Scotch tastes depending on season and weather

To some degree people in the UK don't have a choice as the vast majority of pub owning companies severely restrict what beers can be served. When people vote with their feet many show that they are very fussy about what they drink. Witness the record numbers of visitors to the numerous beer festivals that take place in the uk and in particular the GBBF which attracted the largest number of visitors ever last week. In addition, virtually every micro-brewery in the UK is running flat out to meet demand for decent beers.

Reply to
Brett...
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I suspect a semantic issue here - and we've been here before. "Lager" means different things to different nations. I think it better to use the term "British lager" when referring to the sugar waters that such as Fosters that are produced in the UK. However even here the goalposts are moving - witness the cask lager produced by Cains.

I don't think anyone on the European mainland uses the term lager to refer to a beer style as such. Though Laurance will confirm :-)

Reply to
Brett...

In terms of the UK, in the good old bad old days it was easy to categories the baddies as the big six national brewers. Today, by and large these big national brewers have all gone to be replaced by international companies but many of the cask beers on sale under their names are contract brewed elsewhere. A glance at the Good Beer Guide shows that there are a small number of UK brands that are still produced by a "mega-brewery"? Any advance on Carlsberg, Leeds (Tetleys), Coors, Burton (Worthingtons) and John Smiths, Tadcaster (John Smiths and some Theakstons)

Reply to
Brett...

Real ale was the only beer sector to show a 2004 increase over 2003 in pub sold beer.... Pub sales are declining as more people choose to buy in the supermarkets and drink at home.

However one the brewing corporation front, about 3 months ago I caught an edition of the food program which investigated the brewing of "lager" in the UK.

One small independent one man brewer, somewhere in Kent, produces traditional pilsner type beer, fermented at and lagered at, I think O degrees C, definitely for a minimum of 28 days to convert much of the sugar to alcohol, and to allow NATURAL carbon dioxide to form and allow the pilsner to be served in tip-top and natural condition. In the same program a representative of Carling was describing the brewing process of their premium shit.. pops sorry lager. It's fermented and then lagered at FIVE degrees C for a massive seven days!!!!!!!!!!! The spokeswoman then said, this produces a lighter cleaner lager, of a style the customer prefers... She neglected to say it's stiffed of chemicals and gases to make it even remotely drinkable to the most undiscerning palate.

No wonder we were driven to whisky in the 60s.... Because many of the real ales were not of a good standard, and many of us didn't know the difference.

I got switched on to malt whisky in 1969, and to real ale in 1974.

Roger

Reply to
Renko

A number of small breweries are brewing contintental style beers that are very drinkable... Harvistoun Schiehallion and Cains Lager are probably the most famous but look out for other such as Enville Saaz, Osset Silver King and the very tasty Malvern Hills Preisssnitz Plzen.

I'd argue that the biggest problem with the 60's in terms of beer was the start of the big "keg revolution" but yes I'd agree that by and large the quality of cask ales today is much better, despite the fact that good cellermanship skills are not as widespead as they should be.

Reply to
Brett...

From the German word to store, lagers represent a major family of beers. They have a longer and cooler fermentation period than ales, and are brewed with bottom-fermenting yeast. Most German and North American beers are lagers.

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Brian

Reply to
BrianW

I am fairly sure you must be talking about the Hopdaemon brewery, run singlehandedly by a chap called Tonie Prins, and the beer in question would be Green Daemon, which is indeed a pilsner-style beer at 5% abv. I've never had it on draught, only bottled, but it is wonderful.

(One or other of the beers from the Hopdaemon range has won the champion beer at Kent Beer Festival nearly every year since it started up something like four or five years ago. Tonie has recently moved from just outside Canterbury to a larger site in Newnham, near Faversham, to cope with the huge demand for his superb beers. Skrimshander IPA is my personal favourite, but any of his beers are well worth trying if you ever come across them - the only shame is that they aren't more widely available outside east Kent.)

d.

Reply to
davek

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