Kmflett's Blog

For much of the UK (but not all) another heatwave is upon us, the fifth of the summer.

I decided it was time for a lager…

I’ve been a member of CAMRA since 1975 and back in the day mentioning lager was only to deride it as undrinkable. And it was. Served cold to hide whatever taste might linger. Some may recall the Hobgoblin advert ‘what’s the matter lager boy, afraid you might taste something’. An effective advert if not to my taste.

Those lagers are of course still with, Heineken and Carlsberg. They are consistent and if you don’t like the taste of malt and hops then why not? They have been joined as CAMRA underlines by a newer range of Spanish, Italian etc lagers nearly all of which are actually brewed in the UK and not much like the originals (where the original existed, think Madri).

Times have changed and certainly in indy bars there are good lagers from Germany and elsewhere on the bar. Core styles are Helles and Pilsner (Engels favourite). Of course a lot of UK indy brewers also produce decent examples.

So the taboo on drinking lager has gone or should have done.

Again back in the day there was an alternative a 4.8% cask lager from Schiehallion from Scottish brewer Harviestoun. I hadn’t had a pint in decades but feeling thirsty I entered a pub (Spoons of course) and saw it on the bar. It tasted like a Helles, and although naturally carbonated (it wasnt flat) it lacked the CO2 bite a keg lager has. Decades ago I saw that as a positive. Now I’m less bothered because the keg lagers now taste decent.

That too is a sort of victory for CAMRA