The London Traveler

Real ale 101

by Andrea on March 6th, 2008

It’s not just visitors from other countries who find real ale confusing. Some Brits, too, confess themselves confused by the variety of beer on offer - and wonder what real ale is all about. So I thought I’d ofer ‘Real Ale 101′ - a quick course in ale culture for the confused.

First of all; ale, beer, lager. What’s the difference?

Ale and beer - they’re the same for most purposes. Back in the old days, beer had hops in it, and ale didn’t, but nowadays they’re pretty much the same thing. And they come in pints and half pints - no litres, centilitres or millilitres for us.

Lager is different. Technically, the fermentation happens a different way, with a different yeast. And ‘real’ lager should be ‘lagered’ - that is, matured for several months before being served up. I doubt that many of the big brands still do that, though.

As for ‘real’ ale, the difference here is that instead of being pasteurised, filtered, and then served in a keg with gas added to make it fizz, it’s left alive, put in a cask (’barrel’ to the uninitiated) and sent out to the pub while the yeast is still doing its work fermenting the beer. The yeast should make the beer lively, but you won’t get the sort of fizz in it that comes with a keg beer.

You can usually tell real ale because it’s served from a hand pump that has to be pulled back to make the beer come out - from from one of the little taps. Sometimes, you may also see it served ‘on gravity’ - that is, from a cask which has just had a tap put in it to serve it up. That’s commoner outside London and in ‘beer pubs’ - pubs which put the needs of the drinker ahead of the desire to serve sandwiches, fish and chips, Thai food or tapas.

You can also get real ale in a bottle - that simply means, again, that the yeast has been left to do its work.

Of course serving real ale is not easy, precisely because it is a living thing. A cask of ale has a limited shelf life once it has been tapped - just a few days for the weaker beers. That means the pub has to have enough footfall to shift the beer. If not, it’s likely to go off - to taste stale and unappetising. A busy pub where you see lots of people drinking real ale will be the best place to taste it - if everyone else is drinking lager and keg beer, or shots, that might mean the real ale is past its best.

Now you’re ready to order a pint - or a half. Or even a third - which is something new! Wetherspoons introduced third-pint glasses recently for one of its pub beer festivals, giving drinkers a great way of trying out all the different beers without getting too inebriated. Some beer festivals, too, provide third pint glasses - ignore the comments about ‘for the ladies’, and drink thirds, and you’ll be able to taste many more beers for your money!

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POSTED IN: Food & Beverage