A decent pint of pride !

Davidth88 · 03-03-2009 09:25AM #1

Ohhhh I was back home in London at the weekend......

Drinking London Pride ( from a decent pub not a JDW beer super market ) ....

£2.75 a pint , and the nicest pint you will ever drink !

BeerNut · 03-03-2009 10:21AM

I think London Pride is the most over-rated beer in England. I mean it's nice, but it's not that nice. And compared to Fuller's London Porter or ESB it's in the ha'penny place. I am, however, the only person who seems to think this.

So, Pride fans, what makes it so good? What am I missing?

Davidth88 · 03-03-2009 11:09AM

Pride is a ' session beer '.

I love ESB , but I couldn't drink more than 1 pint of it to be honest.

I don't know I suppose it's what you are used to , I grew up in West London , hense I love Pride !

It's a nice clean easy drinking pint ....... ( if its well kept of course )

BeerNut · 03-03-2009 11:23AM

Davidth88 wrote: »

Pride is a ' session beer '.

OK, but next to the likes of Harvey's Best or Young's Ordinary I think Pride has little to say for itself, flavourwise. I can describe the distinctive elements of those two common session bitters, but I couldn't tell you anything special about the taste of Pride. I have to be missing something. What?

Davidth88 wrote: »

( if its well kept of course )

The last pint I had was in The Victoria near Paddington. It's a recent Fuller's pub-of-the-year and is renowned for the quality of its Pride in particular. I still didn't get it.

Davidth88 · 03-03-2009 11:34AM

It's entirely possible it's the ' away from home thing '

I know that many Irish abroad would wax lyrical about the Guinness in Ireland etc , when in all truthfulness .............

Or things like red lemonade .

I like the slightly ' nutty ' flavour , that it doesn't give me a headache , that its not creamy . I never liked Youngs , tasted too ' bitter ' ( for want of different word )

I think we have discussed this before on this forum

BeerNut · 03-03-2009 11:40AM

Davidth88 wrote: »

It's entirely possible it's the ' away from home thing '

Well you're certainly not the only person I've heard extol the virtues of a well-kept pint of Pride, and I don't think any of the others were straight outta Chiswick or anything.

Davidth88 wrote: »

I like the slightly ' nutty ' flavour

OK, I'll look out for that one.

Davidth88 wrote: »

I never liked Youngs , tasted too ' bitter ' ( for want of different word )

Yes, Young's and Harvey's are both much bitterer than Pride.

Davidth88 wrote: »

I think we have discussed this before on this forum

Evidently whatever I'm drinking is rotting my brain faster than London Pride does

Another point in its favour.

Davidth88 · 03-03-2009 12:31PM

I was in here

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/44/4473/Prince_Of_Wales/Uxbridge

perfectly good working pub, and GOOD Pride.

Thinking about this , it could also be my brother worked for Fullers for a couple of years.........

IronMan · 03-03-2009 12:54PM

It is a great session beer, and has wonderful flavour for a beer that has no more alcohol than a pint of Heineken. I'm a huge fan of their London Porter, but honestly prefer the taste of Pride to ESB. Maybe I have an uncouth palate, but Pride is one of my favourite ales, be it on tap or even from a bottle.

BeerNut · 03-03-2009 01:03PM

IronMan wrote: »

wonderful flavour for a beer that has no more alcohol than a pint of Heineken.

It's the great talent of English brewers that they can do this, and a tragedy of the Irish beer market that brewers are unwilling to send out beers under 4% ABV, except as low-alcohol editions of stronger ones.

Porterhouse TSB, incidentally, is absolutely jam-packed with flavour and is only 3.7%. But if you don't like your bitter to be bitter it might be best avoided. The second one always tastes better than the first, however

oblivious · 03-03-2009 04:36PM

Yea I do like a nice int of pride or ESB. It's their yeast that give it that unique flavor and a little bit of diacetyl (butter/butterscotch flavor) that is left behind that mega brewer would see as a brewing flaw.

Also its a testament of what you cam do with a very simple recipe approximately 4-5% crystal malt and 94-5% pale malt

BeerNut · 03-03-2009 04:52PM

oblivious wrote: »

It's their yeast that give it that unique flavor

To the point where some of our nation's foremost beer experts

couldn't tell Pride from ESB.

IronMan · 03-03-2009 05:49PM

BeerNut wrote: »

I

Porterhouse TSB, incidentally, is absolutely jam-packed with flavour and is only 3.7%.:D

I used to be a regular consumer of the Porterhouse TSB, but have diverted to the Galway Hooker and Wrasslers when I visit the place these days. The TSB is a fine beer though, I couldn't have more than than maybe 2 though.

BeerNut · 03-03-2009 05:56PM

I do find it very hard to go past Wrassler's. It's a superb beer. But at 5% ABV it's not really in the session-beer stakes.

Ham'nd'egger · 03-03-2009 06:50PM

BeerNut wrote: »

I do find it very hard to go past Wrassler's. It's a superb beer. But at 5% ABV it's not really in the session-beer stakes.

With Wrasslers, I actually find that it goes down better after a pint of Plain to being with as it's a little too sharp to start with. That said, I'll move to a bottled stout towards the end of the night, usually a Youngs Double Chocolate or two.

A decent pint of pride !

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