The great BEER VS. WINE fight!

What's your poison, guv?

  • Wine of course, you hairy great unwashed barbarian.

    Votes: 3 18.8%

  • Beer of course, you lavender-scented, Frenchified ponce.

    Votes: 13 81.3%
  • Total voters
    16
N

Numbers

Well-known member
Much depends on the wine, of course. I drink wine only when eating. When not, I get annoyed by the acids too. Especially if it's a rather cheap table wine.

Like both though. Wine is probably more differentiated, while beer is always more or less good. Good wine is stellar, bad wine is fucking misery.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
Has sweet fruity craft beer rearranged your taste buds to the point where 99% of real ale has becone undrinkable? Most English beer is just unacceptable now. Sone tepid tap water with digestive biscuit slowly dissolving inside. Horrible tepid insipid pond water drink
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
Takes 3 hours to force down a pint but it's only 3% how are you gunna get drunk on that?
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
luka said:
Thank god the Americans taught us how to make beer
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ha...many americans consider "american beer" as exactly the "tepid tap water" you mentioned, the biggest sellers are still nun's piss like budweiser, lite and miller. crafts have grown a lot in number and sales/distribution/availability but still a small percentage of the US consumption.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I went to the London Drinker beer festival last month and the tastiest beer I tried there was Temperance from One Mile End in Whitechapel. It was 3.5%. And there was no shortage of other tasty beers I tried there. It's a fantasy that beer needs to be very strong in order to taste of much. I think you've burned out your tastebuds on American and American-style craft beers that are, almost without exception, flavoured overwhelmingly with those very very strong, ultra-lemony hop varieties. Some of them are good, I'll grant, but let's face it, they mostly taste pretty similar.

And if you're interested mainly in getting shitfaced then why bother with beer at all? Just go straight for the scotch. Or Tesco Value vodka, depending on your budget.
 
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luka

luka

Well-known member
Yes, they rearrange your tastebuds. They don't 'burn out' your tastebuds. But they make it impossible to drink cask depression juice
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Alright, let me put it like this. Of course I love getting drunk on beer in the - generally, relatively - gradual and civilized way that beer facilitates. (Assuming we're not skulling bottles of Duvel, right.) If you're drinking primarily to seek oblivion, spirits are far more appropriate, aren't they?
 
C

comelately

Wild Horses
luka said:
Yes, they rearrange your tastebuds. They don't 'burn out' your tastebuds. But they make it impossible to drink cask depression juice
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I think people may be discounting the arrangement of tastebuds that comes from being able to access decent red ales & porters which deliver much better than BoringBritishBeer in the malt stakes. Better old ales and barley wines too.

When I was in Oldham recently, I had a few of the local J. W. Lees Bitter - it didn't taste of too much, but it was well kept and had a nice creamy mouthfeel. It was fine. I doubt it would travel. London Pride is usually good in a Fullers pub in close proximity of Chiswick. Bitter doesn't travel basically.

Thank god the Americans taught us how to make beer
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I remember saying to a craft pub manager that it was a bit of a disgrace that Americans had taught the Brits how to appreciate our own beer. He said that it's okay, because we taught White America to appreciate the Blues.
 
you

you

Well-known member
I prefer wine. But in a bar the wine is often poor and overpriced whereas the beer is often good and better than you could hope for at home. Even in good restaurants the wine is often just good but not as good as what you may drink at home, whereas the food is usually something you wouldn't be able to make a home (or not easily). I really think the mark up on wine does it a disservice.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
you said:
I really think the mark up on wine does it a disservice.
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I'm reliably informed it's even worse in actual French restaurants in actual France. Which is bizarre, as you can get a highly drinkable bottle of wine over there for a couple of quid, and what would be considered a fantastic bottle over here for a tenner or so.
 
you

you

Well-known member
Because I'm such a geek I make a note of 'great' wines I like in restaurants. Sooo often some 30 quid red has wound up being a 7.99 bottle. I don't mind paying a little extra, but it does inevitably mean that I only ever drink more expensive wine at home. I'm not going to start spending 90 on a bottle in a restaurant! I'll spend 20-30, it may still be a nice wine, I don't suggest that quality is analogous with price, but you would think that generally if you pay x amount more the wine stands a good chance of being more complex and enjoyable. I just think it is a shame that restaurants and bars can't really offer the experience of higher priced wines. Also, wine is better at home because you can decant for an afternoon. If you have some big macho left bank merlot or some fuck-off Barolo then it needs that. Apart from matching by glass with different foods wine doesn't really become much better outside the home kitchen. Whereas with beer, I always feel that draught beer is infinitely better than bottled. Lager too in many ways. It's just strange that whereas beer is better draught its not actually marked up as much as wine which is no better outside the home.

Tea - French wine used to be cheaper a couple decades ago. Now it has gone up a lot. Still cheaper than buying french in the UK but booze cruises are not really worth it now - so i'm told. Once you factor in diesel, crossing, insurance and time you may as well stay home getting sloshed on a case of BBR bog standard claret ftw :)
 
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