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23-08-2014, 10:22
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You can't really bugger up an unsparkled pint. Well you can, but it will be hard to tell the difference, or, crucially, how good it could have been, because of course it isn't sparkled and therefore presented at its best. As God intended.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s_6xg5zQukQ/U_hVIkdinQI/AAAAAAAAFzY/qAxBZbBBdMg/s1600/yorkshiresparkle.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s_6xg5zQukQ/U_hVIkdinQI/AAAAAAAAFzY/qAxBZbBBdMg/s1600/yorkshiresparkle.jpg)I considered this basic truth when in one of my local pubs last night. The key to pulling a good sparkled pint is in the initial pull, which must be vigorous enough to produce the creamy head. The swan neck must go to the bottom of the glass, with the glass held straight, not tilted. The second pull can usually be less strong and the nozzle should always be kept in the beer, not raised as the glass fills. When the fill is nearly complete,a good barperson will hesitate near the top, take your money and let the pint settle while doing so. Then the pint is topped up by inserting the swan neck back into the body of the beer. It should be topped up from below, allowing the fine collar of cream to remain intact. That's the key to using a swan neck and sparkler, you fill the glass from the bottom.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lMI2kZuRQQQ/U_hVIJg7RgI/AAAAAAAAFzU/akc5LlOpgEY/s1600/sparkledpeter.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lMI2kZuRQQQ/U_hVIJg7RgI/AAAAAAAAFzU/akc5LlOpgEY/s1600/sparkledpeter.jpg)There's a skill to this, but frankly it is a piece of cake once you have pulled a few pints. This is especially true when the same range of beers are sold. You get used to how they behave, but the principle is the same. Why am I telling you this? Well of course education of the heaving masses might be one reason and an honourable one at that. But it isn't. A couple of my pints were spoiled last night by incorrect topping up from the top which tends to bubble the beer and dissipate the head.

To the sparkler hater, this is neither here nor there, but to those of us that follow the true path of enlightenment, it is a heartbreaker.

At least being the North, the beer was beautifully conditioned and cool. The photos show a Yorkshire pint settling in the Riverhead Brewery Tap and the other one poured by me at home. Neither was the beer drunk last night.

PS Bon Don Doon from Wilson Potter is a lovely beer. As always, I am available to teach the uninitiated for a very reasonable fee.


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