be subject to excise duty of £12.73 a barrel rather than the existing £47.30 a barrel. To make his point, Brakspear will be serving its new bitter, to be launched next week, in 25 of its rural pubs at the "French" rate of about £1.60 a pint up until Budget day.

Mr Burrows wrote to the Chancellor: "Our small business can sustain this up to Budget day. My fear is that if there is no lower duty differential, this fledgling sector will probably fail to attract the support it needs." Burrows and his team have used five different malts and no fewer than seven hop additions in order to craft a 2.5 per cent beer with the aroma and flavour they say is required by the discerning drinker. He says the Portillo pint will serve two purposes.

"Not only will it help combat the menace of cross-Channel bootlegging, but it will also encourage drink-drive-conscious customers to visit beleaguered country pubs, enjoy a great tasting beer, and still be confident that they will be well below the limit.

"Lunchtime drinkers, too, will be able to enjoy a pint with their pie without risking their afternoon's work. Innovative products such as these need a helping hand in a market becoming every more dominated by foreign global brands."

And you never know, once Brakspear 2.5 goes on tap, William Hague will really be able to drink 14 pints.