Don't Mention the 'L' Word

Mention of the word ‘lager’ will be usually met with short shrift round here. I am always told to respect other peoples’ tastes and opinions but lager?!? I’m sorry I just don’t get it.

The taste, if that’s the correct word, is completely repellent. Stale and nauseous – if I were stuck in the Sahara for three days before stumbling across a pub that were waiting for a delivery and consequently only served lager, I would stagger back outside to certain death.

There have been exceptions. When I’ve been on holiday it’s customary to do as the locals do. Therefore the local lager goes down a treat while relaxing beside the pool in the sun. Sometimes I have been impressed enough to bring home said beer only to find it’s not quite so pleasant in a cold, wet back garden in Hertfordshire.

I am of course making a generalisation here. Generally I’m referring to lager served in English pubs. There are many bottled, premium beers and lagers that are just fine and if anyone would like to send me any free samples to review, I’d be more than obliged!

I’m also very partial to the dark lagers that I found to be quite popular on a recent trip to the Czech Republic. So I was pleased to stumble across a Bohemian Black Lager in my local Tesco by the name of Herold.

On my trip to Prague I found many great examples of this beer including one very special ‘locals’* bar that brewed its own.

To anyone that hasn’t discovered this, please do try it. After pouring, I swear you could give this to someone and they would think it was a Mackeson. It has the same look and the same nose.
Whether the nut brown colour was playing tricks on my mind I don’t know. But this had all the taste and smoothness of a stout. Nutty, treacly, toffee flavours and a nice rich aftertaste. It’s certainly nothing like the general perception of how a lager would taste.

As I got to the end of the glass, I felt that it tasted slightly thinner than a stout. You could say ‘it didn’t have the legs’. However, it was quite refreshing nonetheless and could therefore be drunk all year round, either at a summer barbecue or as a warming nightcap in the depths of a Czech winter.

At 5.2% it has good strength and one of these was enough. I heartily recommend it to all.

*not full of drunk English idiots dressed in Tutus

J D Wetherspoon festival Round Up

With the J D Wetherspoon Beer Festival behind us I can now reveal my favourites from the event.

I visited four outlets over the period and found a mixed selection of festival ales at each one. At my local pub in Hertford one Saturday lunchtime, only one ale was available, whereas later that day in Harlow Essex, not exactly a Mecca for ale fans, a good selection of six festival beers were on show.

I managed to track down some of the more unusual beers that I had been looking for- Flying Dutchman Wit Bier came close as my favourite ale of the festival. When I mentioned to friends that it used coriander in the brewing process they looked incredulous. However it isn’t overpowering by any means and just adds subtle spicy hints.

Other highlights included Barons Bush Berry Porter from New Zealand via Banks’s of Wolverhampton and Yukon Lead Dog from Canada via Banks’s again.

However the highlight of the festival for me came from a reliable old favourite in Adnams brewery of Suffolk. Their Gunhill was previously only available in bottled form but was produced especially for Wetherspoon’s festival. It was a deliciously rich ale which used four malts in the brewing process. Consequently, chocolate vied with toffee to dominate, all of which led to a sweet taste which seemed stronger than the 4% ABV that it was.

So look out for Gunhill. Sadly none of the breweries were nice enough to send a pump clip jpeg so you’ll have to make do with this old photo of the Six Templars in Hertford!