Comments on: Fictional Breweries

By: Bailey

Bailey — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 10:02:55 +0000

LH — there are lots of American beers that have more flavour than Black Sheep!

By: LH

LH — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:06:28 +0000

Jonathan, you probably did not like the beer because it had taste as opposed to american beer that has no taste.

By: Shameless Fictional Beer | Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog

Shameless Fictional Beer | Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:31:30 +0000

[...] We’ve written about fictional beer before and we’re not the only ones who are fascinated by this kind of thing. [...]

By: rich trenholm

rich trenholm — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:50:57 +0000

I love that about Eastenders. Isn’t the lager called 1442 or something? Hilarious.

By: Bailey

Bailey — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:25:32 +0000

Stonch — I guess I’m confessing to liking even the pasteurised stuff, if it’s not so old that it’s gone stale. Bottle conditioned is better, invariably, but then something like London Pride is beautiful bottled, despite being filtered, pasteurised and pumped full of CO2.

By: Stonch

Stonch — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:57:47 +0000

I blame the French.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:49:07 +0000

“really bad â€” like sour apple juice”

That’s exactly what this bottle tasted like… delicate indeed. Too delicate for me to purchase another bottle. Thanks for the commentary.

By: Stonch

Stonch — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:42:50 +0000

Bailey – if we’re talking bottle conditioned beers, I agree completely – you put it very well (“a nice controlled environment, without the variability introduced by poor landlords”). I’m talking about the pasteurised stuff, though, and most of our beer – particularly the stuff exported to the States – has suffered that treatment.

By: Bailey

Bailey — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 07:15:33 +0000

Jonathan — I gather that the reason they don’t use real breweries is because TV shows (especially those on the BBC, which is funded through a levy on viewers) can’t be seen to be promoting one product over another. Even when you do see someone drinking what looks like a well known brand, they’ve often put a new label on with a made-up name, e.g. Mark Fowler’s Becks was probably labelled “Braun’s German Lager” or something.

Black Sheep is generally reckoned to be OK, and I’ve got one friend who drinks hardly anything else. Having said that, I’ve had bad pints of cask-conditioned Black Sheep here in London (really bad — like sour apple juice) and that’s only travelled a few hundred miles from Yorkshire, so maybe it is particularly delicate?

Stonch — I have to say that I don’t generally mind bottled ales, assuming they’re fresh and so on. I sometimes even prefer them. Bottles are a nice controlled environment, without the variability introduced by poor landlords, bad cellars and what have you, so are often more reliable. A nice pint of London Pride in a well kept pub is a thing of wonder, but I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between that and the bottled version, if I’m honest.

By: Stonch

Stonch — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:45:30 +0000

Jonathan, we don’t really go in for product placement in TV drama like you see in the States – particularly on the BBC.

What I dont get about Eastenders is that they’re perfectly willing to show certain branded beers in the Vic – Mark Fowler famously drank bottles of Beck’s – but persist in having totally unrealistic pumps from this imaginary brewery. No Carlsberg, no Guinness, no Stella, no Magner’s – that’s the shit people would be drinking. No wonder Peggy’s worried about her business.

On Coronation Street, I notice they have pretty much everyone drinking cask bitter, though in reality it’s cold tea…

Jonathan – I assume your pint of Black Sheep from a bottle or keg – if so it will have been pasteurised and filtered. Never good for a beer as you know, but totally tears the heart out of low ABV English bitters. Our ale styles are best enjoyed fresh from the cask in a good pub, and the bottled versions are almost almost very poor in comparison.