What is the best readily available bottled ale?

[contango]

Bengal Lancer is 5.3%. That's strong enough. Some modern IPAs are north of 6.5%.

Here in USAnia you can get Stone RuinTen, a triple IPA. It comes in a 22oz bottle and runs about 11% abv. Don't plan on driving any time soon.

[hairyhippy]

Quite partial to the Brewdog IPA. I also like Skinners when I'm down in the South West - I always look for it in vain in other parts of the country as the £10 delivery from the website is a bit steep.

[ian]

I quite like the Oakham Citra and Scarlet McCaw. Other than that, I don't really get on with many traditional 'real ales' (Old Speckled Hen and that ilk), I find them a touch sticky and sweet, whether from the cask or bottle. Citra has started to appear on cask in several places (I had a pint at the Southwark Tavern on Friday evening, which washed away the sour taste of having paid £5.10 for a pint of Hoegaarden at another pub earlier).

I'm pleased these days that it's easy to get a plentiful supply of craft beer (the M&S range is very good).  I just wandered back from Oddbins with a cache of six bottles from assorted London brewers. It gets dangerous though, I somehow ended up paying £13 for a single bottle of some beer the other day. I'd assumed it would be a big bottle. Incorrectly. Oh well, it sounds nice (some kind of cherry sour).

I did the Bermondsey Beer Mile the other weekend, while playing tourist, which was very good – Southwark Brewing, The Bottle Shop, Anspach & Hobday, Brew by Numbers, Partizan, and Fourpure (would have gone to the Kernel, but they have contrary hours for some inexplicable reason). We were clinking along merrily by the time we washed up on the industrial shores of South Bermondsey. Most places do 1/3rds, so you can sample more widely without falling over.

[contango]

I quite like the Oakham Citra and Scarlet McCaw. Other than that, I don't really get on with many traditional 'real ales' (Old Speckled Hen and that ilk), I find them a touch sticky and sweet, whether from the cask or bottle. Citra has started to appear on cask in several places (I had a pint at the Southwark Tavern on Friday evening, which washed away the sour taste of having paid £5.10 for a pint of Hoegaarden at another pub earlier).

First advocaat, now Hoegaarden. Will you ever learn?

I'm pleased these days that it's easy to get a plentiful supply of craft beer (the M&S range is very good).  I just wandered back from Oddbins with a cache of six bottles from assorted London brewers. It gets dangerous though, I somehow ended up paying £13 for a single bottle of some beer the other day. I'd assumed it would be a big bottle. Incorrectly. Oh well, it sounds nice (some kind of cherry sour).

My wife was a little bothered yesterday when I managed to pay $56 for four bottles of beer, all from the same brewery. I do like my Stone beer. The $10 bombers are a treat, and the two $18 bottles were seriously one-offs that I just had to try. Funny to think that her beer of choice is $56 for two cases.

Stone are not only rather oddball as a brewery but they also give their beers some interesting names. One I bought yesterday was called "Double Bastard In The Rye" - it's a derivative of their Double Bastard Ale which is itself a derivative of their Arrogant Bastard Ale.

[Mr Larrington]

We need to approach them to sponsor the Battle Mountain event then, now the chief start official is known as the "arrogant inconsiderate bastard".

[Oscar's dad]

I try to keep my beer miles low so favour bottled beers from East Anglian breweries which are invariably available as a 4 for £6 offer.  If Crouch Vale's Amarillo or Brewers Gold are on offer they get bought and drunk pretty quickly - yummy.

Moving away from the local and readily available theme, supermarkets round here sometimes stock Dizzy Blonde by the Robinsons Brewery.  Its one of the few beers that The Current Mrs R (herself a blonde from Essex) enjoys.  We first encountered it at The Golden Rule in Ambleside.  We like the pump clip / bottle label too:

[ian]

First advocaat, now Hoegaarden. Will you ever learn?

Good point. I don't mind Hoegaarden given a worse selection of alternatives (Peroni) and I fancied something fizzy. Plus the pub was so loud I couldn't actually hear what was happening inside my own head. I'm getting old, even my internal monologue had to shout. Some woman was screeching so loudly at the people right next to her it actually felt like she was sawing my soul in half. I needed a stiff drink and possibly automatic weapons.

I had a Stone Saison the other day. Very nice though very saison-y. Hints of old barn and damp cow.

[Mr Larrington]

I had a Stone Saison the other day. Very nice though very saison-y. Hints of old barn and damp cow.

Old barn and damp cow is a good thing

[citoyen]

My wife was a little bothered yesterday when I managed to pay $56 for four bottles of beer, all from the same brewery.

That's cheap compared to some of the stuff stocked in my local specialist beer emporium - they currently have in stock a 13.5% imperial stout (aged in bourbon barrels with coffee and cacao nibs) that's a mere £17.50 for a 375ml bottle.

Tbh, I don't mind paying for stuff that's really worth it, but generally I don't think they are worth it - as the owner of said emporium explained to me, much of the price of the really expensive stuff he stocks is to cover import costs (aside from taxes, bottled beer is hugely expensive to ship) so you get much better value from drinking local beers.

None the less, I've had some fantastic beers from said emporium for which I've paid fairly silly money, but on the whole I tend to stick to the 4 for £6 offers from Tesco for everyday quaffing.

[citoyen]

very saison-y. Hints of old barn and damp cow.

Old barn and damp cow is a good thing

For a saison, yes, definitely. 

[contango]

First advocaat, now Hoegaarden. Will you ever learn?

Good point. I don't mind Hoegaarden given a worse selection of alternatives (Peroni) and I fancied something fizzy. Plus the pub was so loud I couldn't actually hear what was happening inside my own head. I'm getting old, even my internal monologue had to shout. Some woman was screeching so loudly at the people right next to her it actually felt like she was sawing my soul in half. I needed a stiff drink and possibly automatic weapons.

Honestly, I think I'd drink advocaat before I let another drop of Hoegaarden pass my lips, and that's saying something.

A while back I was at a friend's birthday party. Sadly he'd hired a venue that had an almost non-existent selection behind the bar. I had a single bottle of Old Speckled Hen but a few hours later when I would have liked another drink I didn't want another Hen because I was driving, so I opted for a half of Carlsberg. The first mouthful reminded me of why I hadn't drunk Carlsberg in a long long time. Needless to say had I been breathalysed on the way home the rest of the half of Carlsberg wouldn't have registered.

On a side note, automatic weapons are fun. A friend of a friend here in USAnia has the appropriate licenses to own fully automatic weapons and I recently got the chance to fire a couple of them. Much grinning followed.

I had a Stone Saison the other day. Very nice though very saison-y. Hints of old barn and damp cow.

I'm rather partial to it, although it is a summer beer. My case of it is mostly depleted, replaced with a case of Coffee Milk Stout. There were others that caught my eye but slipping just shy of $60 for four beers and another case past Mrs Contango might have resulted in the loss of vital bodily organs.

[contango]

My wife was a little bothered yesterday when I managed to pay $56 for four bottles of beer, all from the same brewery.

That's cheap compared to some of the stuff stocked in my local specialist beer emporium - they currently have in stock a 13.5% imperial stout (aged in bourbon barrels with coffee and cacao nibs) that's a mere £17.50 for a 375ml bottle.

Tbh, I don't mind paying for stuff that's really worth it, but generally I don't think they are worth it - as the owner of said emporium explained to me, much of the price of the really expensive stuff he stocks is to cover import costs (aside from taxes, bottled beer is hugely expensive to ship) so you get much better value from drinking local beers.

None the less, I've had some fantastic beers from said emporium for which I've paid fairly silly money, but on the whole I tend to stick to the 4 for £6 offers from Tesco for everyday quaffing.

Sure, you can pay a lot of money for beers. The $18 beers were 500ml bottles, which make it the most expensive beer I've bought in a while. In the UK I paid not much under 100 quid for a case of Ruination, meaning each 12oz bottle cost me four quid. It had taken me so long to find it that I decided it was worth it. Then Stone toned down the Ruination and produced Ruination 2.0 which is a whole lot less, well, ruinous.

If I'm going to drink multiple beers I stick to the cheap stuff. If I'm going to have a single beer, make it last the evening, and really consider the taste of it as it warms and enjoy it then I'll crack open one of the more unusual ones.

[nicknack]

a single beer, make it last the evening

How is this possible?

[contango]

a single beer, make it last the evening

How is this possible?

When it's a 22oz beer that's over 10% abv it's not all that hard. Just drink it slowly, knowing you won't be having another one.

It's easy to make a half of Carlsberg last the entire evening too. Just a brief taste will remind you why you don't drink the stuff, so you can leave it on the table all evening before pouring it down the sink.

[Poacher]

My choice is Badger's Poacher's Choice. Has to be, really.

[TheLurker]

Best?  That's an individual time/taste/mood combination with no definitive answer, but what's a virtual pub like YACF for if not for daft arguments? 

I don't much care for beers with stupidly high ABV so my current default Friday night sup is usually a pale ale, such as Marstons (Sainsbury's & Waitrose) or Greene King's IPA (just about bloody everywhere).

Another low ABV that I've tried and enjoyed was Adnam's Sole Star, but as the only place I found that was Macknade's at Faversham it hardly counts as readily available.

If I'm in the mood for something a bit heavier then I'll go for a porter or stout and for readily available I guess it'd have to be Smith's Taddy Porter.

[Tigerrr]

I did the annual booze run to calais last week - taking advantage of the excellent free tunnel ticket offer from Majestic. In the Auchan I purchased a number of 75cl bottles of high strength belgian beer (9%). One bottle is enough to send me to the moon and wake up feeling unwell the next day. It took me three days to realise it was the beer and not the various indigestible foods I also purchased. Not really sure what he point of beer like that is.

[SteveC]

Not really sure what he point of beer like that is.

For sharing?

It's closer to wine than normal beer in strength (although still weaker than most wines), so treat it like a wine. Get a nice small glass and drink slowly with some food and a friend.

[De Sisti]

Best = one which tastes nicest to the drinker

^^^^

[contango]

I did the annual booze run to calais last week - taking advantage of the excellent free tunnel ticket offer from Majestic. In the Auchan I purchased a number of 75cl bottles of high strength belgian beer (9%). One bottle is enough to send me to the moon and wake up feeling unwell the next day. It took me three days to realise it was the beer and not the various indigestible foods I also purchased. Not really sure what he point of beer like that is.

I think that is a good reference back to my earlier point of making a beer last the entire evening.

I've taken the last hour and a bit to drink half a bottle of Dogfish Head Theobroma. It's a 750ml bottle, 9% abv. I'm not driving, and not planning on getting up particularly early in the morning either.

[ian]

They're certainly not binge beers. A year or so back, I went to a client meeting in Belgium. They were nice folks and it was someone's birthday so they insisted we go to a cafe with them for a 'few drinks'. It was barman's choice. Some splendid beers but there were several and I don't think many sailed south of the 8 per cent line. The world was a bit fuzzy the following morning.

Reminds me, I've a got a bottle of that Brewdog 40 per cent stuff somewhere.

[Riggers]

Worthington White Shield. An impossible one to answer really Wowers, as there's so many nowadays.

Personally, I don't prefer those that are tooooooo citrus-ee.

[Tigerrr]

They're certainly not binge beers. A year or so back, I went to a client meeting in Belgium. They were nice folks and it was someone's birthday so they insisted we go to a cafe with them for a 'few drinks'. It was barman's choice. Some splendid beers but there were several and I don't think many sailed south of the 8 per cent line. The world was a bit fuzzy the following morning.

Reminds me, I've a got a bottle of that Brewdog 40 per cent stuff somewhere.

I knocked back two bottles first night and that explains why I woke up at 3 AM in front of rubbish on the telly, with a mouth like a boat bilge. Mind you it explains a lot about the belgians.

[DDCyclist]

I'd have to go for "the one that's chilling in the fridge right now."

I don't know what it is, and it'll probably be something different the next time I fancy a beer, but it's definitely the best. 

[caerau]

If I had a wish I'd wish for some oldy goldies that have been ruined by being mainstreamed.


Both Worthington's and Tetley were fine ales before the smoothflow revolution blanded them into beers I can't stand.


I just scanned through this thread and saw no mention of Old Speckled Hen.  A bit strong for general purposes but a fine brew still.