[Wanderer]

Re: O/T Who's round next? - Yet More Tales of Real Ale : Tue Sep 24, 2019 9:12 am  

The next Wetherspoons Real Ale Festival will (officially) run from Wednesday 9 October until Sunday 20 October 2019.

40 ales will be available this time, marking 40 years since founder Tim Martin opened his first outlet in 1979. 35 UK and 5 International breweries will be represented.

Re: O/T Who's round next? - Yet More Tales of Real Ale : Tue Sep 24, 2019 2:20 pm  

Wanderer wrote:

A few recent highlights ...

Starting with a couple of very enjoyable repeats (in the Lower Angel, Warrington) ...

Tiny Rebel Stay Puft 5.2%, the excellent marshmallow porter.
Empire Rum Porter 4.7%, a very nice smokey rum infused porter.

And a new one in Little Plough, Doncaster ...

Kansas Avenue Tornado Alley 3.7%, a copper coloured best bitter which has a malt & caramel aroma. Taste is similar with toffee and a hint of spice. A decent best bitter.

Not wishing to start WW3, I take Ordinary bitter to mean abv up to 4.1% ...
Best bitter from 4.2% to 4.7% ...
Premium bitter from 4.8%
Why is 3.7% bitter, best bitter?

Re: O/T Who's round next? - Yet More Tales of Real Ale : Tue Sep 24, 2019 2:44 pm  

Some light reading on the subject https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_(beer) https://www.winning-homebrew.com/Best-Bitter.html Whilst looking this up on the all seeing Google eye, an advert popped up for Co Op best bitter at 2.8%. I would let the Grandkids have that with their school pack up. (just kidding Social services)

Some light reading on the subject https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_(beer) https://www.winning-homebrew.com/Best-Bitter.html Whilst looking this up on the all seeing Google eye, an advert popped up for Co Op best bitter at 2.8%. I would let the Grandkids have that with their school pack up. (just kidding Social services)

[Wanderer]

Re: O/T Who's round next? - Yet More Tales of Real Ale : Tue Sep 24, 2019 3:25 pm  

Wilf Grimshaw wrote:

Some light reading

[Wanderer]

Re: O/T Who's round next? - Yet More Tales of Real Ale : Tue Sep 24, 2019 3:28 pm  

Stand-Offish wrote:

Not wishing to start WW3, I take Ordinary bitter to mean abv up to 4.1% ...
Best bitter from 4.2% to 4.7% ...
Premium bitter from 4.8%
Why is 3.7% bitter, best bitter?

Looks like the boundaries change or people make mistakes (me included) ... the 'light reading' offered above has best bitter from 3.8% but that still wouldn't cover this one ... perhaps it's simply my bad.

Re: O/T Who's round next? - Yet More Tales of Real Ale : Tue Sep 24, 2019 7:45 pm  

Well folk march to the bar and say a pint of your best bitter landlord.
Thinking it means your finest ...
Only a few know roughly what best bitter is.

Re: O/T Who's round next? - Yet More Tales of Real Ale : Wed Sep 25, 2019 7:39 am  

Stand-Offish wrote:

Well folk march to the bar and say a pint of your best bitter landlord.
Thinking it means your finest ...
Only a few know roughly what best bitter is.

I deduce from the guff above (not your post) that best bitter is open to translation. And with most thing concerning the palate it may come down to ones own preference (taste) I always thought that a pale ale was just that and not a bitter. But most traditional pale ales would have matched the bitter description. If you stick to the best bitter tag my personal favourite would be the redefined Barnsley BB brewed really well by Acorn and by Stancill.

[Wanderer]

Re: O/T Who's round next? - Yet More Tales of Real Ale : Wed Sep 25, 2019 7:53 am  

Wilf Grimshaw wrote:

I deduce from the guff above (not your post) that best bitter is open to translation. And with most thing concerning the palate it may come down to ones own preference (taste) I always thought that a pale ale was just that and not a bitter. But most traditional pale ales would have matched the bitter description. If you stick to the best bitter tag my personal favourite would be the redefined Barnsley BB brewed really well by Acorn and by Stancill.

... and only 3.8% ...

The Acorn version is much improved at the Little Plough these days

Re: O/T Who's round next? - Yet More Tales of Real Ale : Wed Sep 25, 2019 11:14 am  

Wanderer wrote:

... and only 3.8% ...

The Acorn version is much improved at the Little Plough these days

And the price in the Plough is spot on.

Black Sheep arguably flag ship ale of Theakstons is the same abv and IMO a good degree more bitter in taste. However like most ales, Black sheep varies in taste because some pubs like the Plough keep their beers in good nick (no pun) and look after it, whereas some pubs don't appear to give a monkeys about the quality. (another subject sometime)

Re: O/T Who's round next? - Yet More Tales of Real Ale : Wed Sep 25, 2019 12:52 pm  

There as been a trend in recent times to lower abv to lower tax paid on said ale.
And yet not lower the price to the consumer.
Some like Carling (lager granted) even labelled their abv as at least 0.2% higher than it actually was.
And they even said that that is what their customers preferred, in their defence.
I thought fraud was fraud.
Anyway the point I am trying to make is that apart from smaller brewers that like to brew strong ales and charge accordingly, the larger brewers have shifted what may have been best bitters into the (ordinary) bitter bracket.
A case in point being John Smiths.
And yet call it a premium beer.
Nonsense!!