03 February 2014

Three pints of lager and an absence of crispness

Andy Murray was still half an hour away from winning Wimbledon and I was sitting at the bar of the Prince of Wales pub in East Molsey with one eye on the game and another on my watch. We had a flight to catch and two train journeys to make before that, so it was debatable how much drinking and tennis time there was left. One half wouldn't hurt though, and I'd spotted a particularly intriguing keg font on the bar: Noble English Craft Lager -- not merely a beer, but a sign of profound change in English drinking culture. Or something. I ordered a glass. It was terrible; a mess of slick buttery yuck, lacking even enough fizz to lend it even a semblance of refreshment. This lot, whoever they are, won't be in business long turning out travesties like that, I thought, and was highly surprised to learn subsequently that it's an undercover Greene King product. Is the Bury St Edmunds ale behemoth ashamed of making a lager? Or just this particular one? The cause of British craft lager, if such a thing exists, is being done no favours here.

A few days earlier I was down in Brighton, ploughing workmanlike through the taps at The Craft Beer Co. over a couple of sessions (I covered most of what I drank in both pubs in this post last year) and I had set fairly high expectations for Leodis, a pale lager from the Leeds Brewery, an operation whose ales I normally enjoy. Alas Leodis doesn't get it right either. When I asked the barman what it was like he said "malty", but that didn't cover half of what was going on. It's a medium gold and again offers a soft effervescence in place of full-on fizz. The malt manifests in a sweet aroma but transforms into a bizarre smokiness on tasting: a bit of kipper and perhaps some melted plastic. It's not exactly unpleasant, but at the same time too strange to be really enjoyable, especially on a warm afternoon by the seaside.

I had to come home to find an English lager that really hit the spot. The late lamented WJ Kavanagh of Dorset Street had St Austell's Korev on tap for a spell last summer, a beer which proves that large regional English breweries can do lager well. As with the other two, the hopping takes a back seat in favour of smooth malt sweetness on a mildly carbonated base, but this time it's all light fluffy candyfloss and exotic brown sugar. Not at all a million miles from the golden syrup flavour one finds in good Czech světlý ležák, in fact.

Of course, one does not go to England for the lager, but if there's going to be more of it about from a greater variety of producers it's well worth knowing which are the good ones and which to avoid.

9 comments:

  1. a bit of kipper and perhaps some melted plastic. It's not exactly unpleasant

    Hate to try one that was!

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  2. Another beer we agree on? (Korev). Hooray!

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    1. I have to say: if St Austell was my local large regional brewery I'd be quite happy.

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  3. I believe Noble is actually a pale top-fermented beer and thus more like a Kölsch than a lager as such.

    It does seem to be a general problem than British craft lagers come out sweet and malty and devoid of noble hop character.

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    1. That would explain a lot, Curmudgeon. Though it's a pretty big insult to Kölsch to say it's anything like this. Kölsch is clean.

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    2. Maybe a better comparison would be the top-fermented "bastard lagers" that some of the regional brewers used to produce in the 70s and 80s.

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    3. Ah now, you're being a bit negative. That Greene King stuff sounds terrible, but Leodis is a fine beer - I live in Brighton and have often enjoyed a pint of it in Craft (it must be just a summer brew, though, because they haven't had it in for the last few months). A list of other quality English lagers would have to include Camden Helles, Meantime London Lager and Thornbridge Vienna Lager - none of these are mind-blowing, granted, but very drinkable and certainly head and shoulders above what has traditionally passed for English Lager (Carling?)

      Peace,

      Madigan

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    4. I can't think of an appropriate response to a beer that didn't taste nice, other than being negative. I'm perfectly willing to accept that I caught Leodis on a bad day, though.

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  4. I've only had it in bottle, but the Marston's Revisionist Craft Lager isn't much cop either. Tastes more like a light golden ale than a lager, crispness conspicuous by its absence.

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