Englands Greene King IPA & Tetleys.

Just got a hold of a 4 pack of each. Why do they have no carb.? The tetleys has a nitrogen widget in the can but it produces no carb. It is just so flat, boring. The greene king is the same but has no widget. I was not too impressed w/ them. Any other opinions on these two brews from the land of England

Sorry I never buy or drink canned Ales, bottles only.
Widgets normally make for a creamy beer. The only problem is it can actually make the whole beer creamy rather than just the beer.

A real Ale should never have CO2 added at the time of serving. It should be bottle or cask conditioned.

I hope the experience doesn't put you off British Ale.

AHammer16 said:

Just got a hold of a 4 pack of each. Why do they have no carb.? The tetleys has a nitrogen widget in the can but it produces no carb. It is just so flat, boring. The greene king is the same but has no widget. I was not too impressed w/ them. Any other opinions on these two brews from the land of England

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Do you mean that beer is supposed to be carbonated?

Tetleys is brewed in Yorkshire - Northern England.
Greene King is brewed in Suffolk - Southern England.

As I haven't been to Northern England for over 30 years, I really don't know anything about Tetleys, but I got to Southern England quite frequently, and am familiar with Greene King IPA.

In England, it comes in wooden barrels, and is a naturally conditioned real ale.
It is very lightly carbonated, but not completely flat, and should be drunk at a temperature of approximately 55 degrees F.

I have come across other canned English beers - Ruddles and Boddingtons. Both of these are in my opinion disgusting. They both have nitrogen widgets, and do not taste anything like the original English ales.

The only English beers that I have found in America that approximate to real ale, are all found in bottles, and are brewed by Fullers, Morland, Ruddles, Samuel Smith, and Youngs.

I also believe that Morland and Ruddles are both owned by Greene King.


Hope this helps.

-a.

ajf said:

Do you mean that beer is supposed to be carbonated?

Tetleys is brewed in Yorkshire - Northern England.
Greene King is brewed in Suffolk - Southern England.

As I haven't been to Northern England for over 30 years, I really don't know anything about Tetleys, but I got to Southern England quite frequently, and am familiar with Greene King IPA.

In England, it comes in wooden barrels, and is a naturally conditioned real ale.
It is very lightly carbonated, but not completely flat, and should be drunk at a temperature of approximately 55 degrees F.

-a.

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My pub in Hitchen, Herts. UK was a Green King Pub. The Red Hart. My God! I miss that beer. That Green King IPA was my secession beer and I did my best to drink my weight weekly. I still have fond memories of that pub. Frank the publican was a really good guy. Damn, that was 20 years ago. Time sure flies.

Oh, back to the beer. I've never seen this beer in the U.S. I can't imagine it traveling that well. It being a low ABV secession beer, it's best fresh. By God it's good fresh though.

Just picked up a Green King IPA at the supermarket in Lima. All the restaurants have the same uninspired 6 lagers, Cusecena, Pilsen, Crystal, Heineken, Corona, and something else forgettable. Supermarket had a bottle of La Chouffe (should have gotten it, but green bottles scare me). Green King IPA, Sold. So you guys invented IPAs, but apparently have not yet discovered hops?

My opinion:

Sadly Greene King IPA is not a true APA or any kind of IPA.
Greene King are now the BMC of the UK and the beer has gone the same way.
It is a "real ale" dumbed down for the masses and is in the hands of the Marketing boys.

Firstly it is forced on many pubs, sold chilled below 5°C and is only 3.6%.
It may be hoppy compared to yellow fizzy beer but it not anywhere near an IPA and at the temperatures sold you can't taste it anyway.

Ancient topic is Ancient.

Found this while searching though, so thought I'd just link to this if any of you guys are still around - a recipe for Greene King IPA. It's good! Plus you can carb all you like. Problem solved!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/first-extract-brew-244247/