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

|Just to get things going, one of my favourite beers. A fine strong ale with a nutty flavour, stronger than you think so savour it slowly!

I think I had some of that at a beer festival once.

I used to drink a lot of it at the Fairport Convention Cropredy Festival , and now my local has taken to stocking it too .

Cropredy. Isn't that near Banbury?

I don't like this beer anymore. I used to drink a lot of it, but have found that in the last five or six years it's been shoved into pubs where the landlords have no idea of how to look after beer, hence the quality of it has gone down dramatically in general.
And, the people brewing it don't seem to care much anymore either. I think that this once excellant beer has fallen foul to the mass produce trap.

Best always to stick to a free house, in my opinion.

They usually have a much better selection.

And, as a rule, the landlord is a decent cellarman.

Not always. I've worked in a few freehouses, and the landlords have in general been awful when it comes to beer. But that's why they've employed me. The knack is to find a real freehouse, not just one that has "Free House" painted outside, but one that is actually owned by the guy working behind the bar. Free House in general just means that it's not owned by a brewery, but can mean that it's owned by a pub chain, just look at the Weatherspoons pubs as an example. They're all Freehouses, but some of them are absolutly dire when it comes to a decent pint of beer.

This is true. Lucky me, I grew up in St Albans, where a free house is a free house.

I've never been drinking in St.Albans. It's one of those places that I keep meaning to, but never get around to.

The only place I have found withing staggering distance of home and serves decent beer is one of the local hotels.

At the risk of dragging the conversation back to the topic (yes, I know. I apologise.):

6X seems to be particularly fussy about how it's kept. Here on the edge of its natural home, there are pubs where 6X is still one of the best beers you'll ever taste, and others where its undrinkable. I know that's true of pretty well any real ale, but it seems especially so for 6X.

Maybe a proper beer expert would know why. Personally I'm just a member of the "I know what I like" brigade.

Lux

Best drunk near the Brewery. I recommend the Lamb in Devizes - if it hasn't been knocked down or made-over in the last fifteen years!
6X does not seem to travel well. I have never had a good pint of it north of London.

Agghh you swine! Waddys 6x was the last pint of beer I drank over 11 years ago - and I can still taste it. Had to give up due to migraines, thanks for reminding me of my loss. As a result I won't live longer, it just feels like it.

Okay, beer not travelling... an expert ( read "spent seven years training as a cellarman, and that's a lot of beer to drink for a living! ) notes;

Real Ale is live, simple as that, it's still brewing in the cask. Or rather it's going through it's secondary fermentation process, but brewing is easier.
As ale ferments it reacts with the type of cask it's in. If it's in a wooden cask it gains a sort of woody taste to it. If it's a metal cask, it can gain a slightly metalic taste.
Now, if ale sits in a cask undisturbed, the flotsom and jetsom within it settles to the bottom. Yeast and hops are still in the cask with the beer, the yeast allows it to continue fermenting, and the hops usually over-ride any unwanted taste from the cask (ales in wooden casks don't have as many hops added). Now, when the cask is left still, this lot settles to the bottom as a sort of semi solid mulch, leaving the beer nice and clear, or to use the technical term... bright. To aid in this process of settling, something called "finings" are added to the beer. Originally these were from the swim bladder of a fish or other, but nowadays they're mostly a substitute. These finings also settle in with the rest of the mulch. Unfortunatly, each time the cask settles, these finings loose their potency, and are only good for around four times, each time the beer is moved, the mulch is disturbed and has to settle again.
Right, that's the brewing side explained, now to distribution...
Obviously every brewery doesn't deliver to every pub. Mostly they use agents. Now, these agents will either pick the beer up from the brewery or have it delived. A good brewery won't add the finings to the beer until this stage, although some add it when they cask the beer. If they do, then the beer sits in their store and that's one use already gone. The wholesaler/distributer will have the beer in their store until it's sold, another use of the finings gone. Then the beer gets to the pubs and sits on the floor there and another use of the finings is gone. The cask is then racked up on the stillage to settle for the last time, and the finings are used once more. Now, the futher afield you go from a brewery, the move times the cask is likely to be moved/settled. And the less the finings are likely to work properly, they'll carry on working, but it will just take longer for them to do their job. And, beer goes off.

Does that make sense?

Earwig (or may I call you hyphen?) I feel your pain. I was teetotal for two years at university in a hall of residence where 6X was served.

This explains why Nick Strudwick, barman of the International Organ Festival Society, used to drive to the Hook Norton brewery in his car, collect the beer personally, then move it direct fomr the car into the racks ready to be tapped. Another mystery solved. You should put that in an Entry.