bogdan84

I only drink real ale but that's mostly thanks to the nice weather we get here in England. On the 2 days of summer we had this year, nothing seemed to be more appropriate than a few pints of lager in a sunny beer garden.

I think that when the weather is really hot, taste becomes irrelevant while the ice cold temperature becomes the most important feature of a pint of beer.

I tried the most popular Aussie lagers and they indeed are bad, but who cares when there are more than 30 degrees outside. No matter how bad it is, it's still beer, so much better than water.

Perthbum

I would rather drink cold white lightning cider that aussie lager

spuddyo

My favorites right now are :-

Little Creatures Pale Ale
Boston Mill Pale Ale

Both along the same lines as Timmy Taylors Landlord but 1% stronger. If you can't find them then Squires Golden Ale isn't a bad drop.

JoeBloggs80

Little Creatures Pale Ale is the best by a comfortable margin

asprilla

When did ale become "real ale" anyway? That's what I want to know.

Perthbum

In the early 1970s CAMRA coined the term ‘real ale' to make it easy for people to differentiate between the bland processed beers being pushed by the big brewers and the traditional beers whose very existence was under threat.

Many pubs and brewers use the term to describe their beers, but, just to keep you confused, they are also called cask beers, cask-conditioned ales or even real beer! In the pub the huge majority of real ales are served using traditional hand-pulls, rather than through modern fonts, but there are some exceptions to this, so if in any doubt, just ask.


What makes real ale ‘real'?

Real ale is a natural product brewed using traditional ingredients and left to mature in the cask (container) from which it is served in the pub through a process called secondary fermentation. It is this process which makes real ale unique amongst beers and develops the wonderful tastes and aromas which processed beers can never provide.

What's the difference between ‘ale' and other beers?

There are a huge range of different beer styles, each with different qualities, tastes and strengths, but each falls into one of two main categories; ale or lager. The key difference between ales and lagers is the type of fermentation. Fermentation is the process which turns the fermentable sugars in the malt into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Lagers are made using bottom-fermenting yeast which sinks to the bottom of the fermenting vessel and fermentation takes place at a relatively low temperature. Authentic lagers then undergo a long period of cooled conditioning in special tanks. Ales, which includes bitters, milds, stouts, porters, barley wines, golden ales and old ales, use top-fermenting yeast. The yeast forms a thick head on the top of the fermenting vessel and the process is shorter, more vigorous and carried out at higher temperatures than lager. This is the traditional method of brewing British beer..

Hope that helps

Dicko

Have found Radeberger in the local First Choice, really nice beer.

First tasted a long while ago in my many trips to Dresden, and not too badly priced (By Australian standards) at $42 per carton!



Also for chasers of the best value, try out this site:

http://boozle.com.au/

llanfachreth

Coopers
Little Creatures
White Rabbit
Beez Neez

asprilla

Thanks for that ! pretty interesting stuff. Nowadays (and I got this straight from wikipedia) 95% of beer brewed in Australia is lager. The Aussies just don't love real ale. My theory in this regard, relates to Australia being what is known as a young country*. Over the past couple of hundred years, Australians haven't had the time to mess around with brewing many different sorts of real ale, and exploring all the flavours. Instead they've just taken a short cut, come up with lager as their drink of choice and as a nation they've collectively said "she'll be right".









* Note that Aboriginal Australians aren't renowned for their real ale brewing skills either.

Been there

Plenty of real ale here, just need to find it. It isn't in bottle shops of course

Grayling

Same thing was said about the US....but now there is a huge amount of 'real ale' brewed there and it is still increasing.

A similar thing is happening here....home brewing and micro breweries are becoming big business.

tonrob

Not true (regarding US). While there is a large amount of 'craft' beer brewed in the US - sadly, very little of it is real ale. Right now there are around 500 outlets in the entire country, and many of those only whack a cask on every second Thursday for the local beer geeks. Thankfully the non-cask conditioned craft beer variety and quality is excellent, which more than makes up for the lack of real ale in my opinion.

asprilla

If it isn't in the bottle shops or the pubs, then where is it, and why has it gone AWOL?

Grayling

Huge amont in the Northwest where my brother lives (Portland)....maybe the climate suits it better there.

tonrob

There's a fair amount. Many good beer bars will have one, two, three - maybe even four - handpumps alongside 20 or 30 keg taps. It's great - for sure - but it's way above the US average. Huge compared to the rest of the US, maybe. Love Portland!