On English beer

[damian 0]

I cant believe I am about to ‘complain’ about this….. tongue in cheek and good humour.

 

In Japan I was sick and tired of reasonable sized beer mugs being 25% full of head. Not just any head mind you, it was so obviously engineered bubble beer cream head that just does not belong on a crisp pilsner or lager type beer. Don’t get me wrong, I like head on beer. A quality head of one and a half fingers depth is perfect. It makes the beer look better and drink better and possibly even taste better. The head that came on a Japanese beer sucked and also deprived the shallow pocket drinker of a good mouthful of beer that they had paid for.

 

Then I come to England and full of expectation for a beer with a real head I walk into a pub only to be totally shattered. Every pub I have been to serves beer with ZERO head. That’s right drinkers, no f*kin head at all! Apparently it is normal for the barman to fill the beer right to the very top of the pint with the meniscus of the fluid glistening just under the rim of the glass. Now this looks really ugly as the beer appears old and flat and like a glass of beer coloured water. Seriously, it looks bloody awful. Plus it is a pain in the arse to drink without spilling, let alone carry back from the bar. I asked around and the most common reason suggested was that no one wants to pay for head; they want a full glass of beer. I suggested that perhaps none of them were exactly strapped for cash. I should add that everyone I have drunk with so far has expressed mild shock at the fact that I leave about 1 finger of beer in the bottom of my glass if I suspect that it is even remotely flat or warm.

 

As an aside, but whilst I am here I also would like to pass comment on the actual beer glass. The tall no-handle type of pint glass is good for some drinking situations, but not all. Perhaps I drink slowly but such a volume of beer is bound to be warm and flat and stale by the time I get to the bottom of my enormous glass that I struggle to hold in my hand on a good day. Being easy going O simply ordered a beer in a half pint glass. That way I can easily hold a beer that will remain fresh and good all the way to the end. Plus I can have a few quick ones before shooting off home rather than pouring a few half swimming pools worth of beer into my empty stomach. Back to the point: In every pub that I have ordered a half pint I have got a beer served in the type of glass in which you would serve a child a glass of coke. There are glasses that beer just doesn’t belong in and this type of straight sided coke glass is one of them.

 

So here’s to me drinking in London with a shameful and unappetising looking beer in my hand that has zero head, looks flat and dead and is full to the point of spilling over the edge of my child’s soft drink glass. I really have to shake my head and laugh at myself sometimes.

 

Cheers

 

Ps - Is there an Englishman kind enough to point me at a good English beer. I am a pretty unimaginative beer drinker and like pretty standard clear draughts. There are so many beers here that I don’t know what to ask for and when I take a random beer it usually turns out to have a very distinct flavour that I don’t like and is flat. The worst I have had so far was a type of bitter (which I ordered with my Cumberland sausage, mash and gravy…. Which was awesome!). Most of my drinking so far has been on B grade European beer like Stella which is the same as any other Japanese, Australian, American mass produced and chemically enhanced hangover maker.

[giggsy 0]

BODDINGTONS

 

(The Cream of Manchester*)

 

Top beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* but made somewhere else.

[giggsy 0]

Forgot to mention - generally, for good beer....head north.

[miteyak 0]

Whether a beer should or shouldn't have a head very much depends on the kind of beer. A good pale ale will often be warm, flat, and have no head. It's the way it's meant to be. If it's a straight bitter, bass, for example, then you should get a bit of a head.

 

Good beers, from memory, abound in the west country and up north, but can be a rare find in the big smoke. The likes of Flowers IPA, ruddles (heavier) bishops tipple, etc are all great ales if you can find them in London.

 

Just read your beer criteria... Bass might just be a good one for you, and it should be available in London.

[Ocean11 0]

I agree that a little bit of a head on beer looks good, and that having beer down to your shirt cuffs might be a luxurious feeling for a peasant, but is not something that sophisticated people need. But for the last 10 years in England, it looks like somebody just spat on top of the beer.

 

You have to relax a bit more about the flat and warm business. It takes a really long time for a pint to deteriorate beyond drinkability, and bitter that is past its first chilliness has its charms too. Bitter is pretty flat to start with anyway.

 

Boddingtons is very good, and fairly easy to come by. Castle Eden is even better and something of a rarity (although they used to have it at Heathrow airport to my great surprise.) Marstons is very drinkable. London used to have quite a variety of filthy rotten local beers, so be sure to visit the rest of the country and try some of the regional bitters. There really is no call for drinking lager or pilsner in the UK - if you get in the mood for that sort of thing, why not just go to Germany. They do it much better over there.

 

Good luck! You miserable bastard.

[damian 0]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look for them.

 

You have to keep in mind that I am a simple Australian. To me beer should be preferably clear, very cold, crisp and bubbly with a nice lump of clean white head on top. It is great if it is a naturally brewed organic product, but this is almost impossible to find in most bars and pubs and even bottle shops in Australia where the mico never took a foothold.

 

I might have to adjust my palate and enjoy the local style of beer a little more. So long as it is not too warm and flat and beer smelly.

 

Another thing that shocked me here was the number of franchise pubs. Places like The Slug and Lettuce. There are so many different chain pubs and every suburb has a branch of at least one of them. I don’t much like the look of them.

[Ocean11 0]

That's the spirit.

 

Adnams is a good brewer located not very far from London. If you ever find yourself invited to a dinner that involves heavy food, particularly Christmas dinner, I recommend taking along some Adnams Broadside in bottles (everyone else will bring wine - how boring). It goes fantastically with everything - roast game, cheese, and especially plum pudding or mince pies.

 

http://www.adnams.co.uk/beer/draft.html

 

You can get it at most offies.

 

 

Those franchise pubs don't hold a candle to some of the well-kept real pubs.

 

Like miteyak says, Bass is a good, standard bitter. It can be nothing special in a poorly managed pub, but when treated properly it can be sublime. The same goes for other bitters too, but because Bass is such a 'standard' beer, the variation in quality is very conspicuous.

 

Cheers!

 

(Sad footnote: the only Japanese beer I can stomach these days is Kirin Classic Lager - it's the only one that has any bitter edge to it.)

[NoFakie 45]

I've not had Flowers IPA on draft for ages, but had the canned one a couple of months back from the people who bring in Ruddles, Abbot, and Old Speckled Hen. While there can be a marked difference between canned and draught with British beer, it struck me as a very quaffable ale for someone coming from a lager background. I prefer something with a bit more bite myself.

 

The going to Belgium or Germany to drink beer option also sounds very good.

 

I used to work in a bar nearly twenty years ago, and some of the glasses we had had a pint line about three-quarters of an inch below the top. That bar had no hand pulled and it was all measured halves on electric pumps, so we never needed the line. Some of the glasses now only hold a pint (568ml) if you fill them to the top. It's a great size for drinking 500ml cans at home , but not for drinking pints in the pub.

[damian 0]

I see that I have some 'work' ahead of me. It is quite exciting being in a place where beer isn't just beer.

 

I dont think I have ever had a Real Ale before, might try one tonight.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

Ive always been a big fan of Samuel Smith beers. They are English right? The Oatmeal Stout and the Taddy Porter are brilliant I luv dark beers. Guess if I want to get drunk I avoid those but relaxin with your mates its nice

[scouser 4]

Some of the featured brews at a pub near my familys home are just amazing. They do a guest beer every week, and they are often really good. And they are often names that you have never heard before. I should really find out more about them...

[Ocean11 0]

Although it's partly responsible for the preservation of delicious beer, the 'Real Ale' thing, and now the 'Local Ale' thing can get a bit tiresome.

 

Last time I was back, I went to the pub behind my school that I often frequented of a lunchtime, and the blackboard behind the bar listed about 8 guest beers with a line underneath it followed by "...and grudgingly, Bass, Guinness, Strongbow, Lowenbrau".

 

Grudgingly served Bass or Guinness may well be a far better choice than any of the local Smiles brews above the line...

[Yuki's Passion 1]

In the States, all the "big brewing companies" are just shite. I hate Miller, Coors, Bud, etc... They taste like cold piss.

 

The Microbrews in the States filled the void for beer connoisseurs; I would rather drink a couple of good, dark, flavorful beers which are more expensive than drink tons of watery beers. Ahhh, a creamy Guinness today after work today at 4:20 sounds good

 

Wish I was in Europe so I could pop over to Germany for a Dinkle Acher (have no clue as to the spelling). DB, instead of going on a pub crawl at night, you should just go from country to country sampling the best they got - go on make me jealous

[powwwers 0]

i luv HEAD!!! (even bad head)

 

i heard that tha brewers(here) recommend pourin beer 70/30, so as to keep tha beer fresh down to tha last. tha bubbles dont wanna get out as soon. kinda makes sense, but i suppose it depends how fast/slow ya drink, hey.

 

anotha thing thats always `miffed` me, is wine. well not wine per se, i dont have a problaymo drinkin tha stuff, but whats got me, espesh. with red is, yar meant ta drink it at room temp. but what is room temp. cos a room in Moscow is gonna be a diff. temp. than a room in say, Fiji init??

 

 

i`ve gotten ova tha `gettin ripped off factor`, by tellin meself that they could elect to serve beer in smaller glasses. which would mean i`d get tha same volume of `beer`... just a thought.

 

ps db, private me ya ee can ya?

[miteyak 0]

Most reds should be drunk at 14-20 degrees, depending on the wine (often indicated on the back label. Whites around 6-10 degrees, I believe, straight from the fridge is usually too cold.

 

Gotta get yerself a portable wine cellar, but from 100,000 yen for a cheap one, that's a lota wine.

[nekobi 0]

yeah it bugs me when red wine in jland is served chilled. seems to happen most places.

[Goemon 0]

db: You might want to check out Fullers too. I took a nice tour of their brewery several years ago; the tour was led by a grizzled old man who had worked at the brewery his entire life, so he had lots of stories of shovelling malt and hops. The workers used to get tokens each work day that they could use to purchase and drink beers on the job.

[damian 0]

It is great to see the way beer talk brings out some serious contributions. I recall a few threads in the past where this happened.

 

Cheers to Goemon et al for continued suggestions and reasons to get drunk.

 

I have to say though that I am still having a tough time getting the good beer ball rolling. Last night I arrived at yet another very lacking city after work drinking bar. These places really are no good for anything other than providing beer to people who want to pour beer down their throats. So armed with a short list of beers I wanted to try I approached the bar to find a row of taps. One was Guinness (not my taste at all), one was Strongbow cider (not even beer) and three were Fosters Lager (undrinkable ‘beer’ from Australia!!!). Everyone I was with ordered a Fosters, including the two Germans in our pose. What the truck is going on?? This strengthened my resolve to find and drink all the good stuff that the UK has on offer. So as not to make a fuss I smiled and ordered a Stella in bottle (a beer which the guys that were there referred to as ‘wife beater’).

 

Yuki’s P - I am yet to develop a taste for creamy beer, hence my difficulty with Guinness, Kilkenny etc. I am sure that more exist, but the only small brewery that was consistently available in most grog shops in Oz that I know of is Coopers. Their beer is very good.

 

As for chilled red wine, I remember going out for dinner with a quite well-to-do Japanese couple from my area in Japan. We drove to a nice Italian place and 30 minutes later I felt like a ridiculous idiot drinking ice cold cab sav and eating spaghetti bolognaise with chopsticks. It was all good fun though, particularly watching them try to maintain an air of sophistication

[Ocean11 0]

You wake up in the middle of the night struggling to draw air into your lungs and your nose is assailed by a vile penetrating stench.

 

You open your eyes to see the Devil himself, dressed like an accountant, sitting on your chest.

 

"Good evening." he says, blandly. "As a recent initiative, we are starting purgatory before death on a trial basis. For your sins, you are condemned to drink only wine or beer for the rest of your life. In line with our policy of 'customers first', the choice is entirely yours."

 

You wake up the next morning, troubled as if you had a disturbing dream but can't quite remember what it was. The bedroom smells odd. After a trying day, you get home from work and find that the wife has cooked pasta for dinner. "Right then, wine it is." you say, and in a flash the dream comes back, but you know it wasn't a dream.

 

If it was me, I'd quietly open a tinnie of beer and be done with wine.

 

What would you do?

[snobee 0]

0-11 Bedevilled as you are ( no doubt due to the triple 6's of your last posting), there is no choice - just wine.

Beer has it's moments, but inevitably peters out. The grape just keeps on keeping on.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

DB,

 

Coopers is one of my favs! The store back in the States where I bought my beer carried that. Beer and Wine from Oz is tops

 

What about J-beers? What does everybody usually buy? I like Ebisu (ale and black), Ichiban, and Ginga Kogen.

[Ocean11 0]

snobee, purgatory is not meant to be easy - that's the point of it. I'm convinced that there's a beer for every occasion and meal, but we so often drink wine instead out of ignorance, or habit, or prejudice. Of course, the beers of one nation alone wouldn't cover every eventuality, but we wouldn't expect the same thing of wine either. Anyway, until that devil sits on my chest, I'm not going to shun wine, rest assured.

 

I tried Ichiban Shibori recently after drinking Classic, and had to spit it out. It has a revolting aftertaste. Classic is not special as beers go, but it has good bite. The dark Ebisu is quite nice, and Ginga Kogen is great (probably because it's brewed by a German). Most of the ji-biru around is quite disappointing, especially considering its outrageous pricing.

[miteyak 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Yuki's Passion:
DB,

Coopers is one of my favs! The store back in the States where I bought my beer carried that. Beer and Wine from Oz is tops

Love Coopers (if you like that, you should enjoy the pales ales db), and Adelaide was quite the oasis for that very reason, a real beer on tap... but it:s a stretch to then say beers from Australia are tops...

On the wine, I'd have to agree, and beer would have to go if the choice was to be made...looking to buy a vineyard in Oz

[rach 1]

Caffreys seems to be very popular.

[cheeseman 1]

Caffreys goes well with cheese. (As do most beers and wines).