I am reading Dr. Charle's Bamforth's book Beer is Proof that God Loves Us and came across this paragraph:
Now, this frightens me. To be honest I cannot recall seeing many milds on tap the times I've visited the UK. Usually I see a variety of English pales (bitters, ESBs, etc.) with the occasional porter or brown, along with a whole bunch of Belgian stuff and the ever-present Bud.
Does this kind of thing still happen? Are milds to be eschewed in the local pubs?
As an 18-year-old trainee barman, I was instructed by
George, mine host of The Brown Cow in Helsby,14 how to deal
with the slops that spilled over from the pouring of pints from
tap handles. Beneath every tap was a tray, into which the surplus
foam and beer was collected as it unavoidably streamed
down the side of the glass as a full pint with requisite foamatop
was delivered. When the trays filled, we tipped them into
buckets, which were progressively collected down in the cellar.
George told me that the trick was always to put the contents
of the buckets, which of course emerged from barrels of
several types of beer, into the barrel of mild ale. That was the
darkest and least likely to reveal that it has been adulterated.
For the longest time I would never buy a pint of mild anywhere
I went.
Now, this frightens me. To be honest I cannot recall seeing many milds on tap the times I've visited the UK. Usually I see a variety of English pales (bitters, ESBs, etc.) with the occasional porter or brown, along with a whole bunch of Belgian stuff and the ever-present Bud.
Does this kind of thing still happen? Are milds to be eschewed in the local pubs?