Things you hate IV

I like to live on the edge.

 

Or, I just dont invite any white, Anglo Saxon Protestants....

 

****s sake I was just about to make that joke.

 

Or a Border Cross?

 

By using the word "tap" in the name of an establishment, (that may sell 1 craft beer), means you pay eyewatering prices for the privilege. It's the new "kings new clothes".

 

It was all the pickled eggs he used to eat whilst waiting for the Red Lion to be refurbished.

 

Helmet too tight?

 

No it’s just these trousers…

 

The winner was a multi-coloured check king-size. Getting it out of the machine was like wrestling an anaconda.

 

Googling "why is bass ale so sulphury" brings us this gem which gives an explanation. Burton snatch indeed.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/articles/16250/draught-bass-a-neglected-icon/

Draught Bass: A Neglected Icon
History by the Glass by Ron Pattinson | Aug 2017 | Issue #127


Here’s another sad tale of an iconic British beer that’s at best idling, more likely lingering, before death.

Draught Bass, the tap version of Bass’ classic Pale Ale, was a highly-prized beer. (Though not the same as the draft Bass Ale sold in the US.) This was a cask beer. One that once had a mighty reputation.

Originally the same strength as its bottled counterpart, Draught Bass had its gravity whittled down by world wars, but the drop was less than for most beers. I think I know why: Drinkers regarded it as special and were prepared to pay more.

Beer writer Martyn Cornell recounts his father’s experience in the 1950s, when he and his pals would occasionally drink Draught Bass as a treat. It was quite a bit more expensive than Ordinary Bitter. In 1951 Bass cost 19 pence (d) per pint while a standard Bitter was just 14d.

Bass was a tricky beer to get right. Not everyone mastered the skill required to serve it in top condition, as this job advertisement attests:

“CELLARMAN Reqd. for hotel in city Wages 50s. All found live in or out. Only those with knowledge of draught Bass & with good ref. need apply.”
Birmingham Daily Post, Wednesday 25 June 1941, page 1.

Because of the water used to brew them, Burton beers were very distinctive. High levels of sulfur gave these beers a distinctive aroma. “Burton snatch” if you were being polite. “Farty smell” if you were feeling more vulgar.

During the 1970s, Draught Bass sold in large quantities and was the best-selling cask beer in the UK. But Bass Charrington, the largest of the infamous Big Six breweries that controlled most of British brewing in the 1970s and 1980s, wasn’t a safe pair of hands. Over the following decades, through a mixture of lack of promotion and changes to the brewing process, Draught Bass fell into a steep decline, both in terms of sales and quality.

A turning point came in the early 1980s, when Bass decided to rip out the Burton unions that had been used to produce its Pale Ale for 150 years. The effect on the beer was immediately apparent. Despite brewery assurances that there would be no impact on its flavor, drinkers recognized that it had lost some of its distinctive character.

I have many personal memories of Draught Bass. When I lived in a squat in London’s East End in the late 1970s, one of the few decent pubs in the area sold a corking pint of it, which I mixed with bottled Worthington White Shield (an IPA) to add some extra oomph. Happy days.

Recently, for the first time in years, I drank a pint of Draught Bass. Not a bad beer, but not a patch on what it had been three decades earlier. Where was the Burton snatch? Where was the immense depth of flavor of the union-brewed version? No longer the beer of legends, just another Best Bitter.

Bass isn’t even brewed in the Bass brewery any more. When Bass Charrington sold up, Coors got the brewery but AB InBev got the Bass brand. On the up side, at least it’s still brewed in Burton, at Marstons.

Moving there could even have been an improvement as Marstons has one of two working union sets in the world. But sadly they don’t run Bass through it. There’s barely enough capacity in their unions for their own flagship Pale Ale, Pedigree.

The Bass brand is up for sale. Could a new owner restore Draught Bass to its former glory?

 

The Septics seem to know more about our beer than we do.

The local water is so important to local brewing hence the chalk and cheese nature of London and Dublin brewed Guinness.

https://www.beeretseq.com/the-bass-stink/

The Bass Stink
May 22, 2017 by Gary
Americans Expected a Stenchy Smell on Opening a Bottle of Bass

It always comes as slight shock to know that some reputed foods or drinks don’t taste “good” on first acquaintance.

For these one needs to “acquire” a taste. From Sauterne wine in which “la pourriture noble” or noble rot colours the flavour to the best caviar – always a little fishy – great food and drink can taste a little strange. Food habits are largely arbitrary, which explains the great diversity of things people eat and drink. Fermented mare’s milk, 100-year-old Chinese eggs, Asian fish sauces fermented as in Rome of old (garum), Limburger cheese, farmhouse cider redolent of a horse blanket – these are just some of the things the producing nations admire while in other places they are anathema. And vice versa.



National preferences tend to favour either strong and impactful or bland and soothing. Britain’s traditional food has been said to show the latter traits. But even there exceptions exist, and more so in the past. Ever had a bloater, a form of smoked herring? Old Stilton blue cheese used to run with maggots. The British for centuries liked mutton, and game hung for weeks. Not for shrinking violets.

One kind of British beer, the famed pale ale of Burton-on-Trent, often had a stenchy note akin for some to (apologies) passing gas. Sulphate ions from dissolved gypsum in well waters explains it, in combination perhaps with certain yeasts. People got used to the taste and it became a regional, national, and finally international taste, in the form of Burton India Pale Ale.

One might wonder how a taste not immediately attractive could gain a market foothold, especially internationally. It was thought the hard water in Burton beer created a tendency not to sour (see top right-hand column), a consideration which perhaps trumped all others in pre-pasteurization, pre-refrigeration days.

It may be too people just liked the taste – German lager often discloses dimethyl sulphide, a compound deriving from pale lager malt, not from water used in mashing and brewing. Lots of people like that taste in beer, in Germany and outside.

Bass and other Burton pale ales superseded the original form pioneered by Hodgson of Bow, London. Whether Hodgson’s beer, which presumably lacked the stench because London’s water is soft, was superior gastronomically is an open question. Soft water is considered more suited to porter production, a London speciality in the past, but if the water produced a bitter ale without a taste of over-boiled egg, I’d say Hodgson’s had the edge.

The commercial skill of Burton’s brewers rendered this moot, as they took over the trade from Hodgson in India, which formed the basis for their later success in the domestic U.K. market. Even when pale ale could be vouchsafed from instability by microbiological controls and pasteurization, the Burton stench or snatch, as it is known in brewing circles, remained from tradition and pedigree.

When I first tasted Bass ale in England about 30 years ago I was disappointed by the Burton snatch, as I hadn’t grown up with it. It’s noticeable in Marston’s ales too, the other surviving Burton brewer of the old school. Today, a good English pale ale/IPA often still has the Burton snatch regardless of where brewed in the U.K. as brewing chemistry can mimic the effect.



In America in the second half of the 1800s, Bass beer was a reputed import, as it was around the world. It always cost more than domestic ale. It was from England, home of great ale, and the main ancestor in cultural terms to the American project. Domestic brewers argued their beer was as good or better, but they always had an uphill battle. Late-1800s press accounts on the domestic ale trade in New York continually attest to its falling position and rather downscale image, in contrast to the Germanic lager that is. See for example this 1880s Brooklyn Daily Eagle piece, or this one.

As an import, Bass ale retained its cachet, but at the time sales of imported beer were negligible in terms of national beer consumption: America drank its own, and it was to be almost exclusively lager by WW I.

It must have taken courage to call this Bass “stinky”, but Americans mustered it without discomfiture. In 1900 a Congressional hearing on food safety and additives in beer heard evidence that when opening a bottle of Bass drinkers expected the “Bass stink”. Given the state of science at the time, even experts didn’t really know the reason(s), as disclosed in the transcripts.

Some speculated the smell was from lime or sodium bisulphite, a preservative that can lend a sulphury tang to foods and liquids. Brewing writers in the period often commented on this effect but the need to preserve foods and drinks trumped all refinements of flavour. This was a time of technological transition, when pasteurizing beer to neutralize residual yeast hadn’t taken full hold, especially for draft beer. People had recourse to what worked. Better pongy than putrid…

Today, we know that another potential cause of the stink may well have been Brettanomyces, as Bass ale then was long-stored at ambient temperature in uncoated wood before bottling. A Dutch scientist, Custers, around 1940 isolated Brett yeast from bottles of Bass. This followed on the landmark discovery c.1900 by Nils Claussen that vatted or long-stored English beer underwent a secondary fermentation from wild yeast, or Brett, which caused the flavour in question.

In the Congressional testimony Bass strongly denied using preservatives. In my article on American “musty ale” in Brewery History I referenced this evidence and wrote that the likely cause(s) of the stink were the Burton snatch (gypsum in water), Brettanomyces, or both. Still, the fact that Bass was bottled by numerous separate concerns – Bass didn’t take over the bottling function until much later – suggests that some bottled Bass was probably dosed with bisulphite, and the preservative might have imparted a noticeable off-smell. But whatever the cause, one of the great beers of the world, Bass ale, was odoriferous. Some classic Burton ale still is.

And so once a drink, or food, acquires a cachet it is difficult to dislodge the reputation even if “objectively” it has what can be viewed as faults in flavour. Even today the status of certain beer and wine imports is magical. Example: many craft lagers by virtue of being unpasteurized and sold soon after production are superior to imported lagers. Still, many people endlessly order the import. It’s the factor of “name”, or recognition. It’s true for many kinds of cheese (Stilton, Roquefort) and wine as well. It takes a long time for things to turn around, for people to develop the confidence to support local production even when arguably it is superior either due to less processing or simply a higher standard of production.

Bass ale prospered as an export to the U.S. after National Prohibition (1920-1933) just as before. You can still buy Bass in America, it is brewed today under license in New York State. There is no more snatch in it, no Brettanomyces, it’s been rubbed out. The English draught original, now brewed at former rival Marston’s in Burton, still features it though, or so I understand.

Note re images: the first image was extracted from a 1902 issue of the New York Sun, here, available courtesy the NYS digitized newspaper resource. The second image was extracted from a 1904 issue of the same newspaper, here, courtesy the same resource. The last image is via the HathiTrust digitized library as linked in the text. Images appear for educational and historical purposes. All intellectual property in the sources resides solely in their lawful owners, as applicable. All feedback welcomed.
https://www.beeretseq.com/the-bass-stink/

 

If only we had a thread to discuss beer and drink etc

 

Jet skis.

They appear to be one of those modes of transport that it appears almost impossible not to be a tw.at on, like electric scooters or quad bikes.

Add this seal bothering to the list of crimes that includes killing Kirsty McColl.

https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/202...aphed-as-they-harassed-seals-resting-on-beach

 

It wasn't a joke. Only Catholics, Asians and Greeks at my BBQs.

 

Wise.

 

2kg of meat you say. I'm on my way round to your house

 

Shouldn't that really be Catholics, Orientals and Greeks by any chance?

The opposite lot would be quite diverse and challenging to find.

 

This Tory Government.
And any **** who votes for them.
******* hell I've never hated any politicians so much.

 

Politics.

 

This current lot have certainly redefined the term Conservative Values.

 

Anthems or jingles before things that add no value.
For example at the recent home games I noticed we played an anthem when the teams lined up. What is the point of this?
https://www.premierleague.com/news/1822442
"The anthem captures the drama and emotion of a Premier League matchday and we hope it will soon become instantly recognisable to supporters around the world.” what a load of ********!

 

"Hey Harry - cancel spin class"
"Sorry mate, Sandra is in charge of appointments"


I mean, what the actual F? Why would you ask Harry Redknapp to cancel your spin class?

Or
"Hey Harry, play Vegas playlist"
"Sorry mate, all me records are up in the loft"

Are they trying to make the dodgy fecker some kind of Siri/Alexa? Whatever, if you thought you couldn't hate the baggy faced old canut even more...

 

Clapping for no reason.

It's become an accepted custom that people will clap loads of times in life for absolutely no reason.

Like at the start of a show in the audience or when someone says something, or waves their arms expectantly. It's no longer an audible recognition of good performance, just a mindless, percussive racket which punctuates all areas of life.

 

Well said.

 

When you realise that the short break in Seville you booked a while back coincides with the Europa Cup final which takes place in... Seville. And the city will be full of pi55ed Glasgow Rangers fans

 

If you can’t beat them join them:

 

Bom, bom, bom, bom…

 

Aaaaaayyyyee dont bloody believe it!

 

Similarly, my daughter is on a French trip to Paris at the same time as the champions league final. She said yesterday "I've just realised Paris will be full of drunk scousers when we're there" and did a vomit face.

 

Shame. I like Seville. Hope it survives.

 

Asparagus pee.

 

I don’t like mixing football into this section, but I’m going to anyway. That worn out tired old cliche of saying bring [some decrepit old fossil who never made it as a manager, and if he tried to be one he was useless] in to work alongside and help a young manager. Unless they specifically want it themselves, imagine that was you in your own job.

It just seems to be something everyone has to say when discussing appointing a young manager, a bit like when someone says they’re ill and people feel obliged to say “yeah there is a lot of it going around”.

I hate Football cliches basically.