h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm shure it's the alcohol. The impurities most likely give you a headache, etc.

I've got to clear this up about the impurities in Budweiser Budvar. There aren't any. It gets you drunk faster for two reasons. The first is that the gas in it is due to natural fermentation. American Bud gets pasturised, which takes a bit of the gas out of the drink, so they put cardon dioxode back into it before bottling. Checz Budweiser isn't pasturised, so the gas in their is the carbon dioxode that the beer itself produced. Don't ask me why but it seems that this sort of CO2 gets into the blood stream faster. The second and more improtant reason is that it's brewed to a stronger percentage. Until recently Bud that was shipped over to the UK from the US was only about 4.1%, I don't know how strong it is in the States. The Budweiser from Checz has been 5% for a long time now. The problem with anything to do with Bud & Budweiser is that the two compaines responsible for the brews have been at logger heads for a long time and people tend to like either one or the other, not both.

I am a pilsner fan - I love the Czech and bohemian stuff. In my opinion the other stuff is all impurities - ie something that does not agree with my body or resemble beer in my opinion - Budovar, and others are glorious. Pasteurisation kills a lot of the flavour in beer - For this reason I have been making my own for some years - It is not hard to make a good pilsner, as long as you use good ingredients and most importantly ferment with the correct yeast at low temperatures for a long time - I once made an excellent Pilsner while I went on Xmas hols. while there was a probem in my apt. leaving the beer to ferment (lager) at 5oC for over 5 weeks.

Beer like this does not have rice, other grains, and strange additives, at least if it claims to be beer

In some states in the US, the law dictates that the beer can have only 2.5% alc. I used to buy Bass Shandy as a kid that had that much alcohol (I am serious). Some places are "dry", I once innocently asked for a beer at a restaurant in rural S. Carolina without realising that this was not allowed - got a rather cool response - and settled for orange juice.

Labatt's brews a version of Budweiser until licence from A.B. that contains 5% alc. like all the run-o-the-mill Canadian beers - It also tastes much like the other Labatt lagers like Blue.


I think if the beer is nice and you are thirsty , then you drink more faster and hence have more alcohol faster in your blood stream.
It is great fun to offer large amounts of this to US visitors used to significantly weaker stuff.

Some Pilsners have a bit less than 5% alc. but that amount of alcohol will result from the fermentation if it is made properly.

I used to be a cellar man by trade, worked for a brewery as well. Sold a lot of strong beer to American visitors to England. They all loved it. It makes you wonder why the style isn't more popular over there.

I wondered the same emigrating to Canada and having many friends from the US. As I understand in N. America, at the end of last century many brewmasters from Germany, Bohemia, etc. started selling their products here. In Monterrey Mexico, the cerveceria was a big business, making german style lagers - and driving the Mexican steel industry (to make the caps) and the glass industry - Vitro is the biggest glass producer there - Now Vitro/Corning is a very familiar name in America. In the US many breweries started. Then ther was "prohibition" early this century so no one could legally sell alcohol. This meant you either bought swill from the mafiosios, went to Canada, Mexico or somewhere else, smuggled it, made it yourself , or did not drink.

Any brewery who's cash flow relied on sales (ie any brewery), would not be able to survive unless they somehow managed to keep something else going through political, or other influence. Hence, the death of the US brewing industry. All that survived where large corporations who could follow up by flooding the market after prohibition with cheap, inferior products - and leveraging their marketing clout. They did not have to worry about too much international competition, and had a captive domestic market. By then most had forgotten what beer tastes like.

Right, let me get this straight. What I meant (about the impurities in Eastern European lagers) was that it gets you even more drunk, and produces an absolute stinker of a hangover. Oh, and I discovered quite a nice beer on Saturday night (it is now Monday). It is brewed by Whitbred (but don't let that put you off- who can forget, if you have tried it, the disgusting taste of the Parkin's Special Bitter that they brewed for Sainsbury's), and it is called Poacher's Bitter. V. nice. I drank eight pints of the stuff for a tenner. Great. Yes, I have a cigarette in my hand, and I am wearing a polo-neck sweater and a pinstripe suit. I am also sitting on a stool. However, I do not have a cutting-edge jazz group behind me or two cameras to switch between....

I had no idea that there were so many people out there who knew so many useless facts about beerological history. I myself am a fountain of sh*t on many subjects, but not beer. Now I can annoy my friends with still more useless information. Cheers! (loud clinking of glasses)

Necro.

cheers.

I just want to mention that a couple of hours ago, I adopted my usual policy of looking at the ales on offer in a pub and then asking for a pint of the one with the silliest name.
In this way, I discovered a delicious rich, dark bitter called Bear Ass.

Oddly enough, that is usually the best way of getting a decent pint. It's my normal tactic. If I am in a pub in a strange town, I look at what is on offer and make a decision based on two things. The frequency with which each beer is bought by the locals and the name. If it involves 'Best' anywhere, and the 'Best' is in reference to the name of the brewer, I steer clear. If the name involves an animal (i.e. Gnat's Breath Bitter, a drink which my uncle ensures my does exist), then i am more likely to buy the beer.

Just to open up a fresh area for debate here, how about people's prospective names for beers; what would you call yours?

The Vicar's Concubine - Winter Ale.

Old Leakey Sailor - An American Import Style Lager.

Manx Cat Litter Box - Oyster Stout.

Tiger Dandruff - A Sino/Anglo brew with a touch of rice.

If I was from NZ I would make one called 'Couldn't do it bitter'.

What about 'Bumsweat ale'?
'Flat and Stale- PREMIUM!'

In Canada, Labatt brews (or they used to brew) "Extra Old Stock". I thought the mispelling:

Extra Old Sock

was much better (rather fitting too).

How about more names:

The Runny Beagle - Tyneside Style Extra Brown Ale.

Puma Incontinente Cerveza Especial (Mexican Style)

Captain Verruca - Best Bitter.

Fewmet and Furkin's Oatmeal Stout.

Bishop's Appendage.

Perhaps a Canadian contribution:

Yukon Yellow Snow - Ice Beer.

Way back at the beginning of this Ginger the Feisty mentioned Cropton beers, one of my favourites is the Scoresby Stout. Usually sampled once a year at the Great British Beer Festival

I recently found out something fantastic about the university town that I intend to go to. Reading has a Jazz and Beer festival YEARLY!!

FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

many nights in a row...

Necro.

If that's Reading, Uk - they have a Camra beer festival every year aswell that I used to frequent. Also a good town to go drinking in a any time of the year.

Never had a Cropton's. I am usually only able to sample such fare when I stumble into a real beer festival on a visit to the UK - Which is almost always on business - so this means I sometimes can fit in time after I arrive off the 'plane, and try to stay awake a bit longer - my jet-lag cure is i) get out of Heathrow and go somewhere where you can get real beer (and find a place to stay), ii) drink a couple of pints when the pub opens, iii) go to sleep for about 2 hrs, iv) wake up and live normally - no jet lag.

Last one I stumbled into was at the Turf tavern in Oxford - I could only drink a couple of pint-sized samples unfortunately before retiring to stage iii). This was frustrating.

When's the Reading stuff on this year?

I can't answer that, but I can point you in the direction of the CAMRA website. http://www.camra.org.uk is the place to go. At present, its "festivals" section only has listings up to the end of January, but if you keep checking there you should get some advance warning of the Reading booze-up.

Ta.

I'm looking forward with even more fervour to my university days...

Can the panel recommend any good pubs in Reading that don't have neo-Nazi Chelsea supporting Combat 18 patrons spoiling for a rumble? Actually, on second thoughts, they probably drink lager, so just a good pub would do...

And what's wrong with lager, may I ask?
Anyway, I didn't come here to start a 'lager's-better-no-it-isn't-bitters-better-no-stout-is-better' argument.

Carling Premier is, as far as I have tasted, the best beer in the world.
It's an odd lager/bitter hybrid, a bit like Caffrey's, however it's slightly more lager than bitter, as opposed to Caffrey's being more bitter than lager. For your moolah, you get a lagerey taste, but the beer is very smooth, not crisp like lager, and a lovely creamy, almost Guinness-like head (although it's white), which lasts right down to the bottom of the glass. In the right pubs, you also get a special glass, shaped a bit like a Guinness glass, (ie, straight and tapered) but it's thinner and taller, and has Carling written vertically down the side.

Perfection.