tgolanos
Well-Known Member
I'm off to the UK on Sunday for 10 days. Does anyone have any specific recommendations for awesome pubs/craft brew in Bath (or even Bristol), London, and/or Edinburgh? Anything you guys know would be appreciated.
...had good selection of cask ales.
The Old Green Tree pub in Bath is the best I've ever experienced. It's what an old pub is supposed to be. I stumbled across it one day, but I think it's been named Best Pub in Britain (or something like that.) Amazing characters in the tiny little boozer and they have Pitchfork's (local-ish) beers on tap. Grab me some yeast from a Pitchfork cask.I'm off to the UK on Sunday for 10 days. Does anyone have any specific recommendations for awesome pubs/craft brew in Bath (or even Bristol)
If your looking for US craft style beers, I agree with the above posters that you've got to seek out special spots. Mind you, you'll probably be dissapointed in comparison to range of utra-sour/huge IBU/cloudy stuff/(the latest gimmick) you can get in North America.
I agree with McKnuckel- forget about craft beer, and get yourself something you can't get on this side of the pond- cask ale, in a proper pub. Its not hard to find a decent pub in the UK, especially in one of the big cities mentioned. Usually it will say it serves "real ale" or cask ale. Find a local boozer, a real british pub, serving proper cask ale. You cant go wrong, there are thousands, within spitting distance, in any of those cities.
Avoid any pub that advertises "craft beer" or looks remotely hipsterish. Ideally, if its day time there will be a couple of old geezers in there reading the paper, discussing brexit, and annoying the barmaid, and maybe a dog (asleep). They wont be serving sour beers, or be advertising the most extreme versions of any style. Avoid Wetherspoons pubs, or anything that looks vaguely like a chain. Dont bother looking at your phone to see how many stars it has on untappd. or maybe do and avoid anywhere that seems popular and hip.
For example, a couple of years ago, I had a couple of hours to kill while renewing my passport near Victoria station in london. So I wandered around, avoiding "gastropubs", looking for a solid boozer. Within minutes I found a nice proper pub (prince of wales), they had a small selection of decent real ale (pride, esb and something else cant remember). You can hardly even find it on google. Im not suggesting going to that pub. Find your own one! If you get a chance, go to a country pub too.
My wife's got several plays lined up each night while we're in London, so I might check this out while she's there one evening. I dig a good bookstore, beer-related or not.Here's a good one for you in London if you also need some brewing books...... Wife took me to a play while we there, and decided to get a beer and some fish & chips at one of the many pubs near there before the show. Turns out this place "The Crown" is on Brewer's Street (right next to the theater) . While eating I notice they have a book swap, not only a book swap but BEER BREWING BOOKS (zoom in below) Too bad i didn't have any "leave one" type books on me or i would have picked some of these up.
This was just over a week ago, so may be some left [emoji16]
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If your looking for US craft style beers, I agree with the above posters that you've got to seek out special spots. Mind you, you'll probably be dissapointed in comparison to range of utra-sour/huge IBU/cloudy stuff/(the latest gimmick) you can get in North America.
Weatherspoons is pretty good for a beer and meal if you are on a budget.
I'd disagree, that's something that's changed a lot even over the last two years - provincial Tesco supermarkets now have a couple of fruit sours and NEIPAs (although Sainsburys is still stuck in the 1990s), M&S stocks Mikkeller. They may not be the world's greatest examples, but craft culture is becoming fairly mainstream these days, even if it just means something like Punk IPA on the bar.
Personally I've always hated wetherspoons pubs, I guess the beer is okay, but the atmosphere is horrible. Do they still open at 9am? Plus the owner is some pro-brexit nut-job.
To each his own! I think the Standing Order in Edinburgh is beautiful. It was formerly a bank I believe?
I agree with most of what you said except the first bit. Sure you can "craft beer" in the UK. But if you are a craft beer lover from the the US, you are bound to be disapointed, in comparison to whats on offer on this side of the pond. Yes you can by a can of Mikkeller from M&S, but if you get anything hoppy you are gonna be dissapointed, as it will have sat around for months/years on a supermarket shelf. I dont think the range of 2 fruit sour beers in Tescos is really going to get your average US craft beer geek too excited.
I was back home a few years ago, and my brother was all excited to tell me that they now have craft beer in the UK, and its all the rage. He had got me in a couple of cans of "craft beer" in the fridge. It was punk "IPA". It tasted to me like a slighty oxidised underhopped APA with cascade. Definately not something thats gonna blow your average US craft beer lovers mind.
Where the British tradition still survives is cask ale (usually but not entirely in the form of bitter), and it is the most “crafted” beer style made anywhere. If we ever wanted to exalt a beer type that requires the most hands fussing over it, a beer resistant to making at large scale, one that can’t really be put in a bottle, one that is as likely to wilt from environmental conditions as freshly-plucked lettuce, it is cask ale. When you’re served a pint at the right temperature, poured properly, that is perfectly fresh and well-handled, it’s a marvel of coordination. There’s a reason Americans picked the bones of British brewing while leaving its cask soul behind: it’s just too hard to make.
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