What has happened to Fuller's London Pride?

Not sure it's changed, but I find as a Londoner that you have to choose the pub very carefully to get a decent fresh pint of Pride. Too many just c*ck it up.

M.

In message , marcb writes

Where you drink it makes a massive difference. If you try it outside London its usually a sad travesty of the real thing. In Midlands pubs its so malty I can't bring myself to drink it (apart from the Old Joint Stock of course).

Its another case of pubs not really knowing what a beer should taste like. In most of the country they seem to have got away with serving it green and decided that's what their customers actually want.

It also doesn't help if they serve it through a tight sparkler.

Brian

Which is true of any beer.

One of those pints was out of the bottle. Still the same.

The bottled version is slightly different. It's brewed a bit stronger and then pasteurised. Incidentally, it turned up in non-pasteurised cask-conditioned form at last year's Ealing Beer Festival as London Pride Export and was absolutely stunning.

I haven't noticed a decline in quality of Pride, and I drink a lot of it. I agree that it can be variable in different pubs, and especially outside London.

Why not visit

Cheers,

Martin

I think this is an understatement - in my experience Pride (and other beers of course) can differ wildly. Sadly, much of my experience these days in London except in a few trusted outlets is to encounter that dreaded sour off smell before even tasting, Then if you make the mistake of accepting it about a quarter of the way down you think - yes it is off. Of course, even if you reject it they go on serving it to others who appear not to notice. The two common beers I find round my way that are particulaly prone to this are Pride and Green King IPA.

M.

I wish I knew why this was the case. It's not a particularly difficult beer to keep. I work at a club which sells lots of Pride. All we do is get it up on the stillage as soon as possible after it arrives and tap it 2-3 days before we want to sell it. It usually sits on the stillage for 4-5 days before being tapped. We never have any problems with it dropping bright or with the conditioning. Reg Drury (ex-head brewer from Fuller's) has commented that it's one of the best pints he's tasted.

The only thing I can think is that other outlets just don't turn it over fast enough. We shift plenty of it so it never hangs around long. Other than that, we don't do anything special, we just do the basics right.

Basic cellarmanship is not hard - it's depressing how many pubs can't even manage this.

Martin

Ain't that the truth...

Cheers

Blackfire band website :

Bristol & District Campaign for Real Ale :

Not according to CAMRA, who list in the GBG which beers can and cannot be served through a sparkler. Mostly northern beers can, and southern beers can't.

Brian

I've had a similar problem with a Robinson's seasonal ale recently. It didn't taste quite right - then I realised that there was just a hint of vinegar.

Thief's Kneck Woodford, Peter - where I had the worst ever pint of Robbies best bitter a few years ago - completely off.

Brian

Perhaps it's just what you get used to, but I live in the north and I always ask for the sprinkler off, whatever beer I'm drinking. I don't understand this attachment to heads that northerners seem to have. You're diddling yourself out of a full pint for one thing, and do brewers really adjust the brew so that it will taste better if it's forced through a narrow space into the glass?

Er, no actually. I think you'll find "Northeners," are amongst the most vociferous in demanding a full pint. It's a full pint+a head, I think you'll find. Do I really want to revisit the sparkler debate? Oh, all right then. Most beers (pub wise), are actually improved by having a sparkler used on them. There, I've said it.

Given the choice I prefer beers served without a sparkler. I have memories of a pub in Stockport (Robinson's) where the sparkler was so tight that it took several minutes to get a full pint into the glass - and there was a significant amount of spillage in the process. So I'm not clear how this helps either the pub or the beer.

Once at a pub in Glos I was served a pint with the sparkler on. It seemed rather bland, so I asked for it to be removed for the second pint, and the improvement in taste was quite noticeable.

Brian

Well, I don't know. I'm the only person I know up here who asks for the sprinkler off all the time. Most drinkers up here in Lancashire are quite insistent that a head improves the taste of beer. I just let them get on with it and start drinking my pint, which is bigger than theirs.

It's a full pint+a head, I

Maybe when we have lined glasses in all pubs, but they're not that common in the pubs where I live.

Perhaps it's just what you get used to. I started drinking real ale seriously in London so was used to flat pints.

And I know this will sound silly, but I don't like that frothy soft cushion forming on your lip. It's very slightly off-putting.

I remember a landlord who pulled a fraction of a pint with the sparkler full on and then unscrewed it for the rest of the pint. Said you het the head without spoiling the beer that way!

In message , Vale of Belvoir drinker writes

I'm happy with beer poured straight out of the cask (or whatever it's in). The Victorians believed beer engines spoilt the taste.

erm surely this is a recommendation by the brewer, not a dictum by CAMRA?

Some brewers, mostly in Yorks(?) say that they do brew beer specifically to taste a certain way after it's been thru a sparkler. Not that they "adjust" the brew, but that they expect the beer to be served with a head, & know that a sparkler strips some hop compuonds from the beer below the head, so they perhaps add more in the first place?

What they do about condition (lost thru sparkler use) I'm not sure, as there's only so much you can get in a cask beer before you either have problems of closures, taps, spiles, etc being forced out, or the condition stirs the yeast back into suspension?

something which is impossible to do in most pubs' glasses as they are brim-fill pints (as has been previously, ad nauseumly said).

What have you said? - as far as I can see what you've said is "I prefer beers served thru a sparkler" lots of people prefer beers served without.

Ideally I like some amount of head, a good amount of condition in the beer & a full pint, but the chances of all 3 in the same glass are pretty slim (off hand I think I could name just one pub in easy reach of me which has oversized pints)

In my experience, many drinkers equate the presence of head with lively fresh beer; when the exact opposite might be true & certainly some of the condition has been knocked out of the beer as it came through the sparkler. To rid a cask-conditioned beer of much of its precious natural condition (that thing which defines it as real ale) & also to take some of its hop-flavour seems an odd thing to me. cheers MikeMcG

As anyone who reads CAMRA's policy info (which is also on public leaflets) will know. The information come from people speaking to the brewer and the printed item reflects the brewers view on how the beer is best served.

An interesting comment as the vast majority of people (including those who like hoppy beers) think Tetley Bitter is drinkable when served through a sparkler and fairly vile when served without. (I leave aside the school of thought that says Tetley isn't worth drinking either way round)

Probably a "trained in" expectation of blandness Mike. I keep coming across people who don't like specific brews which all seem to have the same basic quality: *taste*

It seems the objection is not that they are hoppy or malty or fruity or whatever, but rather that they actually taste of something.