It tastes OK over in the US. Terrible over here though.

You seem to lead a really strange life. I've spent a fair amount of time in drinking establishments but don't recognise this scenario.

I like places like the Fighting Cock in Bradford, a haven of real ale (and other drinks) and would state with certainty that it is invariably filled with lovely, decent, friendly, "real" people and you are far less likely to find a in the FC than in most other pubs. The thing is, most of the customers go there for the beer, but this doesn't make them beer "snobs", it means they appreciate the product, and go to places like this by choice.

If you really have "lost count" of these peculiar incidents, how come these mythical beer "snobs" still associate with you? I reckon you're just making it up. Sounds like a tall story to me, and there's not many real ale drinkers who would mistake a pint of nitroe smooth or whatever for the real thing. "Lost count", my arris.

Nah, I'll stick to my Toby bitter...

If you like a wheat beer and you ever see this, it's gorgeous.

I call bullsh*t.

Beer from the 'father land' is the tops

That or he buys drinks for people a billion degrees politer than me.

no
he's wrong

Using the beer snob argument is avoiding the argument on quality of beer/food/life.

I prefer a steak from locally sourced beef rather than a burger from a supermarket: for this I was called a snob by a friend: waiting for the apology!

No you are wrong. You will be able to tell the drifference between your steak and a burger. What I was talking about is people who go on about good beer but when you give them a grotty pint they do not notice or proceed to say how great it is! I have no problem with people preferring a better drink but I do object when they bore me about it and don't actually know the difference betwen Stork and butter.

You struggle to differentiate between talk and mutter

This is my lieblingsbier in Munchen. Franzikaner i must recommend to anyone who appreciates good beer or more precise a wheat beer. The taste is fantastic, and 3 sunk down you feel it. at the moment im just about to watch bayern vs dortmund with a augustiner helle, sehr lecker, i wish they had these 2 in blighty, a budweiser makes me feel poorly if i have one at home now. As for real ale folk, i think the Viz magazine 'the real ale Tw@#s' sums it up perfectly. chow

Chow, you having something to eat?

Do you brew your own?

I dont like to brag...... chow=tschus

Really, I thought it was Ciao?

No, its "Chow", he has a dog.

Bud and Bud light cost $1.15 a bottle where I work..I wouldn't dream of paying more than that.

Dally in made up story shock.

If people can't tell the difference between a cask and a keg then their beer has been served too cold. Put a line of bitters in front of me and I'll tell you which is the keg one, I can promise you that - I've done it before (In reverse of Dallys story, a couple of times I've had a Smiths or Boddies bought in error. You can easily tell the difference)

No problem with that just those who can't.

The annoying part is when you say that you think Smiths of Boddies is nice, at which point you're talked down to like a tramp in the street.

People eat or drink what they like. Others may consider it bland or unadventurous, but keep schtum and let everyone enjoy their ale, regardless of what it is.

I like it when you go into a pub where you ask for a bitter and it's hand pumped and the cheapest beer there (apart from the mild). I won't buy 'guest' beers anymore because depending on how well it's kept it can taste awful. If the normal bitter is a nitro keg one I'm usually happy enough with that because at least you know what you are getting. I'm not a fan of the real ales that are made to purposley taste distinct. Or the ones that a brewed to be strong. Give me one at around 3.6 - 4% anyday.

Had it in Germany and Austria. Very nice. Wouldn't buy it over here though. The experience wouldn't be the same.

Not every pub seems to have an interest in, or maybe an ability to, consistently serve high quality real ale. This isn't hard. but it's not easy either, you do need some idea, and you do need to have an interest. Nothing does more damage to the image of real ale than pubs which purport to stock it, but can't keep it properly, and consequently serve wildly inconsistent stuff, often sour rubbish.

Any decent real ale pub will be very happy to pull you a mouthful to try before you buy, for beers new to me, I do this all the time. You shouldn't have to buy a full glass of something you might not like, and its great customer relations too.


I understand what you mean, though (though there are landlords that incredibly manage to serve poor pints of even nitroe, somehow!!) - the reason you know what you are getting, in general, is because the product is dead as a dodo. As bereft of life as Python's parrot. First sterilised, then pasturised, and then the killed beer is mixed with a concoction of various gases, to give it back a fake appearance of being alive.


The thing is, [ievery[/i real ale tastes distinct. It even varies in taste from the really fresh, when the first pint is pulled, to the end of life after 2 or 3 days since as a living food, it slowly changes and eventually "goes off". I understand why people like consistency, I often do myself, and have my own favourites, but the thing would be to have your real ale of choice as your regular tipple. There are plenty at all strengths. But that is the thing about real ale, it isn't that it tastes "distinct", it is that it TASTES, it is several steps up the taste ladder from nitrokeg which is bland and featureless; indeed it is invariably served over-cooled to mask the lack of taste and appeal to lager drinkers where colder is better.

The fact is that beer is stuff suspended in water. Water is not tasteless, but the main taste is the stuff. The nitrokeg process filters out much of the stuff when they chill the beer to almost freezing point, which produces a chill haze, which they then pump through filters which remove the haze, as well as all yeast, bacteria and thereby much of the taste. And less tasty stuff is put in, in the first place; for example, using cheaper feed-grade barley instead of hops. So objectively, it has to be less tasty.

A few years ago, when I was living in Staffs, I looked after a friend's pub while she was on holiday. A barmpot barman put a keg of Caffrey's on the John Smith's pump, I only noticed when the Caffrey's ran out. Rather than bugger around swapping everything back over again and to keep the stock "right", I simply put the John Smith's on the Caffrey's pump. Not one person noticed.

I think I may be going through a bit of a mid-life crisis. For somebody who has drank Stella for the last thirty years, and may I say, a considerable amount of it, I've suddenly got into the Bombardier that my landlord has had recently installed. Been enjoying it as well. And incidentally, it's a bloody lot easier to neck a couple of gallon of that in an all day sesh than a couple of gallons of Artois.

When your regular crowd of mates includes a person who has worked in a major brewery laboratory for the whole of his working life, it can be a pain in the bum to walk into a random pub anywhere and be told by him that the Tetleys is off, when you can't taste anything wrong with it, he'll then go on to tell you how old it is and which part of the country it was brewed in (these days).

On the other hand when in a real ale pub we'll stand him at the bar to taste all of the samplers and pick the best one for us all - thats when he's useful.


PS - something in beer and wine kicks off migraine in me, every time, without fail, I therefore do not touch alcoholic drinks, but I love a "proper" beer and will often risk one, or even if I'm dicing with death, two pints.