The great beer dispute

Well...

Last night's tasting at the Troon beer fest;

Harviestoun's - Bitter and Twisted - A classic! (champion beer of Britain 2003). Even better than in the bottle (as you would expect).
Islay Ales - Finlaggan - Good heavy beer.
Orkney - Skullsplitter - named as such for good reason. A half-pint at the end is plenty.
Strathaven - Duchess Anne - An aquired taste probably. As I ordered it, a chap next to me said it was great, I didn't like it.
Arundel - Sussex Mild - nice...
Cotleigh - Tawny Bitter - a nice bitter, very more-ish.
Oakham - JHB - tasty bitter
Oakham - White Dwarf - a bit more full bodied than the JHB, which I preferred.
Spectrum - Old Stoatwobbler - I have an affinity with daft named beers. This one was quite strong at 6.0%, but full of flavour.
Stonehenge - Pigswill - another nice bitter.
Triple FFF - Pressed Rat and Warthog - despite the name, it was a tasty, if rather flat mild.

With over 70 beers and ciders, there is always a whole load that you don't get around to trying. Stroll on next year, starting with the Paisley beer festival (usually April and bigger than Troon).

Incidentally, the evenings entertainment was a covers band by the name of Incircles, who did the REM to Cream via Deep Purple and the Waterboys thing. The odd thing about them was the guitarist who strongly resembled Bun E. Carlos from Cheap Trick, even down to the spectacles and sensible clothes! Bizarre!

 

Yes you can, Deuchars IPA!

 

Deuchers is grand, but when it gets really hot I do like a chilled Pilsner Urquell, or Echt Budvar...

 

The ultimate summer drink is Hop Back Summer Lightning. Always get through a good amount of that at the beer festivals, after sampling a few of the others!

 

Sounds good, but the use of word "lager" fills me with dread at the thought of the UK produced muck. Why are the European versions (with some exceptions) far superior? Is the the UK palate really that bad?

 

Top beer, that one! Unfortunately they didn't have any last night.

 

It depresses me that commercial UK brewed "lager" is so poor. It isnt anything other than profiteering on the part of the brewers. Unfortunately most drinkers seem happy to buy it. Chumps.

 

Personally I think nothing beats a good pint of Timmy Taylors Landlord. Almost worth visiting Keithley for; trust me that is significant!

 

It is indeed a fine fine beverage.

 

Lager in the UK

UK lager generally fast brewed and not aged with added colouring - usually caramel, antioxidants, etc. and is often of a lower strength than the original version from overseas with which it shares a name in common and nothing else.

Examples of this are:

Carling, Stella Artois (strength is the same but the taste isn't),Carlsberg (although there is an "Export" version), Amstel, San Miguel and Foster's amongst others.

There are notable exceptions:

Budweiser - actually stronger than the domestic US version! Grolsch - brewed to the same additive-free recipe in the Coors brewery in Burton, ditto Coors Fine Lite, Kronenbourg 1664 - although weaker than the French domestic 1664 (5.9%) it is at least essentially the same beer as the International version brewed in Strasbourg.

Imported draught lagers are rare in British pubs but I have seen Heineken (used to be brewed here at a paltry 3.4% but this has stoopped), Jupiler, Leffe, Budvar, Pilsner Urquell and Lowenbrau on the odd occasion. The average Brit would probably not like these as they all have quite distinctive tastes.

The only domestic UK lager that doesn't bear the name of a beer from overseas that I've tried and is decent is Samual Smiths - brewed to the same standards of purety as German beer.

 

Thats my home town!!!

and, yes I agree it is worth visiting for a Timmy Taylors

...forgot to add, the correct spelling is Keighley

 

One of our locals has got Tanglefoot as a guest ale this week, very nice. Tho i still prefer the Butcombe Best.

 

Just to skip over most of this to point out that technically speaking most belgian beers are in fact ales not lagers. ie. top fermented at warmish temperatures and as such are close cousins to traditional English ales (real ales). Lagers are a different specie of beer and the technical difference is that they are bottom fermented at much lower temperatures (which take longer) ... they are of course all beers.

 

And the first lager - bottom fermented beer brewed at low temperatures was Pilsner Urquell brewed in Plzen since 1869. IIRC, they used blocks of ice to bring the temperature down. Proper lagers do take several weeks to mature which is why much lager brewed in the UK tastes shite. Storage space is space that could be sold to build houses...

 

Yes I suppose I should have said "in theory" takes longer. Has to be said that the mass produce shite we get in this country is about as close to real lager as bacon flavoured Frazzles are to Parma Ham. To judge it by the standards of Carling Black label would be to judge English ale in general by the standards of Watney's Red Barrel (for those old enough to remember THAT poor excuse for beer).

PS. Smoothflow beer ought to be pronounced illegal - its virtually toxic IMO.

 

My favourite beer by far is Shepherd Neame Master Brew. I have only seen it once outside kent. It was in a trendy London pub. It tasted awful. I have tried many of the Belgian beers, in fact my stag party was held in Brugges. I managed to stay off the Triples until early afternoon. After that, everything is a bit hazy. I generally do not like strong beer or lager as I find them a bit sweet.

Rod

 

I guess it depends how strong. Beers tend to take on that chewy-sweet taste from 7% upwards. There are plenty of dry tasting beers around the 5 to 5.5% especially in Germany. Think hefe-weissbier.

 

am regular drinker of Deuchar's IPA from local Caledonian Brewery, but would put in a good word for Lithuanian beer, specially the one beginning with an 'S' ...

also, had some interesting unpasturised beer in a brewery/bar in Prague - funny how I forget the names of these

 

Also known as cat's piss...

Vile muck masquerading as beer.

Never had much chance for checking out the variety of beers on offer, but tried a couple of bottles of Lapin Kulta and Karhu when in Helsinki earlier this week, not bad. Probably need some recommendations of what to look out for when visiting the next time though.

 

I agree about Sam Smiths lager [Ayingerbrau? -years since I've had it]

While draught real ale is the food of the gods, I really cant get on with most bottled. You might as well nitro-gas it for all I care.
Sam Smiths ales work well in bottles, as does 'Goldminer' from the Co-op [very hard to find, of course you wouldnt expect them to promote something British] - watch out tho, open very slowly as it's a live beer.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18/13587/

I wouldnt assume Lowenbrau draught is from abroad. I remember drinking good pints on wrexham brewery tours [and laughing at the recipe on the shop floor - no, it wasn't 'hops, malt, water and sweaty feet' as we are lead to believe..

Are there still real ale off licences out there??