Hi,
I just got back from England where I had many a pint. I would usually just ask for a bitter when I'd walk into a pub and I'd usually get something warm, flat, bitter and hand-drawn.
Twice it happened that I'd ask for a bitter and end up with a pint of Boddingtons.
This confused me as I've never thought of Boddingtons as a bitter, it doesn't taste like one.
Was I just running into clueless bartenders or is Boddingtons considered by some to be a bitter?
Richard
I've had cask ales served that way. Better yet, I've had cask ales served like they're supposed to be: coolish but not chilled, lightly carbonated but not flat, well-balanced with hop bitterness, and yes, drawn from the cask via the beer engine's handpump, or simply dispensed via gravity.
One would think after the first time, you'd know better. A good pub serving real ale will have pump clips on the handles, or a list some- where, that will tell you what real ales are on. Boddington's is not likely to be one of them, since it's mostly nitrokeg crap.
Years ago, Boddingtons was a bitter. Then Twitbread dumbed it down into a nitrokeg product, and Interbrew have continued the, um, tradition.
The beer known as Boddington's Bitter was once a cask-conditioned bitter. It's now a flavorless, boring nitrokeg ale. And that's what you got. Next time, avoid pubs carrying Twitbread product; Manchester is a great pub town, but people who actually like real ale know to head to places that do a good job with it, and feature local beers like JW Lees, Hyde's, Holts, Robinson's, and others. The Rain Bar, Peveril of the Peak, and Briton's Protection are three good pubs all quite close to each other, and all have good beers on; the Rain Bar is a Lees showcase pub, and the beers are usually in excellent shape.
A lot of pubs especially in the north of england, call all dark beers 'bitter'. So if you arent having a pint of lager..your having a pint of bitter
Well, I agree with lots of your observations, here. I just thought that Boddingtons was kind of a lame beer. In fact, I went back to my microbrewed faves, such as Woodstock IPA. I'm just a lady who appreciates hops (understatement!), I guess, and Boddingtons, failed the grade, IMO. I mean, I thought British ales were supposed to be like really hoppy... This beer was almost sour but not bitter, and it took longer to get a buzz, despite the fact that I'm really small. I see no value in this beer, but it's better than so much American crap, flavorwise.
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