BEERS #2 - Beyond the Pale

[Blinder Data]

https://twitter.com/lyndsayva/status/1527996264138383360?t=ATp4hjO_7ukNfSGqxPCS1w&s=19

This was shared by Roger Protz, the most establishment beer writer in Britain. Is he anti-Monarchy? That'd be great!

Wiki says he's ex-Militant

[TrenterPercenter]

What is the consensus on drinking a beer (a can) that went out of date in January of this year?

It's this (given as a present due to novelty label which I then stuck on the booze shelf to display said novelty and then forgot all about it).



Probably grave innit

[shoulders]

Beer is generally alright for several months after bbe and even longer if its sour or dark strong ale.

Unfortunately with pale ale or lager it really is preferable for the vibrancy of the hops it gets drunk ASAP. Even coming up to expiry can be far from ideal for hoppy pales.

Even then, it'll be fine. Gerrit dahnyer, etc

[TrenterPercenter]

Yes Doctor Shoulders.  I will quaff it tomorrow after work have stuck it in the fridge so at least it will be so cold I can't really taste it.

[shoulders]

https://www.ft.com/content/e5a1417d-47f9-4245-a265-a66055ea81af

FT appear to agree lagers are now the in thing.

[Crenners]

King, hmu if you still in Czech x

[shoulders]

I'm in Slovakia but only tonight before my Komarno to Budapest train. Need a hand with anything?

[Crenners]

I'm in Slovakia but only tonight before my Komarno to Budapest train. Need a hand with anything?

More just for a meet up but cheers. Hope you have a brilliant trip and thanks again for all the advice.

[shoulders]

More just for a meet up but cheers. Hope you have a brilliant trip and thanks again for all the advice.

Great, I hope some of it has helped and fit in to whatever you're doing. I was in Prague last weekend and had a great time. I'm sure you will.

[Crenners]

Cheers. I'll defo report back.

[Psybro]

https://www.ft.com/content/e5a1417d-47f9-4245-a265-a66055ea81af

FT appear to agree lagers are now the in thing.

Just having a post dinner Ayinger Lager Hell and getting annoyed that I spent years avoiding lager because it was bastardised so heavily.

It tastes the way you imagine beer tastes when you haven't had one for a couple of weeks and the sun is out.  And this is just out of a bottle which isn't even the real deal.

[shoulders]

Agreed, though I find most bartenders in the UK are trained to pour shitty lager a certain way which can sometimes spoil otherwise good lager like Ayinger. Sometimes a bottle can be better.

Ayinger Lager Hell is a bit of a benchmark where pale lagers stop being a mediocre stopgap and become genuinely enjoyable to drink. Even in the Helles lager bracket there's plenty to explore from there.

Would recommend Augustiner Lagerbier Hell if you haven't tried that.

Other ones which may require a trip to a bottle shop:

Tegernsee Hell
Sonne Urtyp Hell
Wieselburger Stammbrau
Weissenohe Glocken Hell
Fischer Helles
Bayreuther Hell
Breitenlesauer Hell

[Crenners]

Feel like pure shit just want Ferdinand Ležák Světlý Max 11% back

[Psybro]

Would recommend Augustiner Lagerbier Hell if you haven't tried that.

We were down the Augustiner-Keller on my stag do but I think I was on the Dunkel like a poser.

[shoulders]

Feel like pure shit just want Ferdinand Ležák Světlý Max 11% back

In related Světlý Ležáky news, I was having of couple of half litres of their 10° in Omama, Bratislava only on Saturday night. Fml. That could also go down alongside Ayinger Lager Hell as a baseline that lager is simply not allowed in law to fall beneath. You could cunt away gallons of that stuff to the point where your arsehole frothed like an open mash tun.

[Crenners]

In related Světlý Ležáky news, I was having of couple of half litres of their 10° in Omama, Bratislava only on Saturday night. Fml. That could also go down alongside Ayinger Lager Hell as a baseline that lager is simply not allowed in law to fall beneath.

Amen. Never had something so perfectly, endlessly drinkable at any time of day or night. Joyous, comforting, alive. Already booked tickets to go back in winter.

[phes]

CAMRA continue their cringe extinction drive with this baffling nonsense that benefits nobody and nothing

[Blinder Data]

sad old men who can't handle a bit of head, when a good head is absolutely essential to a good pint

get in the bin, you smelly sandal bastards

[Psybro]

Just mandate oversize glasses, like the festival glasses I have at home that sit resentfully filled with 500ml cans.

[shoulders]

CAMRA continue their cringe extinction drive with this baffling nonsense that benefits nobody and nothing

Even people who moan about head on pints don't give that much of a fuck. They are bloody weird people, aren't they?

Plus, all that keg craft they're sniffy about is nearly always to the line due to the glassware used. There is a clue in there somewhere guys.

The lovely beer of Czechia will cure pretty much anyone of headphobia. Head locks in freshness, it increases the aroma of the beer, it is shit when it robs you of beer, but a head on a pint is fine. Better a Sheffield pint than a London one.

Anyone obsessed with getting exactly a pint should be forced to Partridge style bring their own special oversized glass into a pub.

[Crenners]

Fucking amen.

I couldn't believe the size of the Czechia head at first and then I was like oh shit it's like drinking fresh milk from Eve's tit after you been living off UHT for life. Keep your extra 15ml of morgue runoff you fucking CAMRA losers.

[Psybro]

Just thinking about how staggeringly untrained somebody has to be to pour a pint bad enough that I will be willing to overcome the social awkwardness to actually ask for a top-up.

On the one hand I've had more than one pint of bitter that was about a third head.  That person must know what a normal pint of bitter looks like, I assume they were sleep deprived.  Then you had people at the student union who didn't know better asking for their perfect pour of Leffe topped up to the brim (which would amount to about £2 of free beer if granted, which it was not).

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

Anyone have a milko in Prague? Pure head for about 35p and you drink it like a shot apparently. Didn't try one.

[shoulders]

Mliko looks like head, but it's a kind of blend between the beer and head. Something inbetween that's of a drinkable consistency.

As far as I'm aware it has no major heritage and is just a showoff thing by Pilsner Urquell who use side pull taps (sometimes Lukr which retail around £200 a pop, sometimes off brand knock offs) which are more difficult to use but more powerful in terms of altering and tweaking a beer pour.

I was fortunate enough to be in Headrow House several years ago perhaps the few times they had a trained tapster let loose and he poured a mliko and a snyt for us to try (gratis, i think he was bored).

Mliko drinkable but I don't think I'd bother again.

Also with either a 0.3 or 0.5 serving that will be difficult and possibly unpleasant to try and down like a shot.

If you're in Prague, the chain Lokal will pour any type you want. As far as I know there's :

- Hladinka (the regular pour you see everywhere
. 3 fingers of foam)
- Mliko (see above)
- Snyt (like a German Schnitt pour, a half with a big head so you can look manly having a bigger looking beer than a small measure, normally if you have 10 minutes to kill and want to hang out in the pub with your friends until it is time to leave. Normally tastes rawer and less smooth as the tap is left open with the effect of producing the head. PU are trying to turn this into a taste style whereas its heritage is purely social, although at least it has a heritage)
- Cochtan (an English style pour with little head... Almost totally unpopular but not unheard of)
- Dvakrat (Two times. So the first pour goes in quickly and produces copious head, then the 2nd is poured with the tap sunk into the glass to top it up, about a minute later. Budvar have popularised this, possibly just for a point of difference over Pilsner Urquell)

[Crenners]

Many many would disagree but I read that and thought wow that's fascinating! Cheers.

[shoulders]

All this preoccupation with pours comes from a simpler time before multitaps where most central European pubs would have 1 tapped beer and the main point of difference customers would remark on was how well it was kept and poured from place to place. Inevitably that became a bit of an artform in itself.

This is still the case in Madrid which goes to ludicrously perverse lengths to try and pretend Mahou can be rendered drinkable in certain bars because of how the tapster treats it. There is no polishing that turd. All that effort over total gash.

[shoulders]

Quick headsup, Greifenklau, one of Bamberg's highest rated brewers and hardly ever available outside even the Bamberg area just got shipped wholesale to the UK. Their lager is gonna be available in bottleshops now or soon. I haven't been to their pub yetas opening hours haven't been favourable and as its a little further out from the centre.

[shoulders]

Heron have a fuckload of PU in stock apparently. 79p a bottle (33cl)

[phes]

I love those stores. There's always something fascinating and stupidly cheap buried amongst the spoon meat and sticky potato pistols 

I'm drinking a can of Verdant's Fruit Car Sight Exhibition. If you're going to blow seven quid on a can of highly alcoholic fruit muck this weekend then try this one. Canned three weeks back and really as good as UK NEIPA gets. Especially impressive for an 8% beer which for me is usually alarm bells territory in this style

Last night I went on a Sheffield crawl determined largely by pubs that have quiz machines (actual quiz machines, not bandits) and beer wise it was a story of the variation in quality of cask. From lows of The Common Room and their off Ilkley Mary Jane (bubblegum and vinegar are not 'characteristics of this beer'), replaced by a shit pint of Neepsend Golden (half left behind) and The Damn House and their not very good Farmers Blonde, which the young lad had no idea how to pull and was advised to 'take that spout thingy off' by his equally clueless colleage. This to a high of The Blake Hotel and their exquisitely served Neepsend American Brown ale Melilae which was like a drink from the gods by comparison. Obviously the lesson to take from this is don't be a dick about it, just when in Rome etc. When a pub has one or two hand pulls and 36 taps of rubbish lager and fruited ciders then get a rubbish lager, or just leave. Also, nowhere on earth appears to sell Chartreuse, which is totally understandable but a terrible shame

[shoulders]

Yeah if the cask ale looks like a sad neglected afterthought don't bother. You're absolutely right, just get the lager.

Common Room haven't served a fresh pint of cask in their life. The North Brew Co stuff, or whatever it was called was a fucking joke.