Does anyone remember when Watneys/Grand Met brought out handpumped cask Hammertons Porter back in, as I recall, 1984 (as part of their row with Guinness over the trade priced of DG)? Absolutely delicious - when it hadn't turned to vinegar because of low turnover. The trouble indeed with dark cask beers is that not enough people try them to find out how great they are, so they aren't produced in sufficient quantities for enough people to try them - and so on and round and round down the plughole. What about a porter beer festival in London, to celebrate the capital's first great contribution to world beer styles, featuring only porters?
What surprises me a lot when looking for good ales in London, is that with a GBG on hand I can manage to find some good cask ale, OK; but it is almost invariably bitter/best bitter, no matter if by a national, regional or micro. (only exceptions a Young's winter ale and this London Porter, besides the keg stouts at the Porterhouse). For me, the only way to get something different has been Festivals, like GBBF or Catford, where the "dark" part seemed to be a good 25-30% if I am not wrong. (BTW, at Catford Festival, one of the Camra guy that was selling the tickets, seeing my Unionbirrai T-shirt and knowing that it is an EBCU-CAMRA-affiliated association, immediately directed me to the stout-porter section...;-))
So I would like to find, say, a 10% "share" of milds, porter and stouts (and winter and old ales when in season) in Pubs, while il looks like we are closer to 1% (or am I wrong?) I would think that people that drink real ale are "discerning" (sp?) drinkers, who dare to taste such a "special" beer like real ale; so they could dare to drink something less usual such as Stouts etc...
Another surprise is - as I was saying before - seeing so many "different" beers in festivals. So they DO brew these... are they brewed mainly for festivals? Or is the situation outside London different?
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