Overrated beers

[Galena]

Is the guinness different in ireland to the uk? People say that and wondered if it were true, I drank Guinness in Ireland a few years ago but not drunk it here since I drank 10 pints of it in the students union to win a blow up chair 20 years ago

It certainly was in the 1970's, Guinness sold in England was I believe brewed in London and was a psis poor copy of the Dublin Guinness. On my trips to Ireland in that period a pint of Guinness would take a while to pour so in a busy pub staff would have a load of glasses being prepared, fill them to the brim, wait for the head to subside, skim it off with a spatula, top it up again etc. In England it rarely had a decent head at all and even when it was served properly was just not as smooth as the Irish.

 

[IainM]

oakhams citra - had a half in tapped leeds yesterday. sorry I bothered. must be lupilin threshold syndrome again.

also a lot of brewdog beers thesedays. They do have some diamonds still but there are an increasing number of turds floating to the surface

Same. No idea if it is my threshold or the beer are being tamed, but all Brewdog headliners and Oakhams Citra and Scarlet Macaw have both lost their shine. Disappointingly even Cloudwater have started to pump out some dross. They used to be my go-to beer because no matter what they made it was awesome, like how Brewdog used to be, then a couple of years ago I noticed the odd beer that was just... not up to scratch. Now they have some generic IPA swill you can even get in Tesco, and it just isn't worth bothering with.

 

[samale]

It certainly was in the 1970's, Guinness sold in England was I believe brewed in London and was a psis poor copy of the Dublin Guinness. On my trips to Ireland in that period a pint of Guinness would take a while to pour so in a busy pub staff would have a load of glasses being prepared, fill them to the brim, wait for the head to subside, skim it off with a spatula, top it up again etc. In England it rarely had a decent head at all and even when it was served properly was just not as smooth as the Irish.

Guinness should never need skimmed. If so your pump is running high. Guinness is poured in two stages, it should have a nice dome head. It should cling to the glass and leave lacing the full pint.
Guinness down south always seems to taste better, similar story with Tayto cheese and onion crisps.

 

[Galena]

Guinness should never need skimmed. If so your pump is running high. Guinness is poured in two stages, it should have a nice dome head. It should cling to the glass and leave lacing the full pint.
Guinness down south always seems to taste better, similar story with Tayto cheese and onion crisps.

Well, I am no expert but that is how most of the bars I visited in Ireland did it back in the 70's, I don't think the top up was skimmed though.

 

[Hanglow]

The last time I was impressed with brewdog was when they still sold cask beer, which was quite a while ago now .

I remember trying cloudwaters first lager and I was genuinely embarrassed for them, an appalling attempt at a lager and I couldn't believe that a supposedly good brewery would release a beer like that. Very few British breweries can make good lagers, it's a sad state of affairs.

The beer I'm most disappointed with though is Deuchars. I still remember it when it was a nationwide available pint that was genuinely good, however since about 2000 they kept on cutting corners and saving money, to the point where it was the cheapest beer in wetherspoons. A sad demise.

 

[TonyT]

A lot being said about BrewDog. I think that so many of their beers are all now quite similar, whereas a few years ago they were brewimg stuff that was different and interesting. That said, I don’t think that punk is that bad, and for the sake of convenience I always chuck a case of that in when we go off in the camper van.

 

[Toxicdonkey]

I may have already mentioned this but anything by brewdog.

 

[Graz]

Whilst I tend to agree with most of what's being said about BrewDog last weekend we were going to some friends for dinner and the only option I had to get some beer to take over was the local CoOp. Wasn't really much taking my fancy so I bought a pack of Jagged Edge Jagged Edge

Didn't expect much from it but was pleasantly surprised. It's quite similar to Vocation Life and Death which I also like. Anyway finally one BrewDog supermarket beer that isn't too bad IMHO.

 

[trummy]

Mates 70th bash yesterday - only beer provided was a fridge full of BD tins. What has happened to him? My old drinking buddy! One can of Hazy Jane was enough. Best bit was I offered to supply him with some homebrew and he said he didn't want that crappy stuff - hes not tried it in the last 5 years, so stuff him.

On a cycle camping trip in Ireland i was told off by a Landlord for drinking his beloved Guinness too fast! After 30 odd miles slog or so I needed something. Thought it overrated then and still do especially after my last trip over there when the Wife's relatives all insisted that they bought me a pint - I did not feel very well at all the next day.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Personally I have never understood how anyone could enjoy Doombar.

I have had it at home (bottles) and in the pub (draft) and i much prefer the pub version, i wouldn't say its in the top half of my favourite list but its certainly not at the bottom.

 

[micklupulo]

I have had it at home (bottles) and in the pub (draft) and i much prefer the pub version, i wouldn't say its in the top half of my favourite list but its certainly not at the bottom.

It all goes to show that there is no accounting for taste and many on here have opposite views of the same beer or brewery. Having said that the only time I have experienced Doombar (draught) was years ago when I was still smoking so maybe the flavour described by Sharps as "subtle" was lost on me and come to think of it Greene King so called IPA seemed a bit nothing too.

 

[Donegal john]

It all goes to show that there is no accounting for taste and many on here have opposite views of the same beer or brewery. Having said that the only time I have experienced Doombar (draught) was years ago when I was still smoking so maybe the flavour described by Sharps as "subtle" was lost on me and come to think of it Greene King so called IPA seemed a bit nothing too.

Greene king ipa is a bit nothing to be honest.

 

[trummy]

Cripes Chippy you should live round here! About every Pubco pub had it behind the bar not so long ago. Apparently it was a case of take Doombar and we will subsidise your TV sports package. It seems now to be in decline and a couple of pubs have replaced it with TT Landlord (praise be to God)
It was drinkable in early days but a new brewery has made it an insipid mouth wash!
The bottled version is actually brewed by Marstons - presumably because they use their large bottling plant.
Please don't call me opinionated!

 

[The Baron]

Just playing Devils advocate- do you not think there is a lot of rose tinted glasses going on with some not all of the comments "We look back and think the winters were warmer, the grass was greener and the skies were bluer".
I also think that we are just getting used to the especially hoppy beers that are just mimicking each other and the initial wow has now dulled.
I know some beers have changed their recipes possibly for commercial reasons and it was the first that wowed us so nothing will beat that or will it?
Unless somebody grows some new Hi-profile new hops are we stuck with just the same hops being over used in beers that are very similar, I really don't know.

 

[micklupulo]

Cripes Chippy you should live round here! About every Pubco pub had it behind the bar not so long ago. Apparently it was a case of take Doombar and we will subsidise your TV sports package. It seems now to be in decline and a couple of pubs have replaced it with TT Landlord (praise be to God)
It was drinkable in early days but a new brewery has made it an insipid mouth wash!
The bottled version is actually brewed by Marstons - presumably because they use their large bottling plant.
Please don't call me opinionated!

I suspected Doombar's ubiquity had something to do with big money so now I know!

 

[micklupulo]

Just playing Devils advocate- do you not think there is a lot of rose tinted glasses going on with some not all of the comments "We look back and think the winters were warmer, the grass was greener and the skies were bluer".
I also think that we are just getting used to the especially hoppy beers that are just mimicking each other and the initial wow has now dulled.
I know some beers have changed their recipes possibly for commercial reasons and it was the first that wowed us so nothing will beat that or will it?
Unless somebody grows some new Hi-profile new hops are we stuck with just the same hops being over used in beers that are very similar, I really don't know.

You make some valid points but from the consensus on here it seems beyond doubt that Deuchars Bass and Pedigree are pale imitations of what they were having been wrecked by big businesses decisions involving such philistinic lunacy such as casually losing an ancient yeast strain as I believe the case was with Bass or was it Pedigree.

 

[Crappyfish]

For me overrated is any beer called Session, I.e. Session IPA.

Does session just mean it's a bit weak?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

It usually mean less than either 4% or 5% depending on the beer style.

 

[micklupulo]

It usually mean less than either 4% or 5% depending on the beer style.

Dark Rock recently launched a series of extract "session" kits with copious hop additions all with a target ABV of 4.5% from memory which nicely cuts an average.

 

[Alastair70]

Greene king ipa is a bit nothing to be honest.

I was given a pint of this in a pub a couple of years ago and asked to comment. “I could drink half a dozen home brews and piss a better pint.” wasn’t the feedback my company expected.