From: neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: New World beer (was Re: Americanising
Date: 20 Aug 92 09:39:18 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

In article <3826@wyse.wyse.com> jmunro@wyse.wyse.com (Jim Munro x2497) writes:
>In article <1992Aug10.083200.19167@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) writes:
>>
>>The drink particularly associated with "lager louts" is
>>Tennant's or Carlsberg special brew, both of which have no
>>redeeming qualities whatsoever, and taste and have the effect
>>of poor quality beer to which quantities of industrial alcohol
>>have been added.
>>
>
>When I was in Britain last, I did not get much chance to choose the pubs and bars
>in which I drank, and wound up drinking quite a lot of Tennants lager. Compared
>with much of the slosh which passes for bitter, I was glad to be drinking Tennants.

Tennant's Lager. You **HAVE** to be kidding. Mass produced watered down
horse-piss. Same goes for McEwans/Fosters/XXXX/Skol......

>Sure, parts of England have some pretty good beer. I remember Ind Coope having
>some decent bitter, also Abbotts, and of course Ruddles. The brewery in my
>home town closed down in the last few years (Greenall Whitley), so I actually
>find decent beer pretty hard to find in the 'average' bar and pub. Typically, they
>stock some fizzy 'keg' beer, and some fairly ordinary 'ordinary' bitter. 
>
>As for Scotland, the beer is uniformly lousy. No wonder the Scots dring Scotch!

Just a point. Tennants Lager is made IN Scotland, at the Fountain Brewery 
(read bloody big ugly factory) in the centre of Edinburgh.

Which beers did you drink in Scotland. The 70' and 80' made by Tennants and
McEwan's are 'passable' but something by Belhaven or Alloa is somewhat nicer.
My favourite Scottish beers are from the Harvieston Brewery at Dollar, Stirling.A small brewery which produced PROPER beer which matures in the cask, not
killed off by chemicals. Other nice Scottish beer is from the Broughton
Brewery near Biggar just down the road from Edinburgh.

I totally disagree with you about SAcotch. Can't stand the taste. It is
disgusting.

>Sure if you want to be discerning, you can find decent beer almost anywhere. But
>if you find yourself staying in Hotels, or visiting wayside pubs, bars, and restraunts
>'at random' as it were, you would be well advised to stich to Tennants.

Scottish and Newcastle (McEwans and Youngers brands) and Tennants (owned by
Bass Brewers) have much of the Scottish and North of England pub trade
sewn up and the smaller better breweries have difficulty getting in. They
also have many cross licensing agreements so in addition to the McEwans/
Youngers/Tennants brands you will often find Fosters/XXXX/Skol.... and in
most Scottish pubs Newcastle Brown Ale (Scottish & Newcastle brand) which
is pretty nice for a mass market brand and to a lesser extent Theakston's
Best Bitter (another S & N brand) which is above average too.

Tennants Lager. No Way !!!

Neil


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