Off: BEER

[Warburton, Chris (OAG)]

-----Original Message-----
jjarrett wrote:
>>On Thu, Aug 15, 2002 at 02:25:37AM +0100, Richard Lockwood typed out:
>> Right you are - I got myself a job yesterday, so give it a month or so
>> for me to get paid, then the first couple of rounds are on me.
>>
>> First round, Marston's "Merrie Monk".
> > --MWB rant snipped-- < <
>You going to send the bottles out to Australia, Rich? What is Merrie Monk,
>anyway, not one of the Marstons I've encountered. They make a very dry beer

>by and large it seems to me, not bad, just unusual. Yours,
>Jon
Time to set the record straight on a few things here *G*

        Marstons Merrie Monk is Pedigree with some caramel added to make it
a dark beer - it certainly used to be the case that no pub actually IN
Burton bothered selling it.  Virtually nobody in the borough sold the
cookin' bitter either, since no self respecting native would bother drinking
it.  I did have a slightly strange mild altercation with a publican on the
Staffs/Cheshire border, who didn't really belive me when I told hi barmaid
that the Pedigree was "off".  I said "Here, try it yourself!", to which his
response was "There's no point, I don't drink it, I only ever drink the
bitter" - so, he obviously never even CHECKED his premium product - go
figure.  Needless to say, He's not running THAT pub any more.

        In the days when it had two weeks cask conditioning in the brewery
before shipping, Marstons Pedigree, when kept properly, was the finest
premium bitter bar none. I do concede that it disagrees with some people,
apparently partly due to the unique yeast strain which produces longer chain
alcohols in addition to good old Ethyl.

        Unfortunately, corporate bean-counters (I think from Whitbread, who
used to have a substantial holding) decided that in order to gain a windfall
profit equivalent to that two weeks worth of fine ale and never mind that
they were ruining the reputation of their flagship product.  Kinda like when
Bass took out their Burton Unions and went for secondary fermentation in
tanks.

Pedigree has recovered somewhat since then, but following the above
armageddon, the most consistently good beer that I had in that period was
definitely Taylor's Landlord.  That beer CAN travel, never had any problems
with it in Derbyshire, and it's always fine when it's a guest at Victoria
here in Dunstable; I think it's a question of receiving the appropriate TLC
from the pub landlord.

Youngs: we-e-e-ll-ll, it's alright, but for consistency & quality (again, it
may be to do with the general standard of the publicans) I reckon Fuller
Smith & Turner win hands down as producers of London beer(IMNSHO).

In general terms though, unless I have prior knowledge of quality ale in a
quality hotelry, I subscribe to the esteemed Mr. Lockwood's view that
drinking the local pop is generally the best option.

In defense of my somewhat arrogantly stated views, my excuse is that I grew
up in Burton Upon Trent, brewing capital of Britain, in the days when the
companies that sold the beer were still actually breweries, and since there
was basically *** all else to do in Burton, you became a beer connoisseur by
default.

Cheers
ChrisW