On a rare Sunday lunch out, I perused the bar at the Royal Toby near Rochdale for inspiration. They used to serve Draught Bass here until recently and in a perverse way, I always enjoyed having some, if only to remind myself in that most salutary way, that "fings aint wot they used to be". The Bass has gone now however and somewhat to my astonishment has been replaced by Timothy Taylor's Golden Best, that rarest of breeds, a genuine Light Mild. What an usual choice I thought. The beer was decent enough, but served too cold. You can't win 'em all.
Also on the bar was a beer I have wanted to try for some time. Grolsch Weizen is a German style cloudy wheat beer. It had most of the usual flavours of banana, clove and spice, but tasted to me, rather stale and cardboardy. I've tried it now and won't be trying it again by choice. More evidence for my anti pasteurisation file.
Don't be too quick to write off the Grolsch Weizen. I had a bottle yesterday and it was bloody tremendous.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I visited the Toby it had cask Banks Bitter on. Golden Best is quite racey for a Toby outlet and it's great that they've still got cask as an option.
ReplyDeleteGrolsch Weizen isn't anything special on draught, I agree. It probably is better in bottle, as I think it's bottle conditioned, and certainly less carbonated.
You are right Jeff. I'll try a bottle.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Hyde's Light Mild tonight. I know little of the 'light mild' genre so no idea how it compares.
ReplyDeleteHydes light is one of my favourites. Sadly, like the whole genre, it's very rare.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, any draught weissbier is a limp version of the real thing. Part of that is that they never get the CO2 level right.
ReplyDeleteLight Mild? I would really have liked to try one of those; I was quite taken with the milds I did have.
if its cloudy its unlikely to be pasturised, unless they are adding a clouding agent post pasteuriser.
ReplyDeleteDon't follow your logic here Kieran. Why cannot a cloudy beer (one that is not filtered) not be pasteurised?
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