Thirsty Traveler

anyone ever watched this show on FLN? I have one recorded about british bitters, he was at a pub and it said that they hand pump there beer out of the tap no carbing lines, I havent googled it yet but could someone explain this process to me. Is there any real reason why there bitters are so low carbed and served at a warmer temperature?
Thanks

check out the Campaign for Real Ale's website... they have all the answers http://www.camra.org.uk/

Also check out "cask ale" and "beer engine" in the googles... Here is a great series about British beers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oz_and_James_Drink_to_Britain

cd38 said:

Is there any real reason why there bitters are so low carbed and served at a warmer temperature?

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Essentially, it's because they taste better that way and are designed for that system. I'll tell you those beers can be very, very good.

As many of us have come to know, ice cold beer tastes more like ice than beer. High carbonation also tends to cover up certain facets of a beer (although it can emphasize others).

The links from the earlier posters can tell you much more about it.


TL

Cart said:

check out the Campaign for Real Ale's website... they have all the answers http://www.camra.org.uk/

Click to expand...

I heart CAMRA. Because of them, I've had some of the best beers I've ever had.

cd38 said:

anyone ever watched this show on FLN? I have one recorded about british bitters, he was at a pub and it said that they hand pump there beer out of the tap no carbing lines, I havent googled it yet but could someone explain this process to me. Is there any real reason why there bitters are so low carbed and served at a warmer temperature?
Thanks

Click to expand...

They're often lowered carb'd because they're cask conditioned. The process is (to my knowledge) the same as bottle conditioning, which is what many home brewers do. They don't inject the CO2 into the beer, so the level of CO2 is usually lower than many commercially available beers.

They're served warmer because, well, it just tastes better. Real ales are very good.

I just came back from the UK/Belgium a couple of weeks ago so I'm getting a kick from these replies. I had 43 different beers in the course of the trip, it was AMAZING! I can heartily recommend any pub that is CAMRA recommended, My favorite was The Fleece Inn, the pub-iest pub in all of pubdom. At the Fleece I had three amazing real ales, The Kings Schilling, UBU, and Pigs Ear. The best part of all these pubs was the variety. Every place we walked into had a different line up of beers, mostly local and lots of stuff we'll never see over here.

Special thanks to SWMBO for being DD and enduring my quest!

The beer changes as it's served, because it oxidizes from the moment it's first tapped. Experienced pubgoers can oftentimes tell just how long a particular cask has been tapped, by the rate of oxidation.

Now THAT'S devotion to beer!