You dont see much mild, brown ale or milk stout (mackeson) nowadays.

I tried the three US ales that Wetherspoons are currently promoting. I found all three disgusting and didn't finish any.
The best thing about them was the fancy glass they came in.

Not that i'm saying there aren't any good ones out there.

Yep, it is an old pub and has certainly been through the wars, but you should certainly give it a go now, it's ace.
It was next door to derelict not long ago, then the man behind Fuzzy Duck brewery in Poulton bought it bought it and he's made it a very splendid spot indeed. He's got another one in Fleetwood, on Lord St. Can't remember its name now - it's blue.
And that used to be a pit, as well.
He's great, is Mr Fuzzy Duck!

"Lager all tastes the same" says report
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...port-says.html

Who on earth did they have tasting them? Even crap like Fosters, Stella and Carlsberg tastes different to me. A while back I was in a pub that just did lager and I bought a pint of Becks for me and a pint of Fosters, they were in identical glasses and when the barmaid told me which was which she got it the wrong way round. My friend and I both noticed.

Try Sam Adams (the proper American version), Brooklyn Lager, Anchor Steam etc.

I certainly couldn't tell most lagers apart.

They only taste of anything when they get warmer and then they taste very unpleasant.

I did buy a bottle of "craft" real-ale type lager to try a few weeks ago and, surprisingly, it was really nice. Like a very light and hoppy ale. It's a shame the draught lager in pubs is so crap in comparison.

I also like the various beers from the Harpoon brewery (http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/beer/available-now) although I'm not sure who stocks them in the UK

I have a greedy lager-loving chum. When last orders are called he often gets three pints in front of him, Carling, Carlsberg and Coors Light. He calls it the three pint taste test. I think he has finally decided he likes the Coors best, because it is sweetest, though the test continues.

I was wrongly sent a four-pack of Peroni in my Tesco order a while ago. I made the mistake of trying one when it was just chilled - never had such a foul tasting drink in my life before.

Some bottled American beers are very nice indeed.

You'd tell the difference with Becks. I think it's truley awful. For other's it's their favourite lager.

Fosters is very generic IMO, whereas Stella and Carlsberg have very distinctive tastes, though not really in a good way as far as I'm concerned.

I no longer bother with American ales when they're on offer as I've never liked any that I've tried.

Fosters is certainly distinctive, being how I would imagine metal polish to taste. I really can't see how there can be any lager that tastes worst than that.

Lager tend to go on price - obviously personal taste is also involved.

But Fosters and Carling are generic, middle of the road lagers. The better lagers are more expensive and there are cheaper lagers that, given your comment, you would most probably find worse tasting than Fosters.

Becks does kind of divide people, I really like it, I enjoy the Becks Vier too. So much better than the likes of Fosters, Carling, Carlsberg etc and generally the same price. I find Fosters, Carling etc to be just middle of the road and almost flavourless where as Becks has a bit of flavour to it. One of the nicer lagers I've had recently though is an Italian beer called Tipopils, I've only ever seen it in one place though and that's our local Italian restaurant. They've got a large number of imported Sicilian and Italian bottled beers too.

Bought some hoegaardens the other day. Distinctive flavour, and much nicer than generic lagers, on reflection.

Yes I love Hoegaarden but a bit of a different price point to generic lagers.

Just had a lovely pint of Reverend James (Brains brewery).
Truly wonderful.
Best part of the country I've been for an amazing selection of real ales is the Lake District.

Yes, I've had several excellent drinking weekends in the Lakes. And did a bit of walking.

Jennings Snecklifter is the king of the Lakeland beers.

And pretty much everyone I have tried has been disgusting and undrinkable. There is nothing wrong with the beer per se, but to me they are awful.

What is annoying, though, is that more and more that style of beer is the only one on offer in many pubs, especially in the summer.

I was in a pub on Monday which sold five Real ales, and every one of them was that style. Fortunately thay had Weston's Old Rosie cider so I drank that instead. I find I'm drinking more and more cider in the summer for that reason.

What is the point of selling five different Real Ales if they are all basically the same?


Hoegaarden is a "white" beer, the Belgian equivalent of a German Wheat Beer. It isn't a lager.

I was in a pub in Leeds on Saturday that did a very nice Milk Stout. As you say, something of a rarity these days!

Sadly so... oatmeal stout is lovely too, but that's even harder to find! Samuel Smith's do a superb one.

We have an abundance of small micro breweries around here and real ale pubs are on the increase. If anything I'd say it's more popular now than it's ever been. At one time your average bitter drinker would be happy to have one choice of bitter and drink the same drink every time but now there's more demand for a bigger variety of light and dark ales as customers like to sample different flavours.

Every time some local grotty run down boozer shuts down they seem to refurb it into an upmarket real ale pub with about 8 real ales on tap, some of which are local brews. The only issue I have with these places is they tend to favour the real ale drinkers but if like myself and my wife you only drink spirits, these places tend to rip you off for anything that isn't sold on draught.

What absolute rubbish. If I drink lager I will refuse to drink Carling as it's bland tasteless rubbish. Carlsberg and Fosters taste more hoppy and does actually have some flavour but taste a bit weak and watery. Stella has a very strong bitter flavour with a yeasty aftertaste and Coors and Becks Vier are light crisp and sweet. Perroni is crisp but very hoppy and slightly heavy to drink. I prefer bottled lagers like Tyskie, Tsing Tao and Cobra which all have unique differences in flavour.

I can certainly tell the difference between different lagers so whoever did that taste test clearly doesn't know what they're talking about. Personally I feel exactly the same about wine but that's because I'm not a won't drinker. That's why these things should be left up to the experts and not random idiots off the street. If you can't tell the difference between Carling and Stella, there must be something wrong with you.

The main factor for beers not having any taste is because they're served far too cold. Cold kills your ability to taste properly. Drinking beer too cold makes anything seem tasteless or indistinguishable.

There was a blind test in one of the papers and other than giving Fosters an inexplicable 7 the results were pretty definitive. Brooklyn Lager came top.