Beer And Beer Drinking

[luka]

i recently went two weeks without frinking becasue i was very ill. im having my first drink now. only its wine becasue while i was ill i lost my beer gut and now im reluctant to start drinking beer again cos i dont want it to grow back again. how are you lot getting on with your guts? i mean, im very thin so i only need to drink about 2 beers before it shows.

 

[Sick Boy]

i recently went two weeks without frinking becasue i was very ill. im having my first drink now. only its wine becasue while i was ill i lost my beer gut and now im reluctant to start drinking beer again cos i dont want it to grow back again. how are you lot getting on with your guts? i mean, im very thin so i only need to drink about 2 beers before it shows.

I used to be really gaunt in high school so I reckon I owe it to beer for giving me any kind of shape at all. I embrace my beer gut, but yeah, after a few it does tend to inflate like a big balloon. God bless my metabolism though, if it weren't for that I'd probably be a beer gut commenting on his man attached.

 

[luka]

this year has been all about the fullers esb. i dont know if its the best beer in the world but its pretty bloody close.

 

[you]

Really like beer, Im getting a gut. Favourite at the moment is Hogs Back Brewery's O.T.T. ale, top quality!

 

[Mr. Tea]

this year has been all about the fullers esb. i dont know if its the best beer in the world but its pretty bloody close.

Great beer - it's so popular in American (for an ale, anyway) they call any strong brown bitter an "ESB". Can't say it would be my first choice of beer in the Aussie summer, though...

 

[luka]

you cant drink it fast enough for it too be a good summer beer but summer is really only just getting started so what i said still makes sense so there.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Ah rite, I'd imagined temperatures already well into the 30s and couldn't really see a slightly syrupy 6% bitter going down all that well...then again, Jamaicans love their Dragon Stout and then there's that Nigerian Export Guinness, they're both really strong and thick. It's good when people in tropical climates don't just do the obvious thing and drink super-chilled lager (like most people in this country do, even at this time of year ffs).

 

[nochexxx]

loving beers from this microbrewery called Victory? really tasty, and from America, surprsingly.

 

[paolo]

It's good when people in tropical climates don't just do the obvious thing and drink super-chilled lager (like most people in this country do, even at this time of year ffs).

I like coming into a warm pub in winter and then having a cold beer. Bit weird but there you go

 

[Mr. Tea]

I love how many pubs do mulled wine in the winter these days. And other hot boozy concoctions.

 

[you]

http://www.hogsback.co.uk/acatalog/bottledbeer.html

OTT is the one I like

 

[owengriffiths]

So is there such a thing as a real ale pub? What I'm asking is, is there any pubs in England (or elsewhere) where they only have quality independent beers on offer? It's just I've never been to a pub that has no less than 3 big brands on draught wasting space given that they all taste similar

 

[Mr. Tea]

So is there such a thing as a real ale pub? What I'm asking is, is there any pubs in England (or elsewhere) where they only have quality independent beers on offer? It's just I've never been to a pub that has no less than 3 big brands on draught wasting space given that they all taste similar

Yes, many. You just need to know where to look. Almost any Wetherspoons, for one thing (saying nothing about the atmosphere, of course). I'll write more tomorrow.

 

[don_quixote]

slothrop. i am moving to derby. where to drink?

 

[Slothrop]

It's been a couple of years since I've been there and I only went a couple of times, but we found that The Brunswick near the station was cracking (I've been known to plan train journeys specifically to get an inefficient change of trains enabling me to go there), the Flowerpot had a ridiculous range of beers and a neat sort of open cellar thing, the Dolphin in the centre was pretty decent and the Exeter Arms was a rather nicely turned out old Marstons pub.

It's not an amazing place in general, but it's not totally dead, and it's easy to get out to the Peak District or to nicer places like Nottingham and Sheffield from. And it does have some ace pubs.

 

[don_quixote]

nottingham would be ideal (as a forest fan) but it's just a little bit too far from work for me and having tried to get to nottingham for football matches at around 5.30-6.30pm at night i know the whole city is gridlock.

 

[Mr. Tea]

So is there such a thing as a real ale pub?

OK, so it's not "tomorrow" anymore, but anyway. Yeah, there are loads of such pubs, although some towns will have several and some will have none at all. Oxford, as you might expect, has a good few such pubs - Chequers has about a dozen handpumps, usually with no more than two beers from any given brewery, ditto for the Turf. Then again, a surprising (and disappointing) number of pubs there, including a lot of the really old and characterful ones, are operated by one of the big chains, particularly Fuller's and, bizarelly, Greene King. London has many real ale pubs but they're a bit spread out because of the sheer size of the place. If you're ever here, be sure to check out the Bree Louise near Euston station, the Market Porter near Borough Market and the Wenlock Arms in Hoxton.

I used to work in an amazing pub called The Head Of Steam which had ten pumps, one for real cider and the rest for ales, which rarely had more than one beer from any brewery and never more than two, so that on a good day eight or nine different breweries would be represented. Sadly it's now a Fuller's pub (although they still do guest beers) but THoS is a mini-chain with several pubs in the north, most of the associated with or inside railway stations - Liverpool (which I've been to, very grand), Huddersfield, Gateshead, Durham and several pubs in Newcastle: http://www.theheadofsteam.co.uk/

Owen, how often are you over here? I mean England generally, not London.

 

[don_quixote]

regarding towns and drink i think there are real regional differences and differences in places.

for example loughborough has loads of traditional pubs, one really good one. leicester on the other hand i don't think i've ever been in a pub there which wasn't a chain. bars galore though (and the orange tree chain i am a big fan of, but not particularly for beer, although they usually do a tap and always have london pride which is a decent standard)

and the villages... boy, huge differences.

when i was in york they had a great range of pubs, i really enjoyed being there.

 

[owengriffiths]

That's a pretty comprehensive answer Mr Tea, ta. I'm only in England once or twice a year these days. The reason why I asked is that I had some preconceptions about the pub industry:

1. There wouldnt be enough demand for real ale for such a pub to be successful.
2. Customers would be violent if that they didnt have the choice of tennents stella carlsburg carling all at the same bar
3. It is more efficient to have two copies of the same beer. This is probably down to my experience of having my selection limited because one of the kegs is invariably empty

But yeah I'd love for a pub like that in Ireland

 

[you]

found a great pub in stourbridge, had 4 on site brews and a bunch of nice stuff, tried freedom stout too which was nice, the dukes head if your ever in the area