Favourite Beers

[Dean]

The thing I love about real ale.... the quality is noticable by the lack of a hang over the next morning.

MarkyB, £1.99 for a pint of cask is pretty normal (I thought) in most wetherspoons.

[linearaudio]

Adnams must have a beer for all tastes! Broadside is good in the winter if you don't have to do much afterwards. Lighthouse is probably my favourite summer beer, being refreshing but only 3.4 percent.
Finest recent memory is of a pint of Explorer from the Sole bay Inn in Southwold, this summer, sitting on the bench in front of the lighthouse, with Adnams brewery just across the road! A traditional proper ploughmans lunch was all that was needed to create Utopia

[sudburypaul]

Mr Audio,

For absolute Utopia take a trip down to the harbour at Southwold. Amongst the chandlers and boat builders is a chip shop - Mrs T's - fish and chips cooked to order fresh from the sea that day (not the chips obviously!) Then wander down to the pub at the crossing further down the river for the Adnams brew of choice (don't buy the chips there, too expensive and nowhere near as good). God bless Southwold for all its riches. I can feel my arteries clogging now...

[mike.perry]

The thing I love about real ale.... the quality is noticable by the lack of a hang over the next morning.

You obviouly have not tried a pint of "Dogs footballs". The reaction time is too rapid for it to last until morning. Felt fine at the beer fest, still felt fine being driven home. Went to bed and the ceiling started rotating, could not find the bedroom door etc.etc.

[lambrettalad]

I've changed my mine ,my new favourite is

the one in my hand

[Alec]

Hello all,

we are fortunate in the U.K. that we have a great variety of live beer readily available to us, generally called 'Real Ale'. Very few other countries sell it in any quantity. Strangely, the couple of times I've been to Dublin where real ale is brewed and sold they often serve it using CO2, rather defeats the purpose?

Alec

[moggiethouable]

Has anyone tried this beer?

http://www.westcountryales.co.uk/Teignw ... Old-Moggie

What a find! A top gift at rallies for the winners I would have thought.

[Dean]

Hello all,

we are fortunate in the U.K. that we have a great variety of live beer readily available to us, generally called 'Real Ale'. Very few other countries sell it in any quantity. Strangely, the couple of times I've been to Dublin where real ale is brewed and sold they often serve it using CO2, rather defeats the purpose?

Alec

CO2? Ale that now bloats your stomach... I hope it doesn't catch on over here.

The unfortunate thing with real ale is it tends to run out just as you start to get into a run of pints.

The other week I was about to enjoy my fourth pint of "Hobgoblin, Haloween limited edition" when the pump went splirt!



I had a choice of Green King 5.2%, ruddles or another I can't remember the name of. I decided to have three more pints ( I think) of the one I can't remember the name of.

[linearaudio]

[quote="Dean"
I had a choice of Green King 5.2%, ruddles or another I can't remember the name of. I decided to have three more pints ( I think) of the one I can't remember the name of.[/quote]

That says it all, Dean! The best times are often the ones you don't remember

On Southwold: Anyone passing by on the A12 who has never been there should do so!
What Sudbury Paul doesn't say is that you can get a bus ride in a 1940's ish single decker from the Tourist car park to the harbour, eat chips and have a decent pint, then take the man-powered ferry across the water to Walberswick and get smelly "crabbing" by the creek!

Absolute magic to see the reaction on the faces of children who have not been further than the arcades at Southend
(and the beaches are sand, not stone)

[sudburypaul]

And even more on Southwold: On the harbour is the local campsite, so in summer you have beer, fish 'n' chips, sand and sea, crabbing and tea and cake all within 5 minutes walk if you pitch your tent. I feel a Minor camping convention coming on for real ale and moggie owners - CAMRAMM (CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE and MORRIS MINORS).

I didn't know about the 1940's coach - I'll add it to my 'reasons to go to Southwold' list, thanks!

When I was restoring my BSA's there was also a great Brit bike shop in Southwold run by a guy called Len Baker - a real character and very knowledgable.

Another beer from my youth: Samuel Smith's bitter, guzzled in large quantities in the Linthorpe Arms, Middlesbrough on a Friday night after college.

[HarryMango]

I quite like a dark ale - Rutland Panther & Black Dog are scrummy.

Rog

[Trickydicky]

Had a pint of Hob Goblin at the branch meeting last night, that was a nice beer.

[chickenjohn]

I like Purity's UBU, but being a real ale freak I also like:

Doom Bar
Tribute
Double Dragon
to name a few! lol

I like Doom Bar as well. and Hobgoblin and Adnams and some of the others mentioned.

However, I'm a firm believer in local ales. What determines how nice a real ale is is not just how it was brewed but also how far it has travelled and how it has been kept.

I'm therefore a big fan now of Kentish ales. If you are ever in East Kent try one of the Gadds range of beers. If you can, drop by their micro brewery in Thanet and get a few pints in a bottle directly from the tap.

Or sample in one of the local free houses that stocks Gadds http://www.ramsgatebrewery.co.uk/ No7, No3 or seasider are lovely Draught beers. I also got a four pint bottle of a 6.5% Irregular blonde real ale called "Graduate" that was quite spectacular.

Another really nice local beer is Wantsum yellow tail.

Also, the landlord of my newly adopted local takes very good care of his ales and the best there at the moment is Shepherd Neame "Late Red", OK more of a mainstream beer but very nice in the Saddler, Minster it is! and I have tried plenty of samples!

My conclusion is that the best ale will always be local to you and well kept. So try your local pub or micro brewery!

[moggiethouable]

It warms the cockles of my heart to see people trying different beers instead of the "handbag" or "girly" that passes for beer/lager in the mass public houses.
"Vive le difference"[frame][/frame]

[Matt]

I've had a couple of bottles of Old Moggie and tbh I don't think its great.

My favourite pint is Dark Side brewed by the Orkney brewery, but I haven't been able to find it since the bar at university was redeveloped about 8 years ago

My current "easy to find" is Dark Side of the Moose, by the Purple Moose Brewery in Porthmadog (N Wales). The fact that the brewery shop is about 100 yards from the door of my diggs has nothing to do with it! All the beers they make are really good though! And I do like a drop of hobgoblin too!

[lowride stepside]

stella , red strip , or when I'm feeling all classey peroni , maybe I should change my user name to lowlife.
And my favorite thing about southwold is the clock on the peer and the delli pie shop .Lovely place

[lambrettalad]

I have to come clean ,I hate real ale,with a vengeance

I go to a pub in Ashover ,Derbyshire , the Poets corner,that specialises in Real Ale .

every time I order Carling they ring a blooming bell and the real alees cheer

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Here's a third who likes Doom Bar. In fact it was one of the best pints I ever had, having walked up and down Tarn Cragg in the Lakes I was ready for it.

Beer always tastes better when you've worked for it.

[Alec]

Hello Lambrettalad,

"I have to come clean ,I hate real ale,with a vengeance"

that is a very sweeping statement as there is a vast number of different tasting 'Real ales', a huge variety even more than there is of wines.

Alec

[StaffsMoggie]

Very true! There are certainly far more real ales and wines than there are fizzy, foul tasting, vile 'lagers'