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

Each to their own TY and that is the most eloquent description of a lager I have read.

In the spirit of h2g2 I may disagree with everything you drink, but I will defend to the death your right to drink it (with apologies to Rousseau? or whoever said it )

Old Speckled Hen, undoubtedly. There was always a run on it's limited supply on my local from work when I worked in Hammersmith.

DD

Carling Premier is purely a lager, not a hybrid. It's actually Carling Black Label brewed to a stronger abv. The difference is that instead of the usual CO2 that is put into most keg beers, Carling Premier has NCO2 gas put into it. Also when it goes through the pump and the sparkler (little plastic spout bit) it gets forced through small holes, giving it smaller bubbles and hence a tighter, smoother head. That and the extra nitrogen in the gas mean that the head stays longer. Oh, and it's chilled twice in the cellar rather than the normal once. Caffrey's is the same, but with a lager. Both are brewed by Bass as well I could go into the reasons for the shape of the glass as well but that would really bore you

As for good pubs in Reading? If it's still running, the Purple Turtle was one of the best places I found. Didn't serve much in the way of Ale, but did stock a good range of continental beers. Very popular with students as well. If Ale is more your scene then try the Hobgoblin on Broad street. The other Hobgoblin in the town is full of neo-nazis. The Hobgoblin specialises in weird and unusual Ales. And then there is always the Reading Lion. A bit out of the town centre, but worth the walk as it is also a brewery. Sells a LOT of Hopback beers, because Hopback own it. The Hobgoblin is owned by Wychwood.

You are a star, Pastey. Cheers.

I think, to go back to the original debate, that a beer I tasted at Christmas called 'Bombadier', a fabulous full-flavoured, faintly fruity brew (hurrah for alliteration), is possibly the finest bottled beer I have ever tasted.

BTW, has anyone else heard of this Mick the Tick feller, some chap from Birmingham who has spent the last five years travelling the country drinking beer? He did over 100,000 miles and sampled 12,000 different beers. Absolutely incredible.

Necr

I've heard of Mick the Tick, I've met him a few times as well. He's not incredible, just very, very weird. His figures for beers sampled are a little out as well. If a brewery were to change the supplier of it's hops, but keep the same varity, then to him that would be a new beer, and count as such. Don't get me wrong, he has tasted a lot of different beers, but not as many real different beers as he claims. Also he is one of the most boring people to ever get into a conversation with He's not alone either, there is a veritable league of so called 'tickers' out there. I know, the pubs I used to work in specialised in selling the unusual beers, we every no and then one or two of these chaps (oops sorry there is one lady as well) would turn up and go through everything that they hadn't already tasted. But that is another thing about them, they don't drink the beers there, or even by the pint. Most of the time they will fill up small plastic bottles with the beer and take it home with them to drink a week or so later. By then the flavour of the brew will have been tainted by the plastic bottle. They're not very particular about the beer quality, they all were to start with, but it's become a bit of an obsession with them all now

That's my ranting done Charles Wells Bombardier, a lovely brew I agree. When I used to live in Peterborough, the pub nearest to the house was a Charles Wells one, and it served a good pint Of a similar vein to that one is Fullers London Pride, also a good brew

These people all sound pretty weird to me. Whilst I am guilty of ticking beers at Beer Festivals, and making tasting notes, I plead in my defence that by the end of the session its the only way I know how many I've had and whether I liked them or not

Beer Festivals are a great opportunity to try new brews but I also like to head back to old favourites that I can't get locally. Scoresby Stout, Pickwick Porter etc.

My local serves excellent quality Ushers (despite the fact that the Landlord doesn't drink beer) and I tend to go with the Seasonal brews - currently Winter Storm.

For a quiet Saturday afternoon in front of the rugby it has to be off to the Hogsback brewery to bring back a few pints of Hair of the Hog. An excellent 3.5 ABV session ale.

Hmmm, all this talk makes me quite thirsty, perhaps I'll drop into the brewery after work

I find that I return from Beer Festivals with a squidgy, papier mache thing, that once claimed to be a list of beers. I casn't say I ever remember what I have drunk though. Not very professional I'm afraid.

Unfortunately, or fortunately dpending on how you look at it, I'm one of those mugs you see working at the beer festivals I even help organise the Ipswich one.

But I reckon the best in the country has got to be the Peterborough one. Held outside in huge marquees with a lot of space and a lot of beer

At the other end of the spectrum from toodling around Britain with tiny plastic bottles to stick in your mac and take home - I did a bit of sampling near Munich of the Andech's brewery products. Unfortunately I was unable to find the time to visit the brewery tucked under the monastery, but managed to squeeze in a "grossesbier" at the hotel just before retiring. I was tired, and I remember it was a very large beer, and my limited German could cope with ordering one. This was excellent lager.

The next day I had a chance to try another before leaving Germany - but all they had was the rather potent bock - so I tried a "grosses" of those. I realised half way through this glass was quite a bit more than 1 litre - more like 2 litres or so. That was it for the sampling. 12,000 of those would be a little heavy to handle. Say 2litres a day every day - would be 730/yr. After about 16 years you would be getting over the 12k mark. Ein prosit.

by 12k - I was thinking of litres - This is a little different than 12k different beers - but hey - stuck with only Andech's would not be bad. You could of course do 12k pints in half the time this way.

i'm not sure that the human body is capable of coping with 12 thousand pints in a row. you'd need a pipe to the nearest gentleman's room, so that you could do it undisturbed.

btw, to take a different track and do some manic self-publicity, if anyone would like to read what everyone here at college assures me is a witty and accurate article about British politics, and then perhaps recommend it to any sub-eds that you know personally, it's at the following address: http://www.h2g2.com/A193358

i think.

if that was wrong, then just go to my homepage and look it up. great british politics is the title.

cheers,

necr

People would keep treading on the pipe. And taking the end out of the toilet and spraying it at people. Still that's the price we pay. We don't buy beer, so much as hire it for a while.

Sounds like material for an Ivor Biggun song.

I'll take a look - if it is about British politics it probably does have something to do with drinking 12k pints in a row.

Canadian politics gets a bit tiresome sometimes. Same old thing about separation of Quebec, taxes, etc. But, perhaps due to the temperature being around -25oC, the wit is rather cold, or non-existant. At least we had this big fuss about the gummint proposing to give a whack of money to Ice Hockey teams, while the healthcare system is crumbling and the farmers are going out of business. Then they turned around and said they wouldn't because everyone was upset they would give millions to millionaires. Boring stuff.

Similar thing here. Instead of pouring money into the NHS, the government decides to spend over seven hundred and fifty million pounds on a few metal poles covered in a whole load of tent fabric, to make London look even more like a teenager: smokes a lot and has a big spot on its chin. I can't conceivably see how it could cost that much. Unless it's the old 'Hammer: £20,000. Screwdriver: £12,500. Pot of glue: £400,000' thing on the invoices...

£750,000,000 into the NHS would allow us to give all medical staff in Britain a 6 or 7% wage increase. MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Necr

Why is it almost all conversations involving beer end up being about politics? Is there something in beer that makes you more political and could this be why Scotland has more political parties than the rest of the country?

It's got to that stage in the evening where you've had a few, and the conversation begins to get far too sensible.

More like it has got to that time of night where you lose all inhibitions. Hence you try to convince everybody that Gordon Brown has a cracking economic policy or Sean Connery is perfectly right to live in the Caribbean and call for Scots independence. Later on you switch back the opposite way and start planning assasinations.

I heard that Darwin, Australia has amongst the largest per-capita beer consumption in the World - because it is hot, and there are a lot of dudes who like to cool off with a pint or ten.

Are there many politicians who come from Darwin?

Having lived in Darwin I would have to say it is the perfect climate for drinking beer as you sweat so much out that you just have to keep replenishing your fluids. Most pubs will give you a stubbie cooler when they serve you (everyone drinks stubies or cans there, as the only tap beer , NT draught, is like a bad Fosters [not that there is a good Fosters])

Politics-wise, there are only 2 parties and the same one has won every election since they started having them. I think its too hot to be bothered with politics to be honest.