noun. A beer so familiar and consistent that it can fairly be used as an indicator of the quality of an unfamiliar pub. For example, Young’s Bitter.
Archive for the ‘Generalisations about beer culture’ Category
Control beer
Thursday, February 4th, 2010It’s only beer
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Does anyone else get fed up of being told “it’s only beer” and not to take it too seriously?
Most people with hobbies know that the subject of their interest isn’t that important in the great scheme of things. Global financial crisis, climate change, careers, family — those are serious.
In our case, beer is something in which we’ve chosen to indulge our interest just seriously enough to occupy a few of the spare hours when we’re not worrying about all that other stuff.
We take lots of other things just as seriously, too — Bubble Bobble, the Beatles, curry, spaghetti westerns….
What’s the point of a hobby if you don’t thrown yourself into it?
Rants and eulogies
Saturday, November 14th, 2009Pete Brown has written a superb rant about the many headed beer industry. Read it here.
And then, for something completely different, a nice pair of posts on Pencil and Spoon, one where Mark writes about his long suffering missus, and then the right of reply from the long suffering missus herself. Other long-suffering beer widows have commented.
This could run and run.
Kids in the lounge
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
I’m just about old enough to remember when pubs had separate saloon bars and lounges. In particular, I recall several miserable afternoons sitting on torn and stained couches in unheated ‘lounges’ because those were the only bits of the pub where kids were allowed. The fun bit — the bit of the pub where the action was, and the laughing, and the fruit machine — was the saloon.
These days, most pubs have knocked rooms through to make one big drinking hangar, or turned the lounge into a restaurant area.
Do I miss the lounge? No, not really. I’d rather drink my Panda Pop with everyone else.
What kind of pub is this?
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
There are certain signs which can indicate the kind of pub you’re about to walk into — or not!
Here are some of our favourites.
1. Sky Sports.
2. Illy Coffee sold here.
3. Free Wi-Fi.
4. A large George Flag.
5. A large rainbow flag.
6. Shots for £1! Two meals for £5!
7. Live Jazz here on Sunday afternoons.
8. This is PUB, not a CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND — please keep your children under control.
9. Travellers by Appointment Only.
10. Drug dealing will not be tolerated on these premises.
Photo is of the British Lion in Haggerston, East London, nicked from EwanM (thanks, Ewan!). We think it’s a pub aimed at a very particular market.
In a perfect world
Sunday, July 12th, 2009Jay Rayner writes restaurant reviews in the Observer, the Sunday version of the UK’s Guardian newspaper. In a review today he comes up with a valuable insight which applies just as much to pubs as it does to restaurants:
And the final bill for this lesson in crass mediocrity? A shameful £105. The point of the exercise? The simple realisation that restaurants in this country will only genuinely have improved when it’s possible to choose a place like this at random and eat well at a cost that will not make your eyes water with tears of either pain or misery.
So, to paraphrase for the beer-minded, we should be able to walk into any pub and find (as a bare minimum) a decent standard of service, one or two good quality beers in reasonable condition, all at a price we consider fair.
It’s all well and good having a handful of astounding pubs scattered across the country but, at the moment, choosing a pub at random is hit and miss.
Franconian beer and wine: surprisingly similar
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Wüerzburg is a city which is not only blessed with wonderful beer gardens, but also highly regarded vineyards. Wherever you are in the city you can see them covering the steep hills all around.
Perhaps not surprisingly, then, when you’re in a beer garden, you’re almost as likely to see someone drinking the acclaimed local wine as you are to see them with a beer.
Although we’re not especially interested in wine, we certainly don’t dislike it, or subscribe to the view that you need to choose sides in an imaginary battle between beer and wine. So we decided to give it a go.
We tried white wines made with a couple of different varieties of grape (Riesling and Silvaner) and (bearing in mind we’re no experts) found them sweeter and more acid than we’re used to. We also began to notice that they really were floral and fruity. Elderflower, strawberry — all those flavours you hear wine critics banging on about really were there.
And, guess what? Those fruity flavours are also in the local beers. Do the very pale pilsners from Würzburger Hofbräu, Distelhäuser and Oechnser taste similar to the local wines because of the water? Because of the soil in which the grapes, barley and hops are grown? Maybe they just reflect a preference among the core market for these products — the local drinkers.
Do you like our German meat?
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
This image from the very decent Schneider website captures something about Germany that it would be very hard to explain in words. It’s from their strong beer festival, held in March this year. We’ve never seen a German man rolling drunk: they just seem to smile more; their cheeks get rosier; and they sometimes indulge in very restrained displays of affection (back slapping, hand-shaking).
It reminded me, for no particular reason, of the first time we went to Bamberg, in 2005. We were sitting in a pub drinking Rauchbier and eating something that had been advertised as “meat for two” — an enormous sizzling black pan containing most of a pig, in various forms. A slightly tipsy and very portly businessman in an alpine jacket leaned over to us halfway through our meal and said in heavily accented English:
“So, do you like our German meat?”
He wasn’t offering us a good time — just very, very proud of his country’s pork products, and drunk enough to make conversation with some strangers. Once he was satisfied that we were enjoying our meal, he left us alone.
Bailey
When is a pub not a pub?
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
If you ask most people to define a pub as opposed to a bar, restaurant or club, the conclusion will usually be a statement along the lines of: “It’s hard to say, but I know one when I see one.”
After our irritating experience in the Greenwich Union a couple of weeks back, we’ve been giving this some thought.
Could the defining features of a pub be informality and the dominant presence of beer?
- Table reservations are one thing: pubs where you have to reserve a table stop feeling like pubs.
- Food in pubs is a good thing, but table cloths, candlesticks and cutlery laid out when you arrive probably mean you’re in a restaurant.
- If you’re expected to eat, then that’s not very pub-like.
- If there are bouncers then it’s either a bloody rough pub or some kind of club or bar.
- Dress codes (when actually enforced…) are not very pub-like.
- If the wine list has had more thought put into it than the beer, it’s probably a 1980s wine bar disguised as a pub.
- We’re fans of continental-style waiter service, but is it something you’d expect in a pub?
It’s tempting to add that places with more chrome than wood are bars, but that’s entirely superficial.
If you can wander in wearing jeans and trainers and just order a pint at the bar, then it’s a pub, regardless of the decor.
