Bad pints

As £5 a pint disappears in the rear view mirror, and the quality of bottled ales improves, am I alone in finding that about every other pub is selling off beer?

My usual question to the staff is, “Is it supposed to taste like this?” And more than once I’ve got the reply, “I dunno, I don’t drink it “.

Perhaps we should name and shame?

I’m not a fan of ‘commercial’ larger and beers at the best of times. It’s doubly insulting when you’re forced into buying a pint of one in a pub through lack of choice… and it tastes worse than a can of the same stuff from the supermarket which costs a fraction of the price.

I generally find picking better watering holes and better beers the solution.

I think it’s worse when it’s a beer I like and I only notice when I’m a third of the way in and it starts to smell a bit off. It tastes ok but the more your drink, the worse it gets. By then it’s too late.

Thing is, when I was first drinking in the late 80’s and early 90’s a pint cost around £1.50 . We drank loads, didn’t care (much) about the quality and all was good in the world.

A quick google shows that equates to around £4.30ish in todays money so not that far off a £5 pint.

When I say we drank loads, I mean 5-8 pints…..several days a week….on part time wages, student grants, entry level job wages……

Yet we could still afford to drive, save up for houses, go on holiday

I’m not sure its the price of beer that’s out of whack here

I rarely drink a pulled pint any more.

The quality has always been hit and miss ime even when a pint of Tolly was £1.60.  Especially true in pubs with lower footfall or that are rubbish at cleaning their lines.

Although I did think this was a hangover thread – one of those threads asking why is the fifteenth pint always off? Asked in a blur of bleary eyed regret

Not a problem I have down South fortunately – loads of independent/micro pubs that know how to keep decent beer!

I always drink draught beer if I’m in a pub, I only drink bottled beer when I’m at home, or sometimes cans from one of the many breweries in the southwest, although they’re often pretty pricey.
There’s a new brewery started up in Melksham, and I tried one of their beers in my regular pub, ‘cos they always ask my opinion about anything new, and it wasn’t bad, just rather indifferent, rather lacking in flavour. Their other beers are a lot better though, and it sold well.

The last time I had a bad pint was at Bristol University SU, when I went to a gig, and it was Guinness, which was pretty awful – I left most of my pint, so did my mate, but I’ve never had a bad beer anywhere else in the last three decades at least.

‘I always drink draught beer if I’m in a pub, I only drink bottled beer when I’m at home,’

As above. My local is tiny, space for maybe twenty inside. It always has locals drinking outside on a Friday afternoon if the weather is dry. Usually an ale is on tap alongside a bunch of gassified nationally available brands; lagers and a bitter. EVERY time I try the pulled ale it is off. Every time. It must be costing them surely?

Name and shame eh? The Mount, Gwaun Cae Gurwen. https://maps.app.goo.gl/p3ozJ1Fe5TaSGKEU9

See also: wine by the glass. Especially if they sell many types by the glass

Change pubs.

it takes some effort to look after beer and serve it well, including cleaning glasses properly and storing them effectively. stacking still warm/wet glasses is horrible for the taste of a pint irrespective of how the beer is kept or how clean the lines are. some pubs GAS, some don’t. i try not to drink in the former. at least we’re not paying the **** tax that lager attracts.

Had a bad pint last week, but that was the first such in a long while. Pub was very quick to replace and take the beer off (last dregs of a barrel they said). Very nice country pub/restaurant, not our first visit and we’ll certainly be back.

In younger years I might have been too embarrassed/unsure to complain but by now I know what a bad pint is!

If you go to decent pubs, I don’t think it happens any more than it used to. If it does, I always take it back and there’s never an issue, they change the barrel or I choose a another beer.

I look forward to a hand pulled pint, because I like to seek out the local best bitter and it’s hard to find that that in cans or bottles. It’s all IPAs, “Golden ales”, “amber ales” etc.

I don’t mind a strong hoppy IPA from a pump, but they’re ten a penny and have been done to death. A well kept best bitter, within the catchment of the local brewery is better than anything in a bottle or can imo.

On the rare occasion a brewery does put it’s best bitter in bottles (Hobson’s near me does) it’s a pale shadow of what you get from the pump.

A well kept best bitter, within the catchment of the local brewery is better than anything in a bottle or can imo.

Amen brother. Increasingly harder to find though sadly, it’s all 8% IPAs that taste like Lilt these days…

alongside a bunch of gassified nationally available brands

this should be a massive red flag, that they neither know nor care about beer! Find a better pub!!

Amen brother. Increasingly harder to find though sadly, it’s all 8% IPAs that taste like Lilt these days…

+1

Further to my OP, I emailed the brewery from the (rather better) pub over the road. By closing time, I had a reply from the brewery saying they would pay a visit to the culprit today.

bad pints = bad pub, ie they don’t know what they’re doing with the beer.

Ales need to be set up properly and kept properly at the right temperature. They’ll also go off after four or five days so if it hasn’t all been poured by then it won’t be much good.

There’s three or four pubs where I live that keep the beers really well. I can tell straight away if it’s either not been kept properly or there’s only two or three pints left in the barrel.

I think a lot of pubs are in a bit of a Catch 22 situation. There’s clearly a bit of demand for something other than Carling and John Smiths but the demand is erratic which makes keeping ales etc a bit more problematic.

Re the proper pint of bitter comments, I’m hopeful for a swing back to this sort of stuff. Surely everyone is getting tired of all those mega hoppy, bonkers strong IPAs?

I’m really lucky to have a good local after 14 years without and it’s just fantastic to be able to walk out and have a choice of quality beers. There are always at least 4 cask beers and they do special weeks where they have 8 or more.

I’m curious about the practicalities of this, how they buy, what sort of volumes etc. Must ask the owner next time I’m in.

Amen brother. Increasingly harder to find though sadly, it’s all 8% IPAs that taste like Lilt these days…

This in spades

Like a good proper curry place that has a very small menu of brilliant food, beer should be the same. 2 or 3 good beers that are drunk in enough volume that the barrel is in and out. We the consumer have all got too faddy and have very needy wants……to our collective disservice.

Thing is, when I was first drinking in the late 80’s and early 90’s a pint cost around £1.50 . We drank loads, didn’t care (much) about the quality and all was good in the world.

I used to drink occasionally at the local snooker hall. A bottle of Holsten Pils was 85p, cheaper than the supermarket. Student nights in clubs in the early 90s, all bottles were £1. I didn’t drink pints back then because the sorts of places I liked to drink in, you wouldn’t trust the hygiene of the glassware let alone the beer.

one of those threads asking why is the fifteenth pint always off?

Probably because it’s being drunk in the opposite direction.

Actually can’t remember the last time I had a rough pint, apart from at some festival on day 3 when it’s all gone a bit ropey

Pretty lucky to live in Chester which has a belting range of pubs serving decent stuff – if anyone consistently served crap quality they wouldn’t last long

5 mins walk from my house – great range, relatively reasonable, and 100 in the fridge too

https://untappd.com/v/bluestone/10718461

Much as I am happy to try out the produce of micro breweries, I have a sneaking suspicion that that particular label is a camouflage for some pretty rank beer to be served.

Reminds me of one of the more awkward moments in a pub many years ago.  Called into a random very smart country pub with a couple of friends one Sunday lunchtime when still a fresh faced teenager.  Ordered beers, my one being something I was very familiar with.  First mouthful and although it wasn’t undrinkable rank was definitely not 100%.  Pointed out to barmaid who summoned landlord to verify with the ominous words “he knows his beer”.  Slightly pompous man in his finest Sunday slacks makes great show of a slow pour, swirl of the glass, exaggerated slurp and sloosh around his mouth and I am now starting to wish I had just kept quiet.  He swallows the liquid and pronounces…..”yes, I think it is on the turn”.  The sense of relief on my part was ridiculous.

I always check what others are drinking. Bit like never going to a quiet restaurant I never touch anything the locals aren’t drinking. Bit limiting but avoids the cheesy pints

Not sure about following the locals.  I was bought up in Hertfordshire where the local independent brewery of long standing was (and still is) McMullens.  Now, each to their own, but for me and most of my friends their beers are unpalatable to say the least and we used to actively swerve their pubs. But they did provide an unwittingly funny story.  The local paper ran an article about the brewery celebrating their billionth pint of their AK Mild (perhaps the most swervable of all their brews), so in good PR fashion they had tracked the relevant cask to a pub and asked the landlady to nominate a favourite local to be recipient of the ceremonial pint.  Cue picture and story with the memorable quote “yes, Brian (or similar) has been coming in here and ordering his AK every day for the last 40 years.  He has some tough times recently and is still getting over his treatment for throat cancer”.  Not sure how that bit of PR went down with the bosses ……….

I’m lucky to live in a small town with some excellent pubs and 3 or 4 excellent breweries. Currently enjoying a lovely pint of Desert Storm before I get a train into Manchester for a gig:-)

I’ve discovered, after living here for 18 years the local working men’s club, now rebranded as a community club.

They have a constantly rotating choice of 5 hand pulls plus a number of kegs beers.

Never had a bad pint, probably helps that it’s only £3 pint, so they go through them pretty quickly.