Dave and I went to the Vine last night for a pint (or two). I’m the one on the right.
I was brought up on Barnsley Bitter and have never embraced the move to lager. Dave on the other hand is a lager man.
Oz Clarke and James May had a lot to say about the role of lager in the modern pub during their series about British beer.
Sad to say, they are fighting a loosing battle; lager has the upper hand. Out of all the pumps at the Vine, I only counted two that served bitter and none that served mild. On the other hand, lager drinkers had a multitude of choices.
Photo copyright D.J. Field.
3 comments:
I'm with you Keith - it seems inevitable that bitter will become even more of a niche product, and I think it's - as you say - because of what you're brought up on.
All beer tastes disgusting. If you give a glass of beer to a child you'll go a long way to find one who will finish it, or even take more than one mouthful. But what we do is acquire a taste and get over that initial revulsion until we gradually start to tolerate it and then enjoy it. You can say exactly the same about tea and coffee.
I managed that trick with coffee, but never really with tea and certainly not with beer. To this day I'd struggle to finish half a pint of any kind of beer.
So we're back to what you were brought up on. If you learned to drink on bitter then you'll probably still have that child like reaction to lager being disgusting, and vice versa.
The greater accessibility of lager means that that is what most kids (at least lads) are training themselves up to drink, and just like choosing a football team, it's hard to change paths.
blimey, I've not thoughtof the vine for year's. It was my dad's local in the 70's. Les
Hope you kept my seat warm for the week after next, Keith!! Joan and I went out for some lunch today with Matt and Jade and I enjoyed a couple (well, maybe three!) pints of Hobgoblin bitter from the Wychwood Brewery. Long live good British bitter - these lager boys don't know what they're missing! Have a good Christmas - love to Pam
BC
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