Favourite Session Beer
It probably took me three years to realise, but I have to declare Fullers London Pride as my favourite session ale. This was not an easy thing for me to admit. For too long I chased the elusive beer holy grail in pubs across London just being set back by disappointment after disappointment. While I always had a soft spot for Pride, I nearly always overlooked it at the pumps for some rare microbrewed concoction. It seems that over time I have come full circle and will now take Pride whenever I can get it.It's consistent and you rarely (if ever) get a bad pint. It's widely available and comes bright and ready to serve within a couple of hours of delivery. It's popular and has a high turnover making it a safer bet. It's a solid balanced offering, nothing extreme but interesting enough to hold it's own. It's strong enough to be flavourful, but light enough to knock pints back all night long. I could go on....
This particular pint was scoffed at The Botanist on Kew Green late on Saturday afternoon. This pub had a bar full of imported continental proper real keg and one beer engine with Pride on. If a pub can only support one pump, then Pride would have to be the only choice. What's your favourite session beer?
This particular pint was scoffed at The Botanist on Kew Green late on Saturday afternoon. This pub had a bar full of imported continental proper real keg and one beer engine with Pride on. If a pub can only support one pump, then Pride would have to be the only choice. What's your favourite session beer?
Labels: Fullers, The Botanist
posted by Tim at
Thursday, July 16, 2009
13 Comments:
If I had to pick one beer to marry and be faithful to, it'd be a Schneider Weiss. It it had to be a "pint of ale", I'll agree with London Pride. I could, however, happily live off any old pint of lout. It's only beer.
Geez, Schneider is a bit posh isn't it. I picked you as a (insert cheapest swill here) kind of bloke.
I had a pint of London Pride at The Lincolnshire Poacher in Lincoln on my last trip. It was fucking awful.
No condition, oxidized, warm. I like it in bottles as well as the ESB, which is fab in Proper Real Keg form.
No quibbles with Pride; especially in a Fullers pub.
Other great session ales for me: Deuchars IPA and Adnams Bitter, which when good, is on a level with London Pride.
Summit's Hefeweizen yum yum yum on a hot summer day ice cold!!!
I'm with you on the London Pride. It's become it almost by default as it's the beer I've drunk most of in the last few years. Now I see it as a guage of how well a pub serves their beer - I've had amazing pints and terrible pints of it.
I am swaying more towards pale and hopy beers too now, things like Hophead. In the summer they are just perfect brews although in the winter a Pride hits the spot a little better.
Can't argue with Pride either. I'd probably pick Landlord as the other.
Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted here. Some marvellous sessions on that. Deuchars IPA was a fabulous beer once upon a time, which was good because it was available just about everywhere in Scotland, but I have the impression they've changed the recipe in the last year or so.
@Barm - People keep telling me this but I cant taste any difference. A lot of people say the same thing about TT Landlord as well. Are you sure it's different or do you think its one of those cases where people go off it a little bit because its widely available? (and hence loses its beer geekiness).
Young's ordinary has come on in leaps and bounds over the last 18 months. Young's pubs are a diem a dozen round my neck of the woods, but I prefer Pride.
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I drank Deuchars regularly for about seven years, and often thought how great it was that such a terrific beer was so widely available. I don't think it's snobbery. But ultimately I can't prove it's changed, because the brewing records are secret.
Pride is better on cask than keg IMO.
ESB much better in cask than keg form.
This from Rudy: "When I read some bloggers eulogising the awful London Pride and contributors agreeing with it, I despair. OK. You haven't much choice, but honestly."
It would be helpful if I had some back up when confronting this dork. Write songs, parade his blog with a shit storm of descent. Crank call him at the Tandle Hill Tavern. C'mon, be creative! Get out there and let Rudy know you think he's full of shit!!!
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