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Good Bottled Beer For Christmas
Did you know that real ale is available in bottled form? A number of brewers put their beer into bottles unpasteurised and unfiltered to produce a beer that under goes a second fermentation in the bottle. Like real ale versus keg beer, this second fermentation gives a fuller, fresher flavour. Christmas is a time when home beer consumption is at a high and with a bit of effort you can ensure that the beers you purchase don't disappoint.
To ensure that you get the real stuff, look for either the words: "bottled conditioned" or "real ale in a bottle". Both Fullers and Youngs regularly produce one bottled conditioned beer each: 1845 and Special London Ale, respectively and both beers have won CAMRA's Champion Bottled Beer of Britain in recent years. Well worth a taste.
For a full list of beers that are available, CAMRA's Good Bottled Beer Guide merits purchasing. It's written by Jeff Evans and this new edition lists 500 beers - a brilliant increase from 1971, when CAMRA was founded. Then there were only five such beers in regular production. And it makes a great (and reasonably priced) Christmas present for those into good beer.
Jeff comments 'Small brewers in particular have returned to bottling in a big way, partly in response to the way in which the pub market has been closed off to them by giant pub companies, who prefer to buy discounted beer from big breweries. The small brewers have looked for other outlets and discovered that bottled beer is the answer'.
The book is priced £8.99 and is available from good bookshops or direct from CAMRA on 01727 867201 (discount for CAMRA members) or visit the website: www.camra.org.uk.
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 23.
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