Common Ales

[Oggwyn Trench]

Far to many pubs round here have Bankss Bitter , Bankss Original (which i do like if its kept well) Marstons Pedigree and Marstons Bitter , Several pubs also have Jennings Cumberland on as the token guest which is normally kept awfully , i know it can be an OK pint but rarely is here

[Soup Dragon]

Mmmmmmm

I would go Pedigree, Spekky, London Pride and Bombardier, overall - i dont count Banks's as too often its on keg

Have you noticed Oggy, Banks's Original is being renamed - back to Banks's MILD (they do a Banks's Dark MILD too) - happy days, MILD maketh a comeback

[Strongers]

Had a discussion down the pub on common ales which I thought would throw open to wider audience to compare it regionally. We had a few thoughts on whatt some of the regional nominations will be si it will be interesting to see what you all come out with.

Taking an imaginary freehouse with say, 4 hand pumps, what are the 4 worst ales that they could put on purely on the basis that they are found regularly everywhere else in your area? In London, I would have to say it would probably be Youngs Ordinary, Bombardier, London Pride and Greene King IPA.

Sounds about right, but i'd try to slip Adnams in there somewhere.

[Alesonly]

Had a discussion down the pub on common ales which I thought would throw open to wider audience to compare it regionally. We had a few thoughts on whatt some of the regional nominations will be si it will be interesting to see what you all come out with.

Taking an imaginary freehouse with say, 4 hand pumps, what are the 4 worst ales that they could put on purely on the basis that they are found regularly everywhere else in your area? In London, I would have to say it would probably be Youngs Ordinary, Bombardier, London Pride and Greene King IPA.

I would say almost the same Ales but Courage Best, Bombardier, London Pride and Greene King IPA

[Maldenman]

Much of this goes back to choice. In the 80's most pubs were tied and had the local beer, when I moved to London, I would have been delighted to find Fullers or Youngs in the centre, but it was mostly stuff like Websters Yorkshire Bitter....how awful was that stuff? We now have an increasingly large choice, so we are a bit spoilt. I'd actually say, in a rather fussy selfish way, that as a London based drinker, I'm starting to get a bit fed up of the ubiquituous "guest" beers of Doom Bar and Landlord.

[HTM69]

Sounds about right, but i'd try to slip Adnams in there somewhere.

Roger's about right, but yes, Adnams Bitter - not Broadside, so much - is quite common in central London.

I was almost going to add TT's Landlord, but I guess I only think that due to the amount of visits I make to the Nicholson's chain!

There was a time when we may have all gone for Courage Best, but IMO, it's becoming less of a sighting.

[Eddie86]

Growing up in Norfolk Adnams was a welcome relief from the sea of IPA and Woodforde's wherry. Broadside was my favourite over there, but Woodforde's Nelson's Blood was also impressive.

Over here you can't really move for Butty Bach or DG's Golden Ale. Neither a particular problem, and on 6 pumps in ours only 1 is constant, the Butty Bach. A friend told me that your locals will drink in your bar whatever you sell. The one time a barrel of DG's Golden got put on by mistake (it had been racked in the Butty part of the cellar, and nobody had noticed) at least half a dozen locals walked in, asked for Butty, then walked out without drinking.

[arwkrite]

I will accept that one can suffer from local ale , or popular ale , fatigue .The sight of that beer clip ,that seems to be everywhere, causes a flash of disappointment on entering an establishment perhaps new to you. The need for something a bit different has been thwarted and perhaps that makes one over critical of the usual offerings.
Many of you have mentioned beers I would love to see in my area but which you consider perhaps second class as you drink them on most visits to the pub. As many of you know the only beer I dread to see when entering a pub is Green King IPA, a beer simply not to my taste, and often the only real ale on offer. Strangely in a county dominated by Marstons and GK my small town has offerings from neither.Hobsons and Sharps Doom Bar seem to be regulars whilst one pub does offer a differant guest ale such as Tribute ,Black Sheep ,Adnams Bitter. The third pub is a Wye Valley Brewery pub but when I walk in there I feel like Billy Nomates as I never see anyone I know. Its an OK pub though, likely over run on a weekend by internet pub reviewers

Give me your tired and missbegotten ales......anything for a change.

[aleandhearty]

Websters Yorkshire Bitter....how awful was that stuff?

Oh God, yes! Over the years I'd managed to bury the traumatic memory of drinking the stuff deep in my mind. So thanks for re-awakening that. The only things worse than the beer itself, were the bloody awful TV adverts we had to endure. They made the John Smith's ads look like Fellini.

[ROBCamra]

Oh God, yes! Over the years I'd managed to bury the traumatic memory of drinking the stuff deep in my mind. So thanks for re-awakening that. The only things worse than the beer itself, were the bloody awful TV adverts we had to endure. They made the John Smith's ads look like Fellini.

I once had a brewery trip around Websters brewery. It was all very impressive and electronically controlled. Nothing even slightly haphazard like all the best breweries are.

When we got to the area where they had the huge fermenters the guide was telling us about how they were currently brewing their "wonderful" Websters Yorkshire Bitter.

One of our party asked her what the large red button was for, before she could reply an "unidentified" someone at the back said " When they press that it removes all the flavour"

The guide was a bit grumpy with us all after that.

When we got to the free bar afterwards she even said " You won't want to drink any of that anyway will you?"

Sadly we did though.