Was this written before or after the implied liquid lunch?
Too bloody right. If you drink watery, tasteless, overly fizzy British
or American style lager or (shudder) sugar-laden alcopops rather than
decent Belgian brews or (best of all) a hearty pint of rich, mahogany
hued real ale, you’re automatically a soft-cock lightweight pissant.
But it also makes you more of an antisocial wanker. Fact.
We report and you decide.
In
The funny thing is that many people think they are drinking a decent Belgian brew when they drink “reassuringly expensive” Stella Artois.
I used to live in Belgium and there it’s the cheapest beer you can get, and justifiably so.
It just shows the power of advertising.
I was referring to the proper stuff – fond memories of foaming weisse bier, kriek, Leffe, proper Hoegaarden and various potent Trappist brews. Certainly not Stella, which isn’t even brewed properly in this country, contrary to popular belief. The real stuff is better – although not sufficiently so to merit hunting it down.
And I managed to avoid going to the pub this lunchtime, I’ll have you know.
If you’re ever there try the Ter Brugge Biertjie in Brugge. Quite possibly the best temple to beer across the channel.
They even have a sign informing French patrons that asking for a beer with orange squash (or any other noxious cordial additive) will result in ejection with maximum brutality.
Excellant place in my opinion. The totty’s not bad either.
RM
I think beer snobs will one day outnumber the wine snobs. In fact, I think it’s already happened.
I think most lager pales into insignificance next to the blonde beers of various varieties belgian and non-belgian alike – it is so much better than lager for a nice refreshing ale, don’t you think?
Then again, if its a badly poured gassified (i.e. they use CO2) ale vs a fizzy lager, I can’t stand to see decent beer badly serviced and will settle for tastless pish watter.
Stella: brewed in Wales for parsimony. And it’s piss.
Nosemonkey is 100% correct. And yes, beer snobbery is undoubtedly the vice of the middle classes. I should know, I’m the worst kind of beer snob, made even worse by resting my liver for health reasons. If Tim N is right, I’ll have to move on to whisky.
I recently dallied with whisky snobbery thanks to the hard task of touring various distilleries in Scotland as “research” for an article. Can now tell the difference between the various types of single malt and have a few favourites (Mortlach 16 year old and Glenturret 12 year old in particular). The only trouble is you can’t drink as much whisky as you can bitter. Bitter therefore wins. Until, that is, I move out of the country and can no longer get a decent pint. Then it’s going to be the water of life all the way. None of that bourbon crap though…
I’ve gone beyond Belgian beer snobbery, to the point that I can now recommend Blonde du Mont Blanc, brewed just outside Chamonix and available at a very reasonable 1 euro a bottle at the supermarket just down the road from my in-laws’ place in Italy.
Nosemonkey,
I knew you were referring to the proper stuff – I was just pointing out that many people erroneously think that Stella is the proper stuff.
Belgium has an exellent bottled beer culture (although the UK is catching up). The UK is unquestionably far superior for draught beer.
My favourite Belgian beer is Westmalle Dubbel (which is a brown beer). Tripel (a blond beer) I like rather less (and it’s frighteningly strong)
god almighty what a bunch of ponces. If you’re going to sit around going “oohhh fuckety foo, la di da doesn’t this taste nice Tarquin” then the stuff to drink is wine. The quality of beer is measured in SI units of percent alcohol/price. It’s an industrial product. Yes even the handbrewed freaking Belgian stuff, which is an inefficiently produced industrial product. are you people even British?
All pales into insignificance to a perfectly ice-cold lager served up on a beach in Brazil for less than 50p. No gassy nonsense, no evil froth, just pure pleasure in a glass that you can drink all day and feel no bad after-effects in either your head or your wallet.
😀
Leave a Reply