The great beer dispute

nope, I live out in the sticks and have had plenty of real ales...

even bottled real ales fail to list their ingredients...

 

I stand corrected. Get Bitter and Twisted though...

 

I've never drunk a real ale that claimed perfect head or even mentioned a head anywhere, more foam=less beer.
I'm getting into live ales, a real pig to pour though

 

That is the reason I gave up Largers, the hangover the next day is getting old now, was told that drinking Ale would sort that out, I'm not convinced, maybe getting older has lowered my alcohol tollerance. I have to match the number of pints I drunk in the night to pints of water before going to bed, otherwise is hangover Sunday for me
I still like a good pint though.

 

"Best" is a simplistic idea - surely depends on mood and circumstance, not just taste?

There are great beverages from all corners. I love some English "real ales", I love various Belgian beers, I love some German lagers, some Czech lagers. They all demonstrate good and bad examples.

I would add there are plenty of truly awful English "ales" judging by the many Beer festivals I've attended in the last few years.

The UK general market is terrible IMO. All the UK brewed mainstream lagers are only part brewed with added colouring, flavouring, gases and even added industrial alcohol to bring them up to strength.

Regards Becks - this was generally specifically brewed for the UK market in Germany (the 275ml bottles). Whereas the 330ml are just standard Becks. Sure Becks is pretty light but its nice for general summer drinking and obviously due to the German purity law is much much better than typical UK lager which should be classified as something else IMO or even banned.

 

Dont confuse the average UK "lager" with lager. UK brewed Stella, Fosters, Carling, etc, etc, are nothing of the sort - just part brewed industrially produced "drinks" with all sorts of nasty ingredients just added to increase profits and to appeal to people who just want to get p*ssed.

 

yeah, going back to becks - that has the ingredients listed on thye bottle...something like water, malts hops and barley?

 

That's due to the German Beer Purity law dating back to the 1500's and in principle much earlier. I like their priorities.

 

yeah, I know about that - when I lived in germany I used to drink a lot of Hefe - some guys would say that if I drank to much I'd get a hangover...i replied saying that should try drinking XB all night...!

real cheap in the supermarkets too...

 

Even beer purity isnt going to prevent the effects from alcohol poisoning. I think the thing that really took the biscuit with UK beer was the introduction of nitrogenated flow systems to get that fake creamy head effect. These Beers, eg. Caffreys, give you the bends I reckon

 

I justy found some pictures of the Dartford beer festival!

The Beer... and the result!

 

any of u tried Batemans Dark Lord real ale incidentally? Has to go down as one of the nicest, fruitiest tasting ales...that has a real kick after a few hours!

 

I is drinkin old Rosie zider tonight, gurt lush it is!

 

It's Bateman's XXXB for me at the mo.

 

its Hoegaarden grand cru for me - preceeded by my 2nd fave - Duvel.

slurp-tastic

 

Duvel IS pretty good. A six-pack would be asking for trouble.

 

The great beer gods would dissaprove of my chilling of Duvel. I do like it cold - my only problem is that it can be a tad too fizzy.

Hoe' Grand Cru is IMO a better taste, but again its very strong. I would never drive after one of either bottle.

 

It was at my local beer festival this year. Very nice indeed, but my favourites are still Timothy Taylors Landlord, and Wye Valley Butty Bach.
Both of these, and most real ales I find, do seem to give more of a hangover than a proper German beer - my favourite is HefeWeisse Dunkel, a brown cloudy wheat beer. 3-4 litres is easily possible without a hangover the following day!
In contrast, 4 pints (i.e. 2.3ish litres) of Butty gives me a head like a bucket..

 

For me, Burntwood Bitter brewed by Mighty Oak brewery, Abbot ale, Old speckled Hen, and something Old Growler. Oh and Guiness stout.

I like those little frenchie "33" export stubby lagers in the summer, absolutely dirt cheap and refreshing.

Can't stand most Masterbrew/Masterspew offerings, which is a bit of a problem as my local is one of their flagship pubs.

 

It has to be said you can't really beat larger for a nice cool refreshing drink in the summer!