Reading Boak and Baileys blog yesterday came across a photo of the interior of a pub and there was Moby,s mate Steve posing for the camera. Moby behind the lens presumably.
Bit of a spat here between Camra Chairman Colin Valentine and Pete Brown, beer writer (who's never had much time for Camra),
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/D...-cask-ale-snub
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.
This is just a bandwagon, cask is no worse now than it was five or ten years ago. Those who just go for keg are people with more money than sense, as in the majority of cases it's one big rip off. I don't get poor pints in any of the pubs I go to regularly (and they are not all JDWs either). If a cellar and lines aren't looked after you'll get poor pints of keg, maybe not bad enough to send back but still poor. I sometimes get a surprise with a decent cask pint in a pub where I thought it might be rubbish. I don't take any notice of there beer writer's opinions on beers.
While not agreeing with Pete Brown, it has become noticeable to me that more often these days (perhaps the last six months or so) the fault with cask beer in pubs that don't have a lot of demand for it is diacetyl, rather than the vinegary taste of beer that has been infected with bacteria. I've not done a scientific survey, this is just a general impression. The vast majority of the beers I have drunk over the aforementioned period have been fantastic, and there is no way I'm switching to keg!
Come On You Hatters!
I tend to agree with him as in London I can find poor beer on most of my weekly outings.Wetherspoons never sell anything other than well presented beers but they seem to lack flavour. My big gripe is too many pubs are buying dull or poorly made beer which no amount of cellarmanship is going turn into tasty beer.
I certainly agree with that but that's partly because we have been treated over the last five or ten years to some exceptional beers that are completely different to the old school UK beers, There are quite a few people around who don't actually like them much.
JDW generally only do a few of them and they are hard to find.
Diacetyl is a word that these trendy beer writers have come up with to give the impression that they ate knowledgeable. It refers to a keytone which is the midway stage between alcohol and acid (vinegar in the case of booze). Why don't the muppets just call it stale like people have been doing for years.
I forgot to mention this while ranting away above, The answer is that boring beers are cheaper, pubco policy and the fact that many brewers won't do anything but old school. That applies to most of the Regionals but if they do something left field you're not likely to find it in one of their tied houses. Adnam's seem to be the exception. When I go to the Great Western in Wolverhampton I always drink Holden's before bothering with any guest ales but that's because I like them and they are cheap compared to the South and not that dearer than the Wolverhampton JDW where I haven't seen an interesting guest for years.