BS: Sigh

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 09:17 AM

"but it is NOT real ale and doesn't get anywhere close."
No argument there - and I miss good beer desperately, but it's comparing apples and orange
"He said that they were indeed deliberately being made slightly differently because the English were not patient enough to wait for a pint to be pulled in the Irish way"
Nail on the head - would add the temperature of the beer - one of the plagues in Dublin is the tasteless ice-cold stuff that seems to be popular with tourists and those not old enough to know any better.
While I was electricioning in London publs, I worked in The Kings Head on Fulham Broadway.
An elderly Irishman came in every lunchtime and ordered a pint from the governor.
One afternoon, he came in and a young woman was serving, while the governor was chatting to a customer at the far end of the bar.
He said to the girl, "I'll have a pint of Guinness, and I'll have him serving me", poinmting to the governor.
It's an art form!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 09:38 AM

Too much beer is served too warm. Our Doom Bar tasting sessions at Sharps brewery always had the beer served at exactly 12C. That recommendation makes allowance for the fact that a pint will slowly warm up before you've finished it. I've been served Doom in some pubs at more like 18 to 20 degrees, which is ruinous. There's one pub near me where the landlord told me he was going to stop selling Doom. The customers were always complaining about it, said he. The pint he'd just poured me was lukewarm. I don't drink there any more.

The affectation of serving Guinness ice-cold is very irritating when you consider that it's cost you nearly four quid. I assume it's because freezing-cold beer is less lively, therefore quicker to pour. Correct me if I'm wrong!

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 09:44 AM

I note that the head brewer at Sharps, Stuart Howe, has left and is now in charge at Butcombe brewery in Somerset. They want volunteers for the beer flavour panel on Friday afternoons, and your reward is free beer. I did this at Sharps for several years and, if you live anywhere near, I can highly recommend the experience!

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 10:31 AM

Many years ago when The Three Horseshoes in Ingleton was a Yates's pub I remember the then landlord showing me why I should not bother trying their 'keg' bitter. From the same barrel came a pipe with a splitter. One branch went to the hand pulled draught pump and the other went, via a small chiller, to the electric 'keg' pump. They sold the keg for 2p a pint more :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 11:48 AM

I don't compare it to coffee either Steve. I like Guinness and I like most of the "real ales" I quaff. I don't see it as an either / or contest.

Travelling a lot used to mean at least with Guinness you knew what you were getting. Also, concerning beer in the house, cans of draft Guinness are most like the tap version of all beers for me whilst bottles of most of the real ale types tend to be a bit gassy. Doombar being one of the worst culprits (though of course such bottles never saw Cornwall.)

So... Which is the best beer for Liverpool fans to cry into at 4.50pm on a Saturday then? 😎

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 12:16 PM

"Correct me if I'm wrong!"
Not wrong at all - that's exactly it.
A good barman will pour Guinness in two stages - first, full with foam; then more steadily the second time - then, wipe the foam off the top with a knife
As I said, and art form.
You can always tell a sour pint when it fill up at the first go - and each mouthful leave the ring where the previous level was
Jeysus - wasn't intending to go out tonight!!!
The though of the pint and the session calls.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 01:10 PM

Bottled Doom Bar, like most bottled beers, is filtered, pasteurised, artificially carbonated and absolutely nothing like the cask beer. I always have a few bottles of the more flavoursome continental lagers in the fridge, though I doubt that I drink more than half a dozen bottles a year. Very nice on a hot summer's afternoon. Apart from that, I avoid all bottled beer apart from bottle-conditioned ones, the ones with a bit of yeast in the bottom and which are unpasteurised and naturally carbonated. Until about 20 years ago, bottled Guinness was bottle-conditioned and was miles nicer than the draught. Lamentably, 'tis no more. My very favourite bottled beer is Duvel, though at eight percent plus you don't want to be necking too many. I pour most of the chilled bottle into the glass in one go then glug the yeasty bit at the bottom of the bottle. Gorgeous!

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: akenaton
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 01:44 PM

Jim...As a CP member, I attended many demonstrations, It was one step forward and two back.
Just down the road from where I live we were out almost every weekend protesting about the American base and the start of the nuclear weapons dump at Coulport, now it contains enough WMDs to turn the world into a desert.
We never got a socialist voice in Parliament, we got Blair
The housing situation is dire, the NHS is about to collapse as now its about avoiding litigation not treating patients...the waste of money is just unbelievable...the wealth gap has widened, youth unemployment is at ridiculous rates...(I'm talking about real jobs here)....."liberalism" has done nothing to make society better, there are millions with no future.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 02:46 PM

"As a CP member, I attended many demonstrations, It was one step forward and two back."
It would be with the CP - Did you ever read 'The British Road to Socialism" a cross between Alice in Wonderland and and Melina Mercouri's version of the Greek Tragedies in 'Never on Sunday'?
The people you are so sneery about were largely non-aligned and demonstrated against what they considered unjust - I find your attitude to Blair Peach, who was murdered while opposing racism, beneath contempt.
I'll be honest; I've known a number of C.P. members in my time and I've never met one who comes anywhere near your views on homosexuality, immigration and your defence of the Church and 'thye institute of marriage and traditional family values' (now there's a couple of establishment terms for you)
If that's what was representative of the C.P. - thank whoever that they never won office
Still misusing the term 'liberalism' I see.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 03:22 PM

Good thread this. A proper bloody lusty Brit thread. Arguing about communism and beer in the one thread. Brilliant. We could look one other fiercely in the eye, grab lapels nose to nose threateningly, and carry on like this for days. No harm will be done. Bet these bloody yank mods won't get it and'll shut the thing down. Tsk.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 04:43 PM

Karl Marx only ever drank tea with made with tea bags. He believed proper tea was theft.

I'll get my coat comrades...

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 05:47 PM

A donkey jacket, one hopes....

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 26 Aug 15 - 02:23 AM

Speaking of the local folk club, it's doubtful I'll be able to fulfil my contract tonight - I was out with the band rehearsing last night, and it hardly seems fair to complain about being CTB when The Memsahib's in For'n Parts, and then bugger off out two consecutive nights when she's at home!

I will adopt my 'martyr's' tone of voice, and frequently look at my watch and sigh heavily as 7:30 (my setting-off time) approaches, but she's a hard woman and will almost certainly ignore me (or, most likely, glare at me through her wine-glass, silently daring me to have the nerve to ask her to sign my pass-out docket)!

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 26 Aug 15 - 09:14 AM

Take her with you to the folk club, then she can't complain that you don't take her anywhere. Does she drive? If so, offer to share the driving - you drive there, she drives back - that way you're on to a winner all ways round.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 26 Aug 15 - 10:58 AM

Y'know Doug, that would be great if:-

(1) she didn't have to be up for work at 6 a.m.,
(2) we could take the dog with us, and
(3) most importantly, she enjoyed listening to folk music being sung and played to a background of ten or a dozen bar-flies shouting at one another!

In addition:-
(4) She never complains I don't take her anywhere.
(5) I don't do alcohol, so driving's not an issue.

Apart from all that, good idea! :-) :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 26 Aug 15 - 12:23 PM

Only works once - a double-headed coin's much more reliable
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 26 Aug 15 - 12:24 PM

Sorry - missed a bit
"you drive there, she drives back"
Only works once - a double-headed coin's much more reliable
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Musket
Date: 27 Aug 15 - 04:13 AM

Aye. It were a good night. Mrs Musket doesn't go for similar early start reasons. The alleged greyhound doesn't bother because he keeps reminding me I sang it better when practicing it at home.

The bar flies were buzzing a bit but didn't prevent the entertainment.

I left at 2.00am this morning. Theakstons may be common or garden but it was slipping down too easily. Then the gaffer stuck a whisky in front of me and it went downhill from there.