Real Ale v Lager

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: robomatic
Date: 09 Dec 09 - 08:56 PM

LOVED Smithwick's in Eire, is there a version available in US? I thought not but didn't consider domestic labeling.

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: GUEST,Steamin' Willie
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 09:03 AM

CAMRA did have a valid argument for lobbying many years ago, and without them, local variety of ales would be a thing of the past.

However, there is a festival now and then at a pub near me and I do like to go down as I might bump into old mates. To see people treating it the same as train spotting with their pads and half pint glasses does put people off the idea of championing the cause of retaining real ales.

I think the word "real" needs dropping though as that causes the elitism that many of find either repulsive or mildly amusing, depending on whether you take it seriously or not.

Viz. comic sends CAMRA up a treat with a comic strip called something like "Real Ale Bores"

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 10:07 AM

I much prefer mead or cider.

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: MARINER
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 11:01 AM

Robomatic, As I said above I was surprised to find Smithwicks in an "Irish" pub in the States (Cape Cod, never saw it anywhere else in the US ) but it was vile!, probably there in the pipes for a long time.However Kilkenny or Killian's Red is not bad at all, perhaps it has a faster turnover? .The highlight of my trip though was seeing Gordon Bok playing at Wood's Hole.That made up for the days feeling seedy after the Smithwicks!

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: GUEST,Steamin' Willie
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 12:35 PM

Smithwicks has never been that good...

When I was working in Ireland in the '80s, it was the only bitter you could get in many places. Most people had either a Guinness or lemonade top to it in order to make it palatable!

If it had changed by being a long time in the pipes, 10/1 it may have improved it...

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: MARINER
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 08:32 PM

Ah Willie, things have changed as lot in Ireland since the 8os. Smithwicks is a good pint no matter where you get it in the country. I've just had 5 or 6 pints of it tonight (oul seadogs renunion) and am feeling no pain.It's much better than it was in olden times !.

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: GUEST,Steamin' Willie
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 04:25 AM

Must admit Mariner, I haven't tried giving it the benefit of the doubt yet... I am over fairly regularly either on business or seeing old friends and stick to the black stuff.

I might, just might, on your recommendation, try a pint at The Highwayman next month.

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 05:37 AM

I have begun to realise the thread title is somewhat misleading. I think what we are realy talking about is traditionaly brewed and kept beers versus the pasturised versions, often kept under pressure for ease of dispensing and preservation. Whether it is ale, beer, lager, stout, porter or any of the other variations is irrelevet realy as they all have both versions, and that preference is most likely a matter of personal taste.

There is nothing at all wrong with the nitrokeg version as long as it tastes good. That is often the issue though. It is consistantly good but very rarely great. Whereas the traditionaly brewed and kept versions are sometimes awful, usualy very good and often spectacular. Pretty much like most things. You will always get a good breakfast in a little chef but need to go to a truckstop, and risk disappointment, to find a great one. You will always find good music on a pub jukebox, but need to hear the occasional bad live act to find the mainly great performers in small clubs.

Like the folk club or jazz club image maybe you are right in saying that CAMRA need to update a little. It is the way of the world.

But what cider and mead got to do with a debate on real ale is beyond me...

DeG

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 06:22 AM

I haven't had a good breakfast in a Little Chef for a long time. You usually find that most of it is ok, but there's always at least one item that they get spectacularly wrong!

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: GUEST,Atlas reader
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 05:06 AM

Where can I get a decent pint of Fosters?

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: MikeL2
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 05:34 AM

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: GUEST,Atlas reader - PM
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 05:06 AM

"Where can I get a decent pint of Fosters? "

Try the nearest swimming pool.

cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 07:08 AM

Decent pint of Fosters ? oxymoron.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 09:13 AM

Looking at the posts from 4 years ago, there were some remarks about "Ale is Beer", "No it's not", etc. I distinctly remember that 1970s CAMRA regional guides stated "no real BEER" when a keg-only pub was mentioned. Looks like CAMRA started the confusion!

Incidentally, looks like the campaign against Grotneys started much earlier than the 1970s! Found this snippet about the first ads on ITV:

"During the live boxing match from Shoreditch a 'natural break' was taken between two rounds. The last advertisement before cutting back to the match was for Watney's Beer. The advert showed a row of beer tumblers emptying themselves unaided while the voiceover told viewers, "You try it." At this point the picture cut back to the boxing just as one of the fighters was spitting frenziedly into a bucket. One can only imagine the horror on the face of Watney's executives as they viewed their first TV commercial".

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 10:04 AM

After a folk-life wasted drinking the tepid horse-piss that passes for Real Ale, over the past year or so I have become a confirmed drinker of Beck's and Stella. Of course this puts me at a decided disadvantage in any Designated Folk Context where the drinking of tepid horse-piss is de-regeur, so what I've done is to buy myself an 18th century Pewter Tankard for purposes of camouflage. Forgive this subterfuge, but I was recently passed over at a singaround because I was drinking a pint of effervescent bier, it being assumed because I wasn't drinking ale that my presence there was somehow anomalous. Having alerted them to my Traddy status however I was invited to sing whereupon I regaled the company with a hearty rendering of Bring Us In Good Ale, though chance, as ever, would be a fine thing...

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 01:50 PM

"over the past year or so I have become a confirmed drinker of Beck's and Stella."

Welcome to the folk deviants club. I've *never* gained a taste for real ale. Stout I can and will do, but not in multiple pints. I'm definitely a confirmed "pint o' wife-beater" bird myself.

Mind you, I've also got a taste for that strong scrumpy which tastes like cool lemon water, but you don't get it on tap most places. Otherwise it's anything red and wet.

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 01:54 PM

Mind you, my fella who taught me all about the sophisticated art of drinking Stella, reckons this IPA is the best he's ever tasted: St. Peter's IPA

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 03:15 PM

Folkies, you are drinking in the wrong pubs if you think that real beer is tepid hoss-piss. Anyway, as any fule kno, Stella's out of the same great big vat in Luton or Burton as Foster's, Bud, Carling, and all the others. That's why they have to be cooled to near absolute zero and advertised every 15 mins on TV.

OK so they were bottled, but on Sunday I enjoyed a pint of Black Sheep and a pint of Thwaites' which were as different from each other as chalk from cheese but equally splendid. Applies to their draught beer too.

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 05:57 PM

My favourite beer is Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA cos that's what's in my glass tonight, and tomorrow it will be ......

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 07:52 PM

Ah, Dave.... you have taste! And so does your beer! Dogfish Head is a gem of a brewery.

It's not against the law to stick to beer/ale which is largely devoid of taste, but calling the suff that DOES have taste "tepid horse-piss" ought to call for 40 lashes with a wet noodle.

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 08:13 AM

"tepid horse-piss"... So you're saying it's better if it's chilled so that you can't taste it?

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 10:57 AM

I liked Paul Hogans Fosters adverts. Particularly the one where a Japanse man on the London underground asks him "Can you tell me the way to Cockfosters?"

"Yep," replies Paul, "drink it warm mate..."

Doesn't make the beer any better but it made me laugh:-)

DeG

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 11:44 AM

I knew lots of Aussies in London in the 1970s & they all drank Swan!

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: GUEST,Patsy Warren
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 06:54 AM

Some lagers are good, some are terrible and taste like metal. Some real ale doesn't do anything for me and then one or two of them have been really good. I don't normally drink Guiness but had some a while back at a St. Patrick night and it was served with shamrock and was really good the best I've had. As for cider I am liking the pear and blackberry ciders. I don't think there is any snobbism anymore with drink. Diversity is allowing people to have what they want and here in Bristol we do exactly that. I don't always chill white wine anymore or lager especially not in winter depends on how I feel at the time.

Subject: RE: Real Ale v Lager
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 05:14 PM

You will always get a good breakfast in a little chef

I disagree. Edible at best, in my limited experience.