Small beer

It was then that the large footmen were too much employed at Clavering Park to be able to bring messages, or dally over the cup of small beer with the poor little maids at Fairoaks

Looking back to the 18th century, when the production of very low-alcohol ‘small’ beers was widespread as a safer alternative to dirty drinking water for the whole family, Small Beer produces a set of sub-3% brews.

The income from standard widgets is small beer compared to the income from the gold-plated ones.

To ſuckle Fooles, and chronicle ſmall Beere.

‘He’s not in court, man—was quite a break.’ ‘You small beer to him, Peter, it must be.’

The estimated £3m extra cost of providing free school meals represents a little over 1% of the council's education spending. That's no small beer, but nor will it be a huge saving.

But because there is a limit to how much of this is achievable while keeping the whole network operating, we can expect this to amount to small beer in terms of the overall level of cost savings required.