The Seldom Kill

Last night I was at the pub with a few friends when the inevitable London topic of transport entered the conversation. My friends were bitterly complaining about the impending hike in bus and train fares and how they weren't getting anything more for their money.

Naturally I couldn't resist a dig and quipped "What are these new fangled bus fares of which you speak?". Not entertained by my gloating one of my friends responded with "Seeing as you're going to be so much richer than us, I guess it's your round then."

Damn. Evidently foot in mouth is still rife in the UK.

huhenio

hahahahaha!!!

Matt Gaunt

High price is right, as well. Price of a pint in London is like £3 for something resembling dish water. £4 for anything decent.

Oh well, at least you're fit and you've got rid of excess money which would only weigh you down on the commute!

Bikepacker67

~ $7.00 for a pint of beer???!

Damn! I think I'd be brewing my own.

caloso

What? I thought that the saying "a pint's a pound the world round" was HM's law concerning the price of beer.

wabbit

dish water? I thought british beer was supposed to be world renowned! It has to be better than american p*ss!

PaulBravey

The dish water he's talking about is normally american or australian branded stuff (albeit often brewed in the UK). That said, Tetley's Bitter is pretty bad, presuming they still make it.

Cyclaholic

WTF? what Aussie branded beer is brewed in the UK? We brew our own AFAIK.

The Brits drink dishwater that hasn'r even cooled down yet, and you poor Americans, there should be a law against that stuff they try to sell you labelled 'beer'.

jhota

while i look forward to the beer whenever i make it to Great Britain, it's mostly because i'm imbibing the local pump ales.

i think the most popular beer (well, lager anyway) in Britain is still Stella Artois. which has been called by some, "Europe's Budwieser." and they weren't being complimentary. heck; Bud, Coors and Miller are all fairly popular in Britain as well.

but the plus side is the relatively large number of local breweries; unlike the US, the market isn't dominated by three big brewers - there's a lot more choice and local flavour available.

genec

That saying is regarding weight... of water, I believe.

From https://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/units/volume.htm

As to the quality of British beer... I'll vouch for it... never saw anything close to "diswater" except the American beers I saw in the fridge in one pub. I had to ask why... the reply... "they're for the lasses, they seem to like 'em." Meanwhile I had another Theakstons... ahhhhh.

baj32161

just give me a Fuller's ESB or a Batemann's XXXB and I am one happy camper.

EricDJ

They should calculate the price of their travel fees and calculate how many days of travel equal the price of owning a nice bike. Might be a better deal to finance a bike

PaulBravey

Fosters and Castlemaine 4x are the two main aussie brands available in the UK and I remember reading that the Fosters available in the UK was brewed locally under license. I could easily be wrong though.

I almost cried with joy when I found Theakstons Best and Old Peculiar in bottles at the local BevMo. Not quite as good as the draft you can get in Yorkshire but close enough for me

DamianM

Because nobody here will drink the stuff!

CardiacKid

I had a friend visit from Newcastle this spring and all he would drink was Bud and Lone Star. Go figure.

240GL

That's a good one!
Do a search for original budweiser. Here's just a sample of what you'll find:

Erling.

jemoryl

Yeah, I was going to suggest that the OP move to Manchester - used to have the cheapest pints in the UK.

I notice you are from St. Helens. I used to live in Liverpool in the early 90s' and miss a good pint of Cain's.

The Seldom Kill

They have to have cheap beer in Manchester, otherwise no one would be able to drink enough to forget that they live there.

PaulBravey

If all you had to drink was Newky Brown then I'd drink Bud too

Eatadonut

I don't know what you're talking about - we have all sorts of excellent beers, from the more exotic american breweries, like...germany.


Actually, there IS good beer here, Shiner, TX being responsible for most of it.

genec

LOL... If Shinerbock is the "best" Texas has to offer, they have a long way to go... Go stop in at the UFO in Fort Worth and take a look at their offerings. Shinerbock is but a drop in the big beer bucket. 'Course with that heat and the typical Texas attitude, Bud is still number one there.

atbman

A friend of mine used to work in a public health laboratory. He tells me that when Budweiser and Coors first applied to export to the UK, each was asked to send a sample.

After 3 weeks, came the reply. "Neither of these horses is fit to work".

By the way, the reason that English beer is not served chilled is that you don't need to refrigerate your taste buds before drinking it.

Return insults from Yanks and Aussies looked forward to.

240GL

Forgive me for asking, but I was under the impression that the reason was the Lucas refrigerators-?

Erling.

Matt Gaunt

Ok, this is my sort of thread now!

A relative of mine once told me that if I could name the beer, it was probably rubbish unless you knew of it locally, from the trade etc. It's a good rule to follow. I do live near Manchester, and it's not so cheap any more. St. Helens is ok if you find the real ale pubs but there are very few of them but at least the average stuff is really cheap. In Leicester (I live here when at university) it's quite expensive but there are some really good real ale pubs.

Favourite real ale: tough, but it has to be Black Sheep. Basically, any beer that is brewed in the National Parks of the Lake District or Yorkshire Dales is way better than any Australian or American brewery can churn out because they don't do it for maximum profit, they do it for maximum quality. The fact that is usually costs well under £2.50/pint is a bonus.

And just to brighten everyone's spirits: I have a friend who lives in Sweden, where the average cost per pint of beer is........ £9.00!!! Yes, the sharp end of $20 for a pint of wifebeater (Stella). Nice.

Skipper

I brew my own beer. Good clean fun (unless you have a boil over) and downright tasty. I like a good chewy bock or an Irish stout.