I was called to the bar yesterday to watch England. A couple of friends persuaded me out of my solitary existence to watch the football with others. It was in a pub near me, but one that I don't normally go to. I don't care for the place or the beer quality, though in fairness last week when I nipped in just before the last England game to sample the atmosphere and the beer, the bitter was cool and excellent.
Not so yesterday. It tasted off, as if it had been heatstruck before ever reaching the cellar and the Coronation St was a cloudy insult. Both were way too warm which gave a clue. What to do? The family of my friends were there before me and agreed it was poor and they switched to
Carlsberg and
San Miguel. I tried the Carlsberg. Horrid. All carbonic bite and an odd corn edge. The San Mig was slightly spicy as if a dash of unmalted wheat had been lobbed in. I was tempted, but instead had Lees house lager,
Golden Original. It didn't taste of much, but was smoother, fuller and maltier than the Carlsberg. A hefty dose of noble hop would have made this pretty good. I had a few of those and finished off with a San Miguel. It wasn't so bad either, but not something I'd like to repeat often.
I reflected on a few things. Annoyance about the cask beer - this just shouldn't be happening; that this was the first session on British lout I'd had in the pub for over 20 years; how bloody expensive the stuff is.
No wonder they all drink it at home.
And no, I didn't complain. My friends are friends with the manager and I wouldn't have embarrassed them.
12 comments:
Hopefully LOBI will have the same effect on lager as CAMRA did for cask ale.
It is a shame that it is necessary to have two organisations promoting properly made beer, when really a single entity would no doubt be more useful.
Well maybe, but you can't compare CAMRA with 115,000 members and LOBI with 12 or 13.
Not right now you can't, but CAMRA had to begin somewhere and I guess there was a time when they only had 13 members.
They can give us a shout when they get to 50,000 say. I'll have been pushing up daisies for at least 50 years when that happens though. (-:
Full marks to you for going with the flow. Had you said "I stuck to soft drinks" it would have marked you out as a sanctimonious arse. I know you aren't, but some others are...
Going to the pub to cheer on Englnd is more about the atmosphere and being with mates, the beer is just an added extra (of course, it's nice if the beer is good though).
But how was the atmosphere? In spite of drinking what you otherwise would never usually choose, did you have a good time? Isn't that more important?
LOBI is a producers' organisation and CAMRA is a consumers' organisation, so they're not really comparable.
Well done, Tand. The corn taste to the Carlsberg was odd. Both the regular & export are all barley malt. The regular has added caramels to darken it, which the export doesn't have.
But even so, top stuff. I might even have a pint of bitter this weekend to so show beer solidarity.
I'd never be in a pub to watch sport, but every month or so I end up in one without real ale to see, and sometimes play along with, a local rock band. In such situations, Guinness is the beer I usually fall back on.
For info, there was a time when CAMRA had just 4 members.
"The corn taste to the Carlsberg was odd. Both the regular & export are all barley malt"
I really doubt it is, you've fallen for their weasel words!
They say "100% British Barley" - so, maybe the barley used is British but I'm 99.999% sure they use maize in the mash too. Their clever use of words makes it sound as if it's 100% barley in the grist but a quick taste of the crap will show that it's not and it's chock-full of corn, maize and other cheap unmalted cereals.
100% British Barley doesn't mean the mash is 100& barley!
Gazza are you confusing -sberg with -ing? Carling is the one with the 100% British Barley slogan.
The corn flavour will be D.M.S. not actually corn.
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