Mayhem in May Shopping Dilemma...

[British BBQ Society]

funny to see the snobbery around here when it comes down to personal choice.Variety, they say, is the spice of life or as the song says ''if everybody looked the same , we'd get tired of looking at each other.'' Now i might prefer to drink European beers made cleanly with spring water but if my glass is empty and someone offers me a beer I don't normally buy I would probably accept it or decline politely. If they offered me diamond white however , I'd probably ask myself what I'm doing hanging out with parafin lamps and get the hell out of the bus shelter or graveyard or whatever god forsaken place I'd found myself in!

[MrBlue]

1 slab of Stella or 2 ????

Take 4 - that should just about cover the weekend!

[adm]

funny to see the snobbery around here when it comes down to personal choice.

Fair enough - but then there's choice and informed choice. Many people choose burgers from MickeyD's because they don't know any better. For them, the argument is McD's versus Burger King. It's a bit like the Stella vs. Kronenbourg argument.

Variety, they say, is the spice of life or as the song says ''if everybody looked the same , we'd get tired of looking at each other.''

I couldn't agree more - but Stella (and Carling, and Kronie) - in fact any mass produced chemical lager/bitter from the big megabreweries are the total opposite of variety, and are processed, not brewed. The recipes are designed by cost accountants with spreadsheets, not by brewers with passion!

Now i might prefer to drink European beers made cleanly with spring water but if my glass is empty and someone offers me a beer I don't normally buy I would probably accept it or decline politely. If they offered me diamond white however , I'd probably ask myself what I'm doing hanging out with parafin lamps and get the hell out of the bus shelter or graveyard or whatever god forsaken place I'd found myself in!

European beers? Why man for god's sake! You live in the country that still makes some of the best beers in the world! And you're in Brighton. Get yourself to a pub that sells Dark Star beer and get some HopHead, Summer Solstice or their American Pale Ale down you. Of course, the Germans and the Belgians do make some superb beers too.....

You're smack on on the Diamond White though...

Good Q deserves good beer. There's no other way to do it...

[British BBQ Society]

[MrBlue]

well that told us lot eh?

[Steve]

Well I say drink what you like. If your choice is informed or not as long as you're happy with it what's the problem. I know people who prefer a mcD's burger to a ribeye but their happy with that so why begrudge them anything?

Live and let live.

[MrBlue]

as long as the can or bottle has a % sign on it, who cares what's in it is anyway!

[Chris__M]

As a youngster, I didn't like beer at all - it was horrible fizzy stuff (this was the 1970's, and Watney's Red Barrel was king). Then I went to uni down at Sussex, and found myself in the middle of Harveys and King & Barnes country . I tasted proper beer for the first time, and loved it. I've been a lover of real ale ever since.

But you know, if I had people coming round, and I knew that one of my friends preferred Stella (or even Diamond White), I'd get some in for them. Nor would I look down my nose at them.

[joker smoker]

I am fully aware of Dark Star Brewery. occasionally partake in a glass of APA but to me Hophead tastes too flowery, kind of perfumed. I do use their espresso stout in my brisket injection sometimes. West coast pale ales are fine but Samuel Adams exelled with their Oktoberbier a year or two ago. Shiner brewery in Texas grew from Czech immigrants, as did many of the early Texas BBQ smokehouses. They produce a wonderful Bock beer as well as a beautiful blond pilsner. Pilsner originates from Pilsen in the Czech Republic from where Pilsner Urquell, one of my favourite beers comes from. Pilsner is often[ wrongly] called lager in England. Lager is a darker beer than the blond pilsner and has been cellared for a longer time. Uninformed I am not but there are still many beers out there which I have yet to try. Maybe working as a chef in a hot kitchen steers me towards that refreshing long cold glass with bubbles in it. One more pilsner please barman!

[adm]

I am fully aware of Dark Star Brewery. occasionally partake in a glass of APA but to me Hophead tastes too flowery, kind of perfumed. I do use their espresso stout in my brisket injection sometimes. West coast pale ales are fine but Samuel Adams exelled with their Oktoberbier a year or two ago. Shiner brewery in Texas grew from Czech immigrants, as did many of the early Texas BBQ smokehouses. They produce a wonderful Bock beer as well as a beautiful blond pilsner. Pilsner originates from Pilsen in the Czech Republic from where Pilsner Urquell, one of my favourite beers comes from. Pilsner is often[ wrongly] called lager in England. Lager is a darker beer than the blond pilsner and has been cellared for a longer time. Uninformed I am not but there are still many beers out there which I have yet to try. Maybe working as a chef in a hot kitchen steers me towards that refreshing long cold glass with bubbles in it. One more pilsner please barman!

That's a nice stream of consciousness beer rant!

Pilsner Urquell is a lovely beer, fresh on draft (and it's wonderful in Plzen itself). As you say, it's THE original Pils and is a showcase for the noble Saaz hop.

Interestingly (to me at least), Plzen has an almost unique water profile - it's incredibly soft, very low alkalinity, very low in all dissolved salt ions - which is why the beer tastes like it does. To my mind, it should be almost an "appelation controllee" type thing - if it ain't brewed in Plzen, it ain't Pils. (SABMiller now own the Urquell brand - and they brew it in Poland and Russia now as well)