Liam's write-only LJ

Czech lager has been a revelation for me.

I've never been much of a lager drinker. I used to prefer chewy brown beer with twigs in.

But the real local thing is stunningly different from the exported stuff. Actual Pilsner (it's a brand here, not a style), well-kept, is rich and delicious with a creamy amber head and a dark golden-brown colour.

Local microbrewed lagers are revelations of flavour.

Even the mass-produced cheap low-quality draught crap -- Starobrno, now owned by Heineken and derided by all except the determined price-sensitive piss-heads -- is better than any name-brand British lager I have ever sampled. It's the worst beer in the country (except for the super-weak, ~4%, 50p-a-bottle supermarket value stuff) and it's still a quality premium lager.

Actual Czech Staropramen is also good and highly drinkable. Budvar is about the only one whose exported form even resembles the domestic stuff -- it's not highly-regarded here, but it's probably the best name-brand lager in the UK.

The overlap is so small it's shocking. The Czechs gave the world its favourite beer style, but the rest of the world gets a weak tasteless version lacking all character and interest.

… A very personal list. It's worth noting that I judge my favourite watering-holes pretty much solely on their beer. I don't drink anything else, from preference, and I only drink (what I consider to be) good stuff. I don't care what the place looks like, the décor, the clientele, the friendliness or otherwise of the staff, the pricing, anything much, if the beer's good enough. I don't like music in pubs and I really hate TV screens, audible gaming machines, broadcast sport and a variety of other things that some find desirable. I do like to sit down, though, preferably on something vaguely comfortable, and I prefer to go in company and have a conversation while I am there - so anywhere too loud to do so loses out. Basically, as a friend put it to me a few months back, I like “old men's pubs”.

A perfectly decent pub that doesn't have an exceptional range of beer, or which can't keep it well, will therefore fail to appear in this list. Special deals on strong alcohol (i.e. loads of drunks), club nights, live music and so on will usually put me off, too.

It's all about the beer.

No web links, full addresses or anything. Find 'em yourselves. The cognoscenti will probably know them all, anyway.

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Coda

The sort of reader who might go through this list in a knowledgeable fashion, pondering beer quality above pretty much anything else, is likely to know some great places that I don't, in which case, do please tell me about them.

I am given to believe that the Battersea Beer Festival is on again this week. Several people I know are planning to go on Wednesday evening, but I can't, as I have to be up at 5 on Thursday morning. Friday afternoon or evening is the only doable day for me. Anyone fancy joining me?