Crappy beers that are good in their home country.

Talliesin

Two shocking things about Denmark are:

1. Carlsberg actually isn't disgusting there, it's quite good.
2. Tuborg isn't very disgusting there, it's quite good.

On the other hand, I understand Budweiser is still watery rubbish in the US. And of course Harp is native to this island, and tastes like rust in a glass.

Any other beers where it's hard to choose between drinking them or your own urine in Ireland, that are drinkable in their own lands?

gucci

Strangely most draught beers are better outside Ireland, in alot of countries. I think it has alot to do with maintenance of lines and systems as much as anything else. As you said above, Tuborg isnt minging in other countries (I have not been to Denmark, but I have drank it in Italy) and Heineken and Amstel arent rank in the Nederlands.
Maybe someone who knows more than me could explain that the systems are ran on different gases/set-ups that may effect the taste.

But from my work I have seen beer taps from some countries (Ireland included) and you would not be too impressed if you seen the filth of them after a year or so of installation.....

Xavi6

Talliesin wrote: »

1. Carlsberg actually isn't disgusting there, it's quite good.

Jeez I love Carlsberg in Ireland so if that's the case then it must be magical over there.

BeerNut

It's often said that there are huge differences between the pasteurised bottled versions of a lot of British beers we get, and their cask equivalents. Can't say I've really noticed it, though. Deuchars IPA, Marston's Pedigree and Bombardier are rubbish in both incarnations in my experience.

However, the bottled 5.2% ABV version of Old Speckled Hen we get here is drinkable, whereas the 4.5% nitrokeg edition in the UK is dreadful stuff.

Mr Magnolia

I realize this may not be what you mean but, I don't think I've ever had a good pint of Guinness outside of Ireland.

In fairness though, I've head plenty of crap pints in Ireland too.

RE*AC*TOR

Carlsberg in Ireland for example is brewed under licence by Guinness. So its a different drink. Nothing to do with the lines.

grenache

gucci wrote: »

Strangely most draught beers are better outside Ireland, in alot of countries. I think it has alot to do with maintenance of lines and systems as much as anything else. As you said above, Tuborg isnt minging in other countries (I have not been to Denmark, but I have drank it in Italy) and Heineken and Amstel arent rank in the Nederlands.
Maybe someone who knows more than me could explain that the systems are ran on different gases/set-ups that may effect the taste.

But from my work I have seen beer taps from some countries (Ireland included) and you would not be too impressed if you seen the filth of them after a year or so of installation.....

Heineken and Amstel can both be very much hit and miss in this country. I've tasted some beautiful creamy pints of Heineken and some awfully bland bitter Heineken too. I agree with you on the beer pipes issue, they are supposed to be cleaned every week, but some pubs wouldn't even clean them once a month. There are certain pubs around Croke Park that serve very manky tasting draught beer, and i have it on good authority from people i know who worked there, that the main reason for this is that they do not clean their pipes on a regular basis. Cleanliness of the pipes will have a huge say on the quality of the beer flowing through them.

oblivious

grenache wrote: »

Cleanliness of the pipes will have a huge say on the quality of the beer flowing through them.

Any place that to lazy to clean their lines, the basic for serving good beer is just not worth your custom

machiavellianme

Xavi6 wrote: »

Jeez I love Carlsberg in Ireland so if that's the case then it must be magical over there.

It is.

They do a higher percentage beer also (~8%) and its like manna from the gods. Pity about the prices though.

gucci

oblivious wrote: »

Any place that to lazy to clean their lines, the basic for serving good beer is just not worth your custom

Obviously....but one beer tap I have designed, I have put a filter in the spout at the request of the brewery, "to aid head formation" (which it does slightly) but it also filters out muck from the lines!

oblivious

gucci wrote: »

Obviously....but one beer tap I have designed, I have put a filter in the spout at the request of the brewery, "to aid head formation" (which it does slightly) but it also filters out muck from the lines!

Oh man nasty, why not just put a sparkler on the tap to increases head formation

gucci

The tap was a redesign of an existing tap that had filter in it, and as I said it served a duel purpose!

By Sparkler do you mean a jetting disc, like whats in a stout spout? Because these would make too much foam on a lager style beer in my experience.

oblivious

They are generally used for hand pumps, but there are some available that fit taps, you can loosen or tight depending on how you want it, but it would need adjustment a bit too much in a busy bar.

A bit like these

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

oblivious

The Scientist wrote: »

Is that brewed in Scotland?

yep Caledonian Brewery and are part own by Scottish & Newcastle

gucci

oblivious wrote: »

They are generally used for hand pumps, but there are some available that fit taps, you can loosen or tight depending on how you want it, but it would need adjustment a bit too much in a busy bar.

A bit like these

Thanks for the image. Any adjustment to flow etc is done behind the tap in larger bars normally (as in a compensator adjuster) Stuff like that would, as you say be fiddly in a busy bar, also the fact that its open to air would mean that it could be a bacterial infection area and also the beer could dry out and clog in the holes of the jetting disc.
Obviously all of this could happen in a traditional jetting disc set up as in a Guinness tap, but its not as exposed to air, and of course the customer cant see the potential dirtiness of it!
(You probably know all this, as you seem to have a fair knowledge of systems as it!)

superfly

Druids cider is cheap and tastes nice and gets you totally out of your bin!

BeerNut

superfly wrote: »

Druids cider is cheap and tastes nice and gets you totally out of your bin!

"Druid's: For bin-dwellers everywhere."

Off topic, btw, Superfly.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

gucci

superfly wrote: »

Druids cider is cheap and tastes nice and gets you totally out of your bin!

So it gets you "out of your bin", so bin-dwellers will drink this and suddenly get motivated and turn their life around....hmmm interesting!

oblivious

The Scientist wrote: »

Awh, that stuff is heaven! I've only ever seen it in Edinburgh but it is beautiful.
Could never remember the name of it when i came home....
Thank you sir

Its pretty ubiquitous around england now i believe or at least around London

the beer revolu

Stella is pretty drinkable in Belgium - unlike the poisonous evil UK Stella that we get around these parts.
Though, having said that, with the choice of beers in Belgium, it's hard to imagine why one would drink even Belgium Stella there.

Don't the Breweries clean the lines in pubs nowadays?
Don't know why the frequency of cleaning would vary from pub to pub.

gucci

the beer revolu wrote: »

Stella is pretty drinkable in Belgium - unlike the poisonous evil UK Stella that we get around these parts.
Though, having said that, with the choice of beers in Belgium, it's hard to imagine why one would drink even Belgium Stella there.

Totally agree on both points.
I even spent 3 or 4 days drinking Stella at a music festival in Belgium last year( no other choice inside the venue), obviously it might not have been the regular brew as sometimes they water down festival beer slightly, but it was even nice there!

Don't the Breweries clean the lines in pubs nowadays?
Don't know why the frequency of cleaning would vary from pub to pub.

Yeah most the brands/breweries have their own quality teams who service the lines.But even these guys do some crazy stuff with taps.