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MG MGB Technical - MGB Ale?

Obviously this is a non-technical question, but I'm interested in knowing the ales that the English like best when touring through the countryside and stopping at their favorite rest areas.
And the same goes for those B drivers in the States.
Personally, I'm into the Finger Lakes whites, but am open to suggestions.
I'm also considering High Tea (?), bringing my enthusiast friends over...
Seriously,
Randy
Ithaca, NY
1977 MGB
1969 Jaguar E-Type
randy olson

Randy Great thought,when asked what type of beer I like my normal reply is "cold" but. that aside.I too would like to know what the Brits are drinking when they are not driveing RIC
RIC LLOYD


The best beers are made locally and in relatively small quantities. Several years ago the British breweries were merging and also working hard to squeeze-out little local breweries. Ale drinkers revolted! The Campaign for Real Ale took off, and now pretty much any decent pub will have local/independent ale on tap. The difference in character is amazing.

Cold beer? What a crazy idea!

Incidentally, there are some comments about pubs and beers in this article: "Abingdon for MG Enthusiasts"

http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Abingdon-For-MG-Enthusiasts.htm

Here's an excerpt: "The Morland brewery was located in Abingdon until it was bought-out by the Greene King brewery in 2000. Morland's most famous beer was its "Old Speckled Hen" ale, named after a particular MG car that was used for errands around the old MG facility. Introduction of this beer was coordinated with the fiftieth anniversary of MG's time in Abingdon. (They closed one year later.) The Old Speckled Hen car was a "Featherweight Fabric Saloon", made from cellulosed fabric stretched over a wooden frame! It was built in the Morris factory at Cowley and brought to Abingdon when the MG plant first opened."



p.s. at the moment, I'm drinking a Deschutes Brewery "Inversion IPA" (from Bend Oregon), but I'm thinking maybe a homebrew "Java Porter" next.
Curtis

Cold beer? I just cant resist... Why do the British drink their beer so warm? They keep it in a Lucas refridgerator...

Myself, I prefer the bitters.


Curt

Good one Curt - it's always Lucas' fault...but seriously - it's a bit of a fallacy that the Brits drink their beer warm. They just don't over-chill it like we tend to do. English bitters and ales lose most of their taste when they're too cold. Not much point in drinking beer with no taste.

The beers that need to be coldest are the light colored lagers and pilsners that we tend to prefer on this side of the pond.

Which reminds me... time to for a nice cool one right now.

CHEERS!

Bernie
Bernie Lowe

There's really only one beer for MG owners - you can either drink it, or run your car on it! - 'Old Speckled Hen'.

And you're perfectly correct, Bernie. Beer should be served straight from the barrel at cellar temperature while lagers are served chilled.

Robert

P.S. My personal favourites are: Theakston's "Old Peculiar" and Wells' "Banana Bread Beer".

R Lynex


Here's another cool photo along that theme...
http://www.britishv8.org/MG/MikeCook/MikeCook-I.jpg
Morland

"There's really only one beer for MG owners - you can either drink it, or run your car on it! - 'Old Speckled Hen'."
Bu**s**t !
Greene King have bu****ed this up as well, dropping the abv from 5.2% to 4.5%, moving the brew from abingdon to bury st edmunds, need I say more....
Unlike the chemical fizz that is most lager style beers available in the UK, traditional cask conditioned beers take a lot of their flavour from the water ( beer is after all 98% water ) and the strngth of the beer forms it's character.
'Badge engineering' of beers is worse than cars !
Jay Smith

Morland,
great picture...do you know what the gauge in the trunk is for?
jjralston

Looks to me to be a storage location for a tire pressure gauge with a spare sparkplug on either side.
David "my speculator is working just fine" Lieb
David Lieb

Personally I prefer a nice draught Guinness, but having said that I'm about 3/4 through a rebuild and have only driven an MGB twice.

Martin.
Martin Green

I'm a best bitter man when I visit my home country. There is always a place to find a decent pint and I don't mean supping lager!..

Over here my "pub" has a good pint of Harp along with a nice selection of US micro brews. Bud/bush on tap are band!

If anyone is ever in Newport, RI look for a dark blue 74B parked outside a bar in downtown.. Ask for me and the drink is on me :-)

Cheers
GG Ginty

Lagers and the like *have* to be ice-cold, have you ever tasted one that isn't? They are sh*te, and I speak as a 40+ year lager drinker when there aren't any ales on tap. Ales are drunk cool. If you serve a 'warm' one to an ale drinker you will get it right back. Never have liked Harp, I prefer Carling Black Label (original) and Carlsberg Export (or Carlsborg Expert as it becomes after a few).

There are dozens if not hundreds of good ales around, I get to try quite a few on MG runs around the country (post-driving of course). They are so popular now that the market is riddled with bottled stuff that isn't a lot of, well, bottle. The louder the label the worse the taste, I have found. Favourites are Black Sheep (so called because one of the Theakston sons went out on his own), Abbot Ale, Old Hooky from Hook Norton. Don't drink so much Speckled Hen with all the others, but it still tastes OK to me. Just got back from a weekend of supping Moel-Y-Gest in Snowdonia. One place we were staying didn't have any local ales, so I thought I try a Magners cider as they have been advertised a lot lately. What a mistake that was! I've never tasted anything so disgustingly sugary in my life before. Now real cider is a different matter, but it has to be non-fizzy and a bit cloudy. Old Rosie from Weston's is very good, and Press Gang in Cornwall was a good find in Cornwall this year.
Paul Hunt 2

Just a note about beer temperatures in the UK. The Cask Marque organisation monitors real ale quality in pubs all over the UK, and they specifiy that real ale should be served at a temperature of between 10 deg C and 13 deg C. As this is about the normal pub cellar temperature the beer usually requires no chilling (unlike lager which some of our pubs are cooling down to 1 deg C). If ale is any cooler than 10 deg C the complex flavours become masked by the chilling. On the very very rare occasion when I am forced to drink lager (eg. when on holiday in Spain) I am thankful for the chilling effect so I don't have to suffer the bland taste (sic).

Some favourites of mine are Robinsons Old Tom, Phoenix Wobbly Bob, Oakham Gravity, O'Hanlons Dry Stout, RCH Old Slug Porter, Nethergate Umbel Magna, York Centurion's Ghost. All of these will be at Wetherspoon's Beer Festival, starting 1st November. See you there!
Brian Shaw

Paul

Here are some more Cornish Real Ales you might like to try the next time that you are in Cornwall.

Robert
R Lynex

Damn! Just too quick for my own good.

R Lynex

At least Greene King have re-started sponsorship of the OSH run. I also have to say that OSH still tastes the same to me. I really regret the loss of old british breweries and always support them wherever possible, but not these days to the point of needing support myself. Cheerful pic from the sunny 2004 OSH attached.

Stan Best

Brian - "so I don't have to suffer the bland taste (sic)." Don't you mean 'sick' :o)

Thanks Robert, although I usually go for those on draught.
Paul Hunt 2

Yes Paul, but they don't serve them at The Barley Mow!

R Lynex

Real ale needs a good publican, even run of the mill bitters can be very nice if kept and served well.
c cummins

10 years ago, I really began to appreciate British ales and spent a few weeks in 2 different trips sampling ales around the London and Kent area. Initially, Fuller's and their wide selection was among my favorites, and also Young's and Shepherd Neame (in Kent). I was shocked and horrified at how many young people were sucking on crappy lagers in the pubs. The better my palate became, the more I appreciated some of the smaller breweries. Then I started getting into Barley wines and winter warmers of various sorts (I think Thomas Hardy is about the finest ale ever made) and the lighter ales (in body, taste, and ABV) just didn't cut it anymore. Now, the 'mericans have "enhanced" the fabulous British styles and many microbreweries now put out ale that I think far surpasses the Brit's in general. The stronger IPA's, ESB's, and barleywines from California brewers like Ale Smith, Lagunitas, Bear Republic, Stone, etc. and Dogfish Head in the east are the new leaders in quality ales as far as I'm concerned. Most are hoppy, very flavorful and way above 7% so they definitely aren't "lawnmower" beers but can be consumed while working on the MG in moderation.
Mike King

Agreed Mike. The quality of some of our US microbrewery knockoffs of British beer styles is very high, and in some cases equals or surpasses the best of the old country. Of course we can't match the water of Burton for the real Pale Ales of Britain, but give us credit for trying.

Bernie
Bernie Lowe

Just been sifting through my collection of beer bottle labels (removed from beers which I have drunk at home) I've found three US ones: Goose Island (Chicago) Honker's Ale and India Pale Ale (a very good pale ale), and Anchor (San Francisco) Summer Beer.
There's also one for the DIY motorist: 'Old Engine Oil' brewed by Harvistoun (Scotland).
Brian Shaw

Personally, I refer to OSH as "MG altar wine", due to its connection with our marque. Yes, it's too bad about the current brewing status, but at least its still brewed (a) and available widely in the States (b). Pity that it has fared better than MG itself. Let us all hope for better days.

Thought I'd share this too - one of Peter Egan's finest turns of phrase was in one of his R&T columns when he described how he came to restore his MGB:

"One night under the powerful influence of French roast coffee and Guinness stout, I accidentally disassembled the entire car."

John Z

Mike,

It is the younger generation. You only need to go into a good pub and you can see what people drink from their generation. All of my nephews sup lager and god forbid Bud or alcholic pops..I think the TV ads has a lot to do with it. Also might have something to do with the EU as there is such a wide variety of European style beers alvailable now. All my old school friends are definately Ale folks.

Just my pints worth!
GG Ginty

"I think the TV ads has a lot to do with it."

Quite so. Apparently Stella bombed in the UK as it tasted like crap even cold, until they upped the price and included the tag line "Reassuringly expensive" at which point it took off. Not only do they have no taste or style, they are fashion victims to boot.
Paul Hunt 2

Some of the best ales come from the Rebellion brewery in Marlow,Mutiny and Red are nectar from the Gods!
C W Stockton

Well in defence of lagers you know what your going to get, I prefer real ale but it is a lottery. You buy a pint and it looks clear enough, but it's not quite right. When your half way through it you notice someone with a really cloudy one. Now I've complained loads of times and it can be an inquisition, publicans will give you taster of a guest ale but with their regular ales you take a chance.
c cummins

This thread was discussed between 29/09/2007 and 06/10/2007

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