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Thread: boring brown bitter

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    Default boring brown bitter

    After reading TiredMartins blog for a while I thought I should try a few beers that I would not normally drink to see if they were as bad as I thought.He raves about Bass a beer that I ignore as I never could find anything special about it.
    I tried to drink them first pint of the night and only in pubs that sell lots of it

    these were good and I would drink again
    youngs -special
    st austell-tribute
    fullers -esb

    these were okay
    sharps -doombar
    harveys -sussex (this could have ended up in top or bottom category as it has a strange taste to me
    tt -landlord (too sweet)

    not for me
    ruddles -bitter
    mcmullens -county
    palmers -copper ale
    badger -best bitter
    fullers -pride (very malty with little hop presence)

    worst beer
    sheps -spitfire

    And the beer that got me started
    Bass (surprisingly good and I could have swore it had American hops in it but very variable as I have had good then great pints of it on different nights.

    any BBB drinkers out there?

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    Quote Originally Posted by london calling View Post
    After reading TiredMartins blog for a while I thought I should try a few beers that I would not normally drink to see if they were as bad as I thought.He raves about Bass a beer that I ignore as I never could find anything special about it.
    I tried to drink them first pint of the night and only in pubs that sell lots of it

    these were good and I would drink again
    youngs -special
    st austell-tribute
    fullers -esb

    these were okay
    sharps -doombar
    harveys -sussex (this could have ended up in top or bottom category as it has a strange taste to me
    tt -landlord (too sweet)

    not for me
    ruddles -bitter
    mcmullens -county
    palmers -copper ale
    badger -best bitter
    fullers -pride (very malty with little hop presence)

    worst beer
    sheps -spitfire

    And the beer that got me started
    Bass (surprisingly good and I could have swore it had American hops in it but very variable as I have had good then great pints of it on different nights.

    any BBB drinkers out there?
    I tend to go for more of a pale ale or something from Hammerton, Purity, XT, Five Points or Thornbridge (not their Curse of the Cucumber stuff); I also quite like Ghost Ship.

    I'm quite partial to Landlord and don't mind Special if on good form, likewise Tribute and Spitfire in limited quantities, Sussex too; Ruddles or Badger I'd avoid as both remind me of the 1980s.

    Worst beer? Doom Bar, which doesn't seem to have seen a hop, tasting a bit astringent. I was told by a quite reliable source that it's stocked so liberally (in London at least) because of its low wholesale price. I've also really gone off Pride which for me is just Doom Bar in a red satin basque with suspenders and black fishnets.

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    Quote Originally Posted by london calling View Post
    After reading TiredMartins blog for a while I thought I should try a few beers that I would not normally drink to see if they were as bad as I thought.He raves about Bass a beer that I ignore as I never could find anything special about it.
    I tried to drink them first pint of the night and only in pubs that sell lots of it

    these were good and I would drink again
    youngs -special
    st austell-tribute
    fullers -esb

    these were okay
    sharps -doombar
    harveys -sussex (this could have ended up in top or bottom category as it has a strange taste to me
    tt -landlord (too sweet)

    not for me
    ruddles -bitter
    mcmullens -county
    palmers -copper ale
    badger -best bitter
    fullers -pride (very malty with little hop presence)

    worst beer
    sheps -spitfire

    And the beer that got me started
    Bass (surprisingly good and I could have swore it had American hops in it but very variable as I have had good then great pints of it on different nights.

    any BBB drinkers out there?
    Interesting, I haven't had a decent pint of Bass for nearly forty years now. Young's and Fuller's have priced themselves out of my market and I' won't go to a McMullen's pub after the way they trashed their outlet on the outskirts of Chingford. Badger Best and London Pride are both sweet beers. London Pride is £2.79 in the Wanstead George with guests up to 6% abv just £2.15. I'm really not sure about Young's Special but Tribute can be decent and is more orange than boring brown. To me Landlord isn't even a boring brown beer, it's mainstream. I generally go for less ubiquitous Harvey's beers than Sussex but I do have an attachment to it in one of their tied houses. When I was going around West Country JDWs I fitted in a couple of Palmers tied houses and found their beer a lot better than I remembered from decades ago. I'm not even going to comment on Doom Bore. Shep's Master Brew and Spitfire are very poor compared to that they have been in the past. I had their Spitfire Gold in a Cheshire JDW and it was superb. Shep's still can brew some decent beer and occasionally do.
    Ruddles Best is a rubbish beer brewed for JDWs and deserves the same disdain given to Younger's Scotch from over 20 years ago. It's a disgrace that GK are allowed to use the Ruddles brand,
    When I was in the Wolverhampton Lych Gate Tavern one day last year they had Wimbledon Copper Leaf on which was going down really well and I also enjoyed. I think I've mentioned elsewhere the excellent Black Sheep Bitter I had in a Flint pub last year.
    The biggest problem is that there are so many pubs around with not enough demand for a real ale and / or they just can't be bothered to look after it. This is even more pronounced outside the major cities of Scotland and Wales. It doesn't seem to be so pronounced in England.

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    Quote Originally Posted by london calling View Post
    any BBB drinkers out there?
    Yes.

    Cut my teeth on Brakspear's ordinary and Morland's bitter. If either (especially the latter) were around today (and not any Marston's or GK fakes) I'd live on them. Later on in London, I coped fine with Chiswick or Ordinary or even, for a while, Charrington's IPA. As the years passed we moved a bit further south and perfection in Harvey's Best was in striking distance. Forty years on, now in the Midlands, the Hook Norton - Hooky - or Purity (Ubu or Goose) we get round here are excellent. And a run out for some Batham's is always a treat.

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    Quote Originally Posted by NickDavies View Post
    Yes.

    Cut my teeth on Brakspear's ordinary and Morland's bitter. If either (especially the latter) were around today (and not any Marston's or GK fakes) I'd live on them. Later on in London, I coped fine with Chiswick or Ordinary or even, for a while, Charrington's IPA. As the years passed we moved a bit further south and perfection in Harvey's Best was in striking distance. Forty years on, now in the Midlands, the Hook Norton - Hooky - or Purity (Ubu or Goose) we get round here are excellent. And a run out for some Batham's is always a treat.
    By 1979 I'd been round every Brakspear outlet and knew their beers very well. For me the ordinary never tasted as good in London as in one of their own pubs. Taylor's Landlord always seemed the same. I knew Morland's but not as well as Brakspear. Their ordinary bitter was very dry for a Southern beer. I think Morland probably went wrong by buying a shed load of dross pubs being offloaded by the big six. I still have some faith in Hook Norton but the Hooky used to be quite cheap in their tied houses and is a low abv pale. I've never been all that struck with Purity but haven't really tried a lot of it. I agree about Batham's but generally only ever drink it in their own pubs. It's not really a brown beer (neither are Holden's standard bitters).

    I had a couple of Holt's bitters this week and quite enjoyed them. It is brown but has a good bitterness. The price tag of £2.96 was a lot higher than I expected!

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    Quote Originally Posted by london calling View Post
    After reading TiredMartins blog for a while I thought I should try a few beers that I would not normally drink to see if they were as bad as I thought.He raves about Bass a beer that I ignore as I never could find anything special about it.
    I tried to drink them first pint of the night and only in pubs that sell lots of it

    these were good and I would drink again
    youngs -special
    st austell-tribute
    fullers -esb

    these were okay
    sharps -doombar
    harveys -sussex (this could have ended up in top or bottom category as it has a strange taste to me
    tt -landlord (too sweet)

    not for me
    ruddles -bitter
    mcmullens -county
    palmers -copper ale
    badger -best bitter
    fullers -pride (very malty with little hop presence)

    worst beer
    sheps -spitfire

    And the beer that got me started
    Bass (surprisingly good and I could have swore it had American hops in it but very variable as I have had good then great pints of it on different nights.

    any BBB drinkers out there?
    The top two for me of the beers listed by John above would be Tribute and Landlord but they're not really brown in my book, the rest I could happily leave alone, not tried Bass for years. Faced by the lineup in the top picture of this post from Martin, I would sooner go for Guinness or Stella, I'm hoping to have a few pints with Martin some when in the next two or three weeks in Southampton, there will be no brown beer on my part.
    "Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
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    "Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
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    Old & Bitter oldboots's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by london calling View Post


    any BBB drinkers out there?
    Not much choice in a lot of North Yorkshire, Theakstons, Black Sheep or John Smiths only in most pubs unless you're in York or Harrogate. Sam Smiths (if you can find one of their pubs that's open) is generally cold vinegar and best avoided. I wouldn't call Landlord a BBB, it is notoriously difficult to look after and requires a lot of cellar time but when on form is glorious. Bass is extremely variable and used to have a reputation as hard to keep well.

    The others are a bit southern apart from the bloody awful Doombar, the less awful Pride and the quite good Tribute. I grew up on Courage Best which really was a boring brown bitter especially when it was brewed in Bristol, thank god Ringwood came along (before Marstons screwed it up). Palmers and Badger never appealed to me, and I used to drink McMullens keg mild in preference to their bitter. Visits to London meant decent Youngs and Fullers but that was a long time ago.

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    Quote Originally Posted by london calling View Post
    any BBB drinkers out there?
    I react badly to the use of the term "boring brown beer", with the implication that the person who owns up to liking it (whatever "it" may be) is lacking in taste and discernment. In fact, a lot of the beers mentioned in this post are not what I would call brown, though I would agree that many of them are bland. In my opinion this is because they are national brands which are trading on their name rather than their taste. The brewer therefore has to avoid doing anything to the beer that would frighten the horses. Like adding hops.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tris39 View Post
    I've also really gone off Pride which for me is just Doom Bar in a red satin basque with suspenders and black fishnets.
    I like the image, though in reality I don't find that London Pride bears any resemblance to Doom Bar in terms of colour or flavour; the only similarity perhaps being that it is ubiquitous in pubs where the licensee has no afinity for real ale and therefore doesn't have much idea of how to keep it and serve it well.

    Quote Originally Posted by Aqualung View Post
    I think I've mentioned elsewhere the excellent Black Sheep Bitter I had in a Flint pub last year.
    Quote Originally Posted by Aqualung View Post
    I had a couple of Holt's bitters this week and quite enjoyed them. It is brown but has a good bitterness. The price tag of £2.96 was a lot higher than I expected!
    Those are two beers that still fully deserve the name "bitter". Too many beers I come across nowadays have nothing bitter about them apart from the name on the pump clip. To the extent that I was afraid the problem lay with my ageing taste buds, until drinking again the two beers mentioned by Aqualung. I miss Boddingtons and Tetleys, two extremely bitter beers from the past. The latest version of Tetleys is sweet rather than bitter, in my experience.
    Come On You Hatters!

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    Quote Originally Posted by sheffield hatter View Post
    I react badly to the use of the term "boring brown beer", with the implication that the person who owns up to liking it (whatever "it" may be) is lacking in taste and discernment. In fact, a lot of the beers mentioned in this post are not what I would call brown, though I would agree that many of them are bland. In my opinion this is because they are national brands which are trading on their name rather than their taste. The brewer therefore has to avoid doing anything to the beer that would frighten the horses. Like adding hops.
    Your assessment is quite correct, although I am guilty of using the term, usually its tongue in cheek, the culprits are the national brands which are bland and subsequently boring to my taste. Of course I am well aware there are tasty brown beers out there as indeed there are boring golden and pale beers,more often than not from the national brands again. So from now on BBB stands for Boring Bland Beer.
    "Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
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