I tried a blueberry porter recently, I presume it would be the same one, and TBH I wasn't over impressed. That said I'm not a fan of either porters or blueberries. That might be relevant,

Ah, you've met me then.

I know what you mean.
It's as though they are extra-hopping to make up for lack of body.
They're OK but you want something more rounded, more complex after you've had one.

The heavy hopping seems to have come from the US, pretty much every beer I've had from there has almost been chewy, they've had so many hops. I do like some of the more citrus flavoured ones, but some of them are so sour that they're awful.

Perks of Immigration Part 1

Lovely little international food store down my way which stocks a multitude of great European lagers.

I recommend Erdinger Dunkel to those who haven't tried it!

I listened to one of Michael Jackson's last radio broadcasts- he was a great rugby league fan incidentally. The programme was about the poor quality of English brewed lagers and he commented something in the line of:

"Bordeaux produces the best full flavoured wines, you wouldn't expect the locals to drink Liebfraumilch. Yet England produces the best full bodied, full flavoured beers and Carling is our best seller".

As has been previously said, people drink what is advertised. I have a colleague who was involved in the marketing of Magners cider. They were given a taste and had to come up with ideas to sell it. He said it was tasteless, but somebody in his group threw in a giveaway comment about showing it served over ice, and a campaign was born.

Remember when perry was renamed pear cider? I knew a couple of guys who drank it, until I pointed out we used to call it Babycham.

I live in Keighley and I have to admit I find it pretty frustrating when somebody orders a Carling instead of a pint of some of the fantastic locally brewed stuff we have around here.

I live in Keighley and I have to admit I find it pretty frustrating when somebody orders a Carling instead of a pint of some of the fantastic locally brewed stuff we have around here.

Heard you the first time.


I live 9 miles down the road from you and very popular round here are beers we import from your locale .
I refer, of course, to the tried and tested range of Taylor's beers.

TBF though the second-stage drinking journey to which the young-uns refer is very little to do at all with the question of enjoyment of drink, and very much to do with going to the place where a large proportion of the required gender will also be, with a view to intercourse therewith, and getting in a state as quickly and as cheaply as possible, method not important. And also taking into account that on the odd occasion, alcoholic beverages just might not be the only mood-altering substances in use.

The what might be described, in deer terms, as rutting pubs and clubs want to serve you in ten seconds, at as high a profit margin and low poor quality product as possible, and have equally as little interest in their bar staff fannying around taking the time to pull a decent pint, as you would have in savouring one.

Their customers are pretty oblivious to the prices, the products or anything else other than this is where everybody goes, so they have to go there too. I understand this, we all did it.

Having a decent real ale is fantastic, but it's not better than getting laid. The nearest pubs come to a demographic where both activities are catered for would probably be Wetherspoons, but only to a very limited extent.

Timothy Taylor's set the bar very high, proper "beer for men of the north" as their wagons proudly display.

Lots of good smaller breweries around like Goose Eye, Naylor's and Old Bear.

A little further afield, some of the stuff coming out of Saltaire is fantastic.

Was in Leeds on Friday evening and had a Naylors (Black & Tan) and a Saltaire (Hazelnut Coffee Porter), both excellent drinks.

Do you want me to tell the story about the Goose Eye pub again

An attitude started in 1984.

I can be precise with the date as its the year that I moved back from Newcastle to Leeds and my last contract in Newcastle was the refurbishment of a quayside warehouse into a Tetleys pub, an act that was remarkable for several reasons...

1. Tetleys were almost unheard of in the North East at the time, I only knew of one Tetleys pub on Tyneside and that was The Queen Vic in Felling and that my friends, is another, completely different story



2. Opening a pub on the Newcastle Quayside was considered to be an act of madness at the time for the Quayside was an area of abandoned semi derelict warehouses from an era of several decades prior, if you went on the quayside of a Saturday night in 1984 then you were either looking for a prostitute or committing suicide, or both, probably in that order actually.

3. There's probably other reasons...

Anyway, at the first site meeting the architects came up from Leeds and were subjected to a lot of Geordie -taking about how much money they were wasting on this project, and then they explained why it was that they had leased this five-storey, but very narrow frontage, warehouse.

The design of the place was such that it was laid out for the punters to come in through the front door, be shepherded upstairs to one of four differently themed floors, served, and then ushered down the back stairs and outside, preferably being relieved of the maximum amount of money possible in as quick a time as possibly and then disposed of, the architect actually used the words "Old men who sit in pubs with one pint all night are no use to us at all".

And they had another surprise on launch night, when the bars were fitted out by their own contractors they wouldn't tell anyone what beer was being served, it was a big surprise, a new beer for Tetleys and one that would change the drinking habits of the North East, we got an invite to the opening night.

The surprise was that it was the first Tetleys pub to serve Castlemaine XXXX.

The day the beer died - October 1984.

My brother did the "ale train" from Leeds to Marsden on Saturday with his workmates. He loved it as you stop off at real ale pubs on route (he works at the Coors brewery at Tadcaster).

Anybody else done this?

I went out to see a band last week in the company of my regular drinking partner, a Geordie who goes by the name of Sparky, an irrelevant fact that adds nothing to this tale other than to explain why we were drinking Newcastle Brown.

He walks up to the bar, looks up and down for a hand pump, sighs, and orders a couple of bottles of Newcastle. The barman picks two up, opens them and puts them in front of us. Sparky looks at the barman, the barman looks back expectantly. Sparky asks for a couple of glasses. Shocked, the barman grabs a couple of pint glasses. Sparky puts him right, and asks for a pair of half glasses.
The barman then utters the immortal line....

"Would you like ice?"

You couldn't make it up.

To traditionalists, the terms "perry" and "pear cider" are not interchangeable.

Perry is made from perry pears, these contain high amounts of sorbitol - a natural sweetener that doesn't convert to alcohol.

Pear cider is usually made from concentrated (dessert) pear juice, although up to 25% apple juice is also included. A real perry has a natural sweetness but sorbitol also has other properties, giving rise to the saying: “Perry goes down like velvet, round like thunder and out like lightning.”

Many times. It's suffering due to it's own popularity though. It's utter chaos March through to October.
Indeed, did a few stops last weekend. One table in Riverhead Brewery Tap in Marsden had a bunch of 7 lads sat round it all supping lager, which is kind of missing the point.

This is true, I live in one of the villages en route and it's got ridiculous. It's a great day out and a lot of fun but it's now got to the stage that if I get the train to Manchester on a Saturday afternoon it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll see several groups of largered up lads spewing, wanging bottles of WKD on the tracks, p[ii[/issing in the street and getting their shrivelled walnut cocks out.

Don't worry, Parliament will resume before you know it.

He would love proper beer, bearing in mind he can't get it where he works!

Batley to Stalybridge is the route.
Not much walking needed, and thus more supping time as you don't need to leave the platforms

, at Dewsbury, Huddersfield (x2) and Stalybridge.
Pubs at Batley, Slaithwaite, Marsden, Greenfield and Mossley only a cock stride away also

Funnily enough the group dragged a couple of their bosses along, and they kept asking them why couldn't they make more ale like this at work

From the state of many Salford fans last Good Friday, it was equally enjoyed.
(I think I remember

)

I have been planning a similar trip from Salford Central to Clitheroe (the train goes via Bolton) and it seems quite viable with a decision yet to be made for Blackburn.

We play at Wakefield on Sunday and so there's the visit to that gem: the King's Arms at Heath: walking distance to and from the ground.

You are correct, it is an absolute gem.
It hasn't changed materially in all my adult life ... and that's a considerable period of time.