boring brown bitter

[london calling]

Thanks for the explanation which now makes perfect sense.

Perhaps CAMRA should stop classifying it as real ale - maybe we should list a pub as having no real ale if Doom Bar is the only option but only if there are no other pumps, rather than pumps with recently reversed clips?

To be honest most of the big brewers are doing this now.I get bottled Fullers beers and they are clear as a bell.No sediment but meant to be bottle conditioned

[Pangolin]

As far as I am aware Sharps with Doombar were the first cask brewer to start filtering their beer although Camra still calls it real ale.One of the reasons it has dominated the cask trade was that it was bright beer and you could put a keg on straight away rather than let it settle.Sharps were the first brewery to realise that if the beer was not ready the pub would put something else on and Doombar would not be sold from that pump for 3 days or how long it would take for a pump to be free.By selling bright beer any pub now changes Doombar for another Doombar.Great marketing makes brands leaders .

Nearly but not absolutely correct. While there is brewery conditioning, it is not absolute and a small amount of live yeast remains, so it is not totally 'bright'. (If there was a bright beer campaign, they would probably reject it!). Presumably this is enough to continue some secondary fermentation and prolong the life of the cask beyond that you would expect from a totally bright beer. CAMRA accepts that some filtering is acceptable - whether DB takes this too far is a whole other can of worms.

[Tris39]

Nearly but not absolutely correct. While there is brewery conditioning, it is not absolute and a small amount of live yeast remains, so it is not totally 'bright'. (If there was a bright beer campaign, they would probably reject it!). Presumably this is enough to continue some secondary fermentation and prolong the life of the cask beyond that you would expect from a totally bright beer. CAMRA accepts that some filtering is acceptable - whether DB takes this too far is a whole other can of worms.

I think I'd prefer to drink the can of worms...

[Mobyduck]

I think I'd prefer to drink the can of worms...

Can't disagree.

[Mobyduck]

A pint of Cloudwater Aw18 Bitter over the weekend was fantastic, If all Best Bitters were brewed to this standard there would be no such thing as BBB's, cask at its very best.

[AlanH]

On my sole visit to Manchester in the 1970s,the unanimous verdict on Holt's bitter is that it made grown men weep,being so bitter.Can't remember the colour though. Never seen it since.

With Holts Bitter, the only thing that made me weep is when I couldn't get any! Probably my overall favourite for 50 years. I now weep most of the time in Wales but I am delighted when one of my locals The Ponsonby Arms gets it as a guest. On our recent crawl to Manchester, it was one of the best beers of the day in The Hare & Hounds.

Not in the same class as Holts Bitter, but I find the much criticised Sam Smiths Bitter very good in Chester in both The Falcon and Ye Olde Boot Inn. A good £2 well spent in both pubs. That is for a FULL pint in spite of "uncle Humphrey's" rules.

[Wittenden]

With Holts Bitter, the only thing that made me weep is when I couldn't get any!

the much criticised Sam Smiths Bitter

Never see Holts in the Southeast, and rarely Sam's, though more often than when in Yorkshire.Really enjoyed it in Durham in the 1970s in Colpitts Hotel , and in a pub opposite the Tech in Framwellgate Moor. (Can't remember its name.)