Good Beer Guide 2014

[beorhthelm]

Out of interest, what real ales did you buy, and in what supermarket. Our local stores no longer do them, well, they do Sierra Nevada in Waitrose, but that's American, and that's about it.

St Peters Golden ale (drinking now) and Hepworth Old Ale, from Waitrose as it goes which had good half dozen from Darkstar and Hepworth. their range was much more varied than Tescos, but then even there i see Arundal Gold, Hogback TEA, the glorious Timmy Taylor Landlord alongside your known ales (become rather partial to the Speckled Hen). i fear theres a technicality that excludes all these loverly beverages.

But decent lager brewed to the purity laws is proper beer, which is actually what CAMRA are promoting. Some of their snobbery towards this is pathetic.

see, even the "purity laws" are snobish too, for example wheatbeers dont count. i think the problem with CAMRA is they have too narrow a definition of "real" which basically mean unpasturised or treated in anyway.

 

[CheeseRolls]

But decent lager brewed to the purity laws is proper beer, which is actually what CAMRA are promoting. Some of their snobbery towards this is pathetic. But then you look at the social misfits that make up a larger chunk of the CAMRA demographic and it is no surprise.

So let me get this straight. The CAMRA good beer guide, written by social misfits, target audience social misfits, should do more to promote German/Czech lager, rather than the fantastic broad range of beers brewed in this country ?

Actually their members bi-monthly paper, regularly include articles on beers from all over the world and real cider. Maybe you should take a look, you might learn a thing or two.

 

[Superphil]

But decent lager brewed to the purity laws is proper beer, which is actually what CAMRA are promoting. Some of their snobbery towards this is pathetic. But then you look at the social misfits that make up a larger chunk of the CAMRA demographic and it is no surprise.

Agree with you regarding the lager brewed to purity laws etc, but it's still, in the main, pasteurised (dead) by the time it gets to the consumer, therefore it isn't real ale, by their definition, they are sticking to their remit. Perhaps someone needs to set up the Campaign for well produced beers that are not secondary fermented in the cask. FWIW I am an avid consumer of beers that are not real ales, I have no axe to grind with CAMRA, they have their rules and stick to them, currently my favourites are beers brewed in the USA, as well as some of Brewdogs current offers.

 

[Uncle Buck]

So let me get this straight. The CAMRA good beer guide, written by social misfits, target audience social misfits, should do more to promote German/Czech lager, rather than the fantastic broad range of beers brewed in this country ?

Actually their members bi-monthly paper, regularly include articles on beers from all over the world and real cider. Maybe you should take a look, you might learn a thing or two.

Not everyone likes the beers that are traditional to this country, you may.

Not sure I need to learn a thing or 2 about beers that I do not like, but thanks for the heads up.

 

[Superphil]

St Peters Golden ale (drinking now) and Hepworth Old Ale, from Waitrose as it goes which had good half dozen from Darkstar and Hepworth. their range was much more varied than Tescos, but then even there i see Arundal Gold, Hogback TEA, the glorious Timmy Taylor Landlord alongside your known ales (become rather partial to the Speckled Hen). i fear theres a technicality that excludes all these loverly beverages.



see, even the "purity laws" are snobish too, for example wheatbeers dont count. i think the problem with CAMRA is they have too narrow a definition of "real" which basically mean unpasturised or treated in anyway.

All lovely bottled beers, produced by very good real ale breweries but sadly they are pasteurised before bottling, hence they are not real ales. The pasteurisation means that the beer does not secondary ferment in the vessel, therefore does not meet the criteria to be called real ale. Timmy Taylor's Landlord is a fine bottled beer, as indeed is Harvey's Blue Label, and the Hepworth beers in bottles are very nice indeed.

 

[beorhthelm]

Not sure I need to learn a thing or 2 about beers that I do not like, but thanks for the heads up.

next time you're in Tescos or whereever, venture down to the ale section and try a couple of beers under the "golden ale" name. usually quite similar to lagers. Fursty Ferret would be a good plce to start.

All lovely bottled beers, produced by very good real ale breweries but sadly they are pasteurised before bottling, hence they are not real ales.

i feared as much. pretentious nonsence imo, if the pub cask version is considered "real" than let it ride for the sake of decent product getting on the shelf. im drawing the line at the tetleys, john smith and the like. and is Sierra Nevada really unpasturised?

 

[CheeseRolls]

Not everyone likes the beers that are traditional to this country, you may.

Not sure I need to learn a thing or 2 about beers that I do not like, but thanks for the heads up.

They write articles about German and Czech beer. You don't tend to see the word lager used, as this is not a recognised beer style, rather a fermentation method. Most of what you like is probably Pilsner style beer.

Traditional beer styles in this country are being swamped by a wave of new styles with brewing techniques and recipes borrowed from around the world. CAMRA provides a huge amount of information on this, even if it is more specific in the beer styles it actively promotes.

 

[Uncle Buck]

next time you're in Tescos or whereever, venture down to the ale section and try a couple of beers under the "golden ale" name. usually quite similar to lagers. Fursty Ferret would be a good plce to start.

Trust me, been there done it and do not like them.

A decent German beer over those any day.

All a matter of taste, that is all.

 

[vegster]

next time you're in Tescos or whereever, venture down to the ale section and try a couple of beers under the "golden ale" name. usually quite similar to lagers. Fursty Ferret would be a good plce to start.



i feared as much. pretentious nonsence imo, if the pub cask version is considered "real" than let it ride for the sake of decent product getting on the shelf. im drawing the line at the tetleys, john smith and the like. and is Sierra Nevada really unpasturised?

Eh ? Ferret is rubbish, surely Golden Glory by the same brewer is a Golden Ale ? Schoolboy Error !

 

[beorhthelm]

Eh ? Ferret is rubbish, surely Golden Glory by the same brewer is a Golden Ale ? Schoolboy Error !

pitching the golden ale as they are the cross over imo, though different. Ferrert the most lager like tasting ale. put the name "Furststein" on the bottle and the lager drinkers would lap it up.

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

Stick to Cornish Orchards.

Good one.

I'm right though, the JH doesn't serve decent Harveys very often. The worse thing is that they think they do.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Trust me, been there done it and do not like them.

A decent German beer over those any day.

All a matter of taste, that is all.

Suggest you go write your own pub guide. Looking forward to reading that one.

 

[Diego Napier]

The Reservoir is a lovely little local pub, always has some interesting beers on and does nice Thai food in the evening and a very good Sunday roast to boot.

Looking at the list of pubs in the Lewes section, how many of those are Harvey's pubs I wonder ? It could well be a duplication of the irrelevant as if you can't find a pint of Harveys in Lewes where could you ?

Only one of the 7 last time I did a pub crawl there last year, the John Harvey Tavern

 

[Superphil]

i feared as much. pretentious nonsence imo, if the pub cask version is considered "real" than let it ride for the sake of decent product getting on the shelf. im drawing the line at the tetleys, john smith and the like. and is Sierra Nevada really unpasturised?

Not really, real ale has a definition, it is not ambiguous, it cannot be misinterpreted. It has to be unpasturised, and have secondary fermentation or conditioning in the cask or bottle.

"Beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide. The heart of the definition is the maturation requirements. If the beer is unfiltered, unpasteurised and still active on the yeast, it is a real ale; it is irrelevant whether the container is a cask or a bottle."

Sierra Nevada is bottle conditioned, it is real ale.

 

[fatboy]

So let me get this straight. The CAMRA good beer guide, written by social misfits, target audience social misfits, should do more to promote German/Czech lager, rather than the fantastic broad range of beers brewed in this country ?

Actually their members bi-monthly paper, regularly include articles on beers from all over the world and real cider. Maybe you should take a look, you might learn a thing or two.

There was a great article in this month's magazine about a man who went to Germany for a week to sample different beers. Cologne to Munich to Bamberg to Berlin to Dusseldorf.

It could have been written by Uncle Buck.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

But decent lager brewed to the purity laws is proper beer, which is actually what CAMRA are promoting. Some of their snobbery towards this is pathetic. But then you look at the social misfits that make up a larger chunk of the CAMRA demographic and it is no surprise.

Totally with you on this. CAMRA's original remit was to promote decent beer and oppose mass produced rubbish. When they started this meant supporting real ale. They based their now archaic definition of "good" around this. But, time has moved on and there are now hundreds of breweries producing fantastic beers which we, and CAMRA, should all champion. But CAMRA still cling to their 70s definition. There are loads of great beers which CAMRA overlook (or look down on) purely because they're stuck with their old idea of what beer is. Real ale is fine, but to claim you want good beer to prevail and to overlook German beers and craft beers is totally counter productive and small minded.

 

[vegster]

Only one of the 7 last time I did a pub crawl there last year, the John Harvey Tavern

Now that surprises me. I had a torturous New Years Eve do in Lewes last year and it was a stagger from one Harveys pub to another Harveys pub. Miserable night that won't be repeated.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Trust me, been there done it and do not like them.

A decent German beer over those any day.

All a matter of taste, that is all.

At the moment my favourites are Augustina Edelstoff and Andechs Spezial. Glorious. Check them out. When you coming to Berlin next?

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

Now that surprises me. I had a torturous New Years Eve do in Lewes last year and it was a stagger from one Harveys pub to another Harveys pub. Miserable night that won't be repeated.

There are 4 Harveys pubs in Lewes. The Swan, Rights of Man (?sp), The Dorset and The JHT. Only the JHT is in the Good Beer Guide. I can only presume it's in there as it's the brewery tap.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

They write articles about German and Czech beer. You don't tend to see the word lager used, as this is not a recognised beer style, rather a fermentation method. Most of what you like is probably Pilsner style beer.

This is debatable. Lager is German for storage and whilst the name does relate to the process I think it can be said that "lager" is a class of beers.