What is the most popular beer in England?

[Catfish]

Just curious. I love English ales and bitters.

I have tried 20-30 English beers, so far.

Thanks.

[Mobile]

Originally posted by Patrick1234
Just curious. I love English ales and bitters.

I have tried 20-30 English beers, so far.

Thanks.

The most commonly drunk is one of the foreign lagers, rather than English beer itself.

Carlsberg, Stella, Fosters, Heineken, etc.

[Motterman]

Originally posted by Mobile
The most commonly drunk is one of the foreign lagers, rather than English beer itself.

Stella

Mmm.... Stella Artois is one of my favourites.

[pething101]

Fosters?

Really?

[sinner78]

Originally posted by pething101
Fosters?

Really?

nobody drinks fosters.

[pething101]

Originally posted by sinner_ronald_monk
nobody drinks fosters.

Thank god.

[AvidSinger]

Does anybody in England drink beer cold or is warm pretty much the standard?

[Mobile]

Originally posted by sinner_ronald_monk
nobody drinks fosters.

Well I don't - but it's on tap in an awful lot of pubs.

I have never drunk a pint of warm beer in my life though.

[Gar7]

It isn't warm per se. Beer, not lager, is served at room temperature of the basement where the cask is kept. So, to say that the beer is warm is not entirely true. As fro the best English brew, I'd have to go with a hand drawn pint of Fuller's London Pride. But the best British beer I have ever had comes from Wales...Brains S.A. or skull attack for short. It lives up to its name...two pints and you're feeling it!

[655321]

Last time I was in London, it seemed to be Budweiser.

And it was cold.

[jumhed]

Originally posted by 655321
Last time I was in London, it seemed to be Budweiser.

And it was cold.

I don't think any many self-respecting Brit would drink the yank Bud, just the Czech one. Yank brews have a pretty weak rep.

Personally, Grolsch, Stella, and Kronenbourg. I used to drink Cream of Calders a lot, but that might've been just so I could ask for a pint of Colin Calderwood's cream.......

[Motterman]

Originally posted by jumhed
I don't think any many self-respecting Brit would drink the yank Bud,

A friend of mine in England was telling me that Bud is pretty popular over there as well, so I tried one when I was over to see if it was any different than the swill we get here. It was different. Probably the best Budweiser I ever tasted.

Also, we were expecting the beer to be "warm" like we'd heard, but it wasn't at all.

[655321]

Originally posted by jumhed
I don't think any many self-respecting Brit would drink the yank Bud, just the Czech one. Yank brews have a pretty weak rep.

Personally, Grolsch, Stella, and Kronenbourg. I used to drink Cream of Calders a lot, but that might've been just so I could ask for a pint of Colin Calderwood's cream.......

Well, I saw them. All over the place. But anyway...

Yes, it's all about lager. Becks, Stella, Grolsch, Pilsner Urquell, the usual suspects.

[Minnman]

Originally posted by Gar7
It isn't warm per se. Beer, not lager, is served at room temperature of the basement where the cask is kept. So, to say that the beer is warm is not entirely true.

To clarify for the beer illiterate, "beer" here means top-fermented ale or, in the best instances, real ale. "Lager" refers to bottom-fermented lager or pilsner styled beers. Lagers are the dominant style the world over (more or less). Still, in the UK, a lot of ale gets consumed. There, it's served (when done appropriately) at cellar temps (not warm) and at low carbonation levels (not flat). It's also very low in alcohol by US standards (because of how beer taxation works in the UK). It's easy to find great ales in the US, too, but the whole system of delivery is different: we tend to drink them much colder, more carbonated and with more alcohol (on average). It's possible to find "real ale" in the US, but you might have to look hard. OR, attend the Real Ale Festival in Chicago each Feb/March.

Anyone travelling to the UK who wants to experience the best of traditional brewing would do themselves well to pick up a copy of the UK's beer bible, the CAMRA Guide to Good Beer.

[Catfish]

Old Speckled Hen and Tetley's

[comme]

Originally posted by Gar7
But the best British beer I have ever had comes from Wales...Brains S.A. or skull attack for short. It lives up to its name...two pints and you're feeling it!

I can't believe someone outside of Wales has actually heard of Brains. In Cardiff it is extremely popular but when i went to uni nobody had heard of it.

I would say the most popular beer in Britain is Carling because it is so cheap.

[sinner78]

Anyone ever tried Strong brew???
absolutely disgusting.

[AvidSinger]

How's the old joke go?


-- British drink warm, pissy tasting beer.
-- Americans drink cold, beery tasting piss.
-- Australians will drink anything with alcohol in it.

[RichardL]

Originally posted by Minnman
It's also very low in alcohol by US standards (because of how beer taxation works in the UK). Unless the US produces very strong ales I think you could be mistaken there. Beer is almost always stronger than lager. I know "% proof" has a different meaning in the US, which is how some spirits over there are marked as being 120% proof etc, whereas in the UK that would be physically impossible due to % proof being the alcohol by volume.

As for why there is crap beer in many pubs - most pubs are tied to a brewery and can only sell the beers the brewery wants them to sell. The crappy brands are popular with young, impressionable drinkers who know no better - they'll learn. I'm sure budweiser is only sold to catch out underage drinkers.

[Minnman]

Originally posted by RichardL
Unless the US produces very strong ales I think you could be mistaken there. Beer is almost always stronger than lager. I know "% proof" has a different meaning in the US, which is how some spirits over there are marked as being 120% proof etc, whereas in the UK that would be physically impossible due to % proof being the alcohol by volume.

As for why there is crap beer in many pubs - most pubs are tied to a brewery and can only sell the beers the brewery wants them to sell. The crappy brands are popular with young, impressionable drinkers who know no better - they'll learn. I'm sure budweiser is only sold to catch out underage drinkers.

In the UK, beer is taxed on it's "original gravity." OG is a measure of the fermentibles in unfermented beer (or "wort"). The higher the OG, the higher the tax. It's not that brewers can't make higher alcolhol beer, it's just that is would be much more expensive to do so. So it's very common to find English bitters in the 3-4% ABV range. In the US, most (and I'm not basing this on any empiracle research - just a lot of drinking) pale ales fall in the 4-6% range. Except in Utah, where laws limit alcohol content for beer served in brewpubs/bars to about 4% ABV.

It's not just tax laws, of course; there's a tradition that's built up over time that supports this kind of beer. Bitters and ales are meant to be "session beers": you're supposed to be able to sit in the pub and drink quite a bit before getting drunk. The low alcolhol and carbonation make that possible.

Note: I'm not British. I just love the beer there.