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

Please, i'd like to make a list of how to order a beer...in every language of the world (megolomaniac laughter)

Which kind of beer? Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

I wait patiently behind the family ordering seven meals, each paying seperately and apparently not choosing to even look at the menu before they are asked for their order. I then wait (very patiently ) while the increasingly amateur bar staff serve the seven people that have arrived at the bar after me their J2O with a lemon, J2O without lemon, J2O with a vodka, no ice and lime, a pint of lager and lime...



Then I go to a proper pub that doesn't serve ****ers and say

A pint of lager please

BTW

I know that in italian it is

Uno birra media per favore

(Media - medium - is about the same as a pint in the UK)

In Finnish:

Yksi olut, kiitos. (=one beer, please)

You'd probably have to be a bit more specific, though.

If you want to believe the tv- ads, you just sit down in a Biergarten(beergarden) and say " Ich möchte diesen Teppich nicht kaufen. Bitte." ( I don't want to buy this carpet. Please), and you'll be served a Paulaner beer.

Here it depends what you want.
If it is something other than a Guinness you have to ask for it by name.
If you want a Guinness, the mearest nod at the barman, or in extreme cases simply getting near the bottom of the preceding pint is sufficient.

Nearly five years ago I asked a very similar question, which netted 50 answers. It's still visible on my personal space, but I don't know how to link to it. Help please Dunx

This shouldn't be too difficult I hope : http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F19585?thread=44658

Italian - Mi da una birra grande per favore - better than a medium

English - Swift half please

In Olde Englande, one normally specifies a brand. To ask for "a beer" will result in quizzical looks from the bar staff. You should at least specify a type (lager, bitter, mild, stout), in which case you will probably still be asked to specify a brand, but some bar staff will serve you their "cooking lager" if you don't specify.

It seems to be normal practice to specify "pint" or "half". My usual practice is to say "I'll have a badger*"; some bar staff will then enquire "pint?" to which a nod is sufficient response; some just get on and pour it, a pint being the default measure.

In Kent, the local brewery produces a brew called "Spitfire". This is traditionally served in a pint glass with a handle, rather than a straight glass. The way to order this product is to ask the bar staff for "a jug of Spit".

RF

* This is a real beer, honest!

Can you explain what lager is ? We do have Pilsener ( Pils), Export, Alt, Weizen, Hefeweizen, Kölsch, and even Lager, but I've never had one, and it's not very common.

Afternoon ! How are you

Lager is golden and fizzy and tastes much better than beer

You can have it from the tap or the bottle. Clearly I know nothing about it.

A MAN is required

"Lager" is a generic term for all pale beers* in the UK, usually quite gassy. Brands such as Heineken, Becks, Carlsberg, Stella Tortoise as well as US imports like Budweiser, and the ubiquitous Australians, Fosters and Castlemaine XXXX, are all classed as lagers.

RF

* Purists would argue that these are not "real" beers.

thanks, so that's what we call 'Kölsch' - people who don't live in the Cologne region aren't sure if Kölsch deserves to be classified as beer at all

"Stella Tortoise"
Or another term would be 'pint of wife beater' which certain of the devotees seem to find an amusing term for it.
Although, if truth be told, the effects seem to be far more general than that and one doesn;t need to be the wife of the drinker to end up getting lamped.

To complete the explanation, in the UK one has several types of Beer.

Lager Beer - more or less everything on the continent is what the british term lager.
Bitter - the dark stuff - the proper UK beer really (myriad alternatives)
Stout - the black stuff (guiness, murphys, beamish)

Inbetween lager had beer you have Mild and between bitter and stout is a very dark type of beer called porter - also (imho )

We also have ales...

Anyway, it goes something like this:
"How much for a Newcastle Brown?"
"Ok, what's your cheapest bitter?"
"How much for your cheapest whisky then?"
"Alright, I guess it'll have to be a Carling then".

I'm a student, and that's for the times when I forget my hip flask.

Lager is from the German word for store. Lager beer was originally stored in caves in the mountains where it was left to mature. Pilsener is the original lager originating from the Slovakian town of Pilsner from which all other lager beers are descended. With the possible exception of Carlsburg. while still a larger beer, uses a different strain of yeast than all other lagers.

The stuff sold in England, e.g, a pint of bitter, is not technically beer but ale and therefore should not be served cooled, as is lager, but at room temprature.

Donald

Is there a difference between a bitter and an ale?

For example I would call Greene King IPA a bitter but the IPA stands for Imperial Pale Ale.


Of course in Scotland one has light and heavy beer...this could be an endless talking point...

and I believe that ale, as such, was originally very weak. This was because it was used instead of water, which wasn;t safe to drink, whereas the fermentation process meant that ale was safe to drink for the peasants. Of course it couldn't be too strong otherwise your fields would be full of p*ssed peasants and not hardworking ones.
There was a major outcry when tea came to be adopted as the preferred drink instead of ale because some saw tea drinking as effeminate and therefore a negative influence on the local labourers. This was a fair while back, of course.