The brewers compete to produce the most extreme or bizarre flavour they can, egged on by people who award prizes at beer festivals. It's like single malts versus Irish whiskey and bourbon.
And beer's too strong now. The default setting for beer in the UK and Czechoslovakia used to be 3.5% or just above, whereas now it starts at 5.
Now look at this:
When I was in a Young's pub recently I saw that the 'sleeve notes' on the pump badge described Young's bitter as 'the original Pale Ale', and in a Greene King pub, my wife tried their 'Indian Pale Ale', which was nothing of the kind - it was what they until recently sold as bitter. The other ales were IPA Gold, which they used to call IPA, and IPA Reserve, a stronger version of what they used to call bitter.
I also note that of the 50 beers advertised in Wetherspoon's house mag for their recent Real Ale Festival, the descriptions of 26 of them feature the words 'pale', 'golden' or 'amber-coloured'.
Where (or more importantly, when) will this madness end?
This is a concern to me as well having grown up drinking mild.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2015/may/08/craft-beer-mild-robinsons-campaign-for-real-ale-camra
Things you don't need to know...but
My dad used to buy me a half of mild when I was a youngster after brass band practise (Chorley Silver brass band) in a pub in Chorley. He was a light-weight like I am now...there was also a bar upstairs in our rehearsal room where I would wait until everyone had left and I'd pilfer a Babycham and Cherry B to drink later in bed, such a sophisticated taste in one so young.
Pale ales give me a headache...
I have just come back from sweden where they only sell 3% beer in the supermarkets...funnily enough, I didn't get a hangover once, so I will be searching out weaker beer in future.
R
3.5%, Robin. It's called Folköl - People's Beer.
ReplyDeleteBob the Booze Boffin
Tend to agree with you on this Bob - but let's not paint too rosy a picture of the beers of our youth.
ReplyDeleteRemember "Watneys Bleedin' Red Barrel" - ghastly rusty water with added fizz much beloved by Benidorm's early pioneers.
Or Worthington 'E', which, despite it's name, did not induce a state of ecstacy when consumed. Heartburn and a dose of the squitters yes, but ecstacy no.
That said, keg bitter induced diarrhoea is still preferable to drinking a fruit flavoured fucking lager.
Ah, the beers of our youth. Bland to begin with and usually badly kept. In pubs where we were the ones who were shouting our heads off and taking all the seats.
ReplyDeleteVery good article - beer is certainly better than it was when first encountered (remember how they used to empty the slop tray back into pints?), but risks now being too on trend for its own good. I shall tweet this article to my 51 followers, so stand by for an avalanche.
ReplyDeleteYoung Phillips was in the Roscoe Head recently and observed a man having a pint of cask bitter recommended by the bar staff. He almost spat his first mouthful out protesting that if was like a pint of Dairy Milk chocolate. He grumbled that he'd just been served a pint of fruit juice in another pub.
ReplyDeleteUntil recently Thwaite's Original was a safe bet. No longer it seems - the pint we had in the Clock had more than a hint of a squeeze of lemon added. And back to the Roscoe, and a pint of once creamy, soapy, malty, biscuity Tetley's....yes it too has been 'modernised' with a horrible citrus bitter lingering aftertaste.
Guinness next time.
Yes, brewed by Marston's since last year. Same with Jenning's. Three bottles of "Jenning's" Cumberland Ale gave me a dreadful hangover the other day, whereas 5 bottles of Budvar, 3 bottles of Tuborg and 2 tumblers of Norwegian Aquavit a few days later left me more or less untouched the day after (apart from dehydration when I got up).
ReplyDeleteAnd Tetley Bitter is too!: "Marston's brews Draught Bass for A-B InBev and Tetley's Bitter, Mild and Dark Mild for Carlsberg" - Wikipedia entry for Marston's. Chances are "Thwaites" original and "Tetley" bitter are now identical apart from the badge on the pump.
ReplyDelete