Off: BEER

[Richard Lockwood]

I always said that Mr Warburton was a fine man of distinction, quality,
finese and extreme good taste.

(Although I've had many a good night on the Marston's Cooking Bitter, and
more than a few on the MM.  Timothy Taylor sell a fine ale called "Ram Tam",
which is Landlord with added caramel - it's also a fine ale, just not to the
standard of the original Landlord.  Merrie Monk much the same.)

As regarding London beers, my local pub sells a fine pint of Fuller's London
Pride, but this evening I went for a few ales with some friends from my old
work (the company has relocated, and today being my first day in my new job,
I realised that they're just down the road from us), and had some truly
splendid pints of Young's Special.  I can't really pick between a good pint
of Fuller's and a good pint of Youngs.  (Obviously, a pint of Fuller's is
better in Chiswick and a pint of Young's is better in Wandsworth...)

As I said, a man of great taste.

:-)

Cheers,

Rich.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Warburton, Chris (OAG)" <CWarburton at OAG.COM>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 11:42 AM
Subject: Re: Off: BEER


> -----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
>