Beer > Bitter Beer

Marston's Pedigree

Advantages: A great pint
Disadvantages: Not always available

...just drunk a bottle of Marston's Pedigree bitter. It was chilled in the fridge and tasted lovely. Now, before anyone tells me off for chilling real ale and claims that real ales should be served at room temperature, please let me disabuse you of this false notion. A good real ale, such as Marston's Pedigree, should not be served at room temperature. All real ales should be served at cellar temperature, which is, of course, always a good deal cooler ...
...But I digress. Back to Marston's Pedigree. Marston's Pedigree is a good, honest premium real ale. It is still brewed in Buton upon Trent and still brewed in Oak vats in order to keep the unique flavour. What is the unique flavour of Marston's Pedigree? This is a harder question to answer than you might think. You might as well ask: "What is the taste of water"? Pedigree has an abv of 4.5% so is a beer that needs to be treated with respect. As ...

Martinscholes 04.09.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Marston's Pedigree Bitter

A FULLERS ESB...or three

Advantages: Strong and fruity
Disadvantages: A little too fussy

...that's all history now. Fuller's beers are awash with awards but ESB takes winning to an unprecedented level having been voted Best Strong Ale a massive seven times. It's brewed using Target, Challenger, Northdown and Goldings hops and with Pale Ale and Crystal Malt. Their beers are pretty widely available all over the UK, but not surprisingly, especially so in London. ESB can also be bought in 500ml bottles and, at 5.9%, this version is a little ...
...draught version I'm about to describe. But first... Working down in London meant I had to cancel my appointment at the sperm bank. No biggie, I just phoned and told them I couldn't come. Back to the beer... ESB pours a bright, copper-red colour with just a suggestion of haze which is crowned by a very respectable half-inch of tan coloured foam which shrinks a little, but never disappears and so leaves some nice lacy rings all the way down the glass. ...

proxam 19.12.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Fuller's ESB Champion Ale

Beer exactly as it should be

Advantages: Gorgeous flavour, generally reasonable price
Disadvantages: Can give you a truly fearsome hangover if you overdo it

I am a recent convert to bitter, simply because it has far more flavour than the lager I used to drink, So when my local pub started selling this, I thought I'd try it. This is a lovely pale golden brown beer and the first thing you notice is the smell; lovely fragrant hops which suggest the pleasure to come. The beer is smooth and full-bodied and bursts with delightful malt flavours before the rich, hoppy aftertaste comes through. It is fairly bitter, ...
...for you. It's a mid strength beer (4.3%) and sells for £2.40 a pint in my local, so it's very good value (attested by the incredible rate it sells at!). Some landlords do exploit the loyalty of Tim Taylors drinkers by overcharging for it; just avoid these pubs.. However, a couple of warnings: one - 2 pints puts you well over the drink drive limit; two - too much and your head and bowels will pay a very heavy price. It's so easy to drink, this can ...

tonythekingfisher 13.07.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Timothy Taylor's Landlord

Strangeways There We Came

Advantages: Was Once A Great Beer
Disadvantages: Wales Is Not Manchester

Boddingtons Bitter (once the cream of Manchester) comes in two varieties, the bland and insipid keg variety and the oh so wonderful Cask variety. For those of you who do not know the difference between the two the keg variety is a dead beer meaning that there is no live yeast in the product and all conditioning is done at the brewery. The Cask conditioned variety contains live yeast and variety is conditioned in the cellar by the publican, there ...
...has already been done.... Boddingtons kept well is a great pint, but I do feel that the closure of the strangeways brewery is an absolute disgrace, 200 years of brewing history destroyed by greed. The fact the Boddies is a Manchester beer should have secured the future of the workers at Strangeways for generations to come, and I for one will not drink it again. It is obscene that the parent company used Manchester to advertise the beer and then ...

Champ666 17.02.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Boddingtons Draught Bitter

John Smith's SMOOTH - not cask. Got it? SMOOTH.

Advantages: Smooth, cold, consistent
Disadvantages: Not conducive to chats about beer

JOHN SMITH'S SMOOTH - WHAT'S ALL THAT ABOUT? Picture the scene: Robbo2000 is sat in some old man's pub in some town that he is way too cool to be in, with two men who will be politely referred to as "Real Ale Aficionados" (because I'm not sure if I'm allowed to refer to them as "sad, beardy gimps"). The Real Ale Aficionados are each clutching a half pint of "Old Vicar's Country Badger" (or something equally nonsensical, which is really gone-off ...
...WHAT'S SO GOOD ABOUT JOHN SMITH'S SMOOTH? It's cold and the taste is consistent. And it's a dark brown colour, for those deperately clutching at a tick-list. That's it. But for me, that's enough. Real ales are a lottery: sometimes they taste like peaches soaked in ambrosia, sometimes they taste like pork scratchings soaked in wee. So do you feel lucky (punk)? (sorry if you are not a punk). Me, I would rather go for a John Smith's Smooth. Fancy, ...

robbo2000 10.02.2006 · Read full review
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Review of John Smith's Bitter