As a beer drinker, home brewer, and lover of all things related to beers and ales, I have a question for our englisgh friends. What is your best mass-market beer? I’ve had Watney’s and BASS ALE-they are pretty good. I also like THEAKSTON’s OLD PECULIER (hard to get in the USA), and SAMUEL SMITH’S ALE is very good. Of course, you have your “real ale” movement, and British pub-brewed beers and ales are superb-I wish we had more brewpubs in the USA.
But anyway, when you don’t have time to visit your local pub-what’s your best commercial brew?
Old Speckled Hen is pretty widely available and is good. Bass, as mentioned will hit thesport. My own personal favourites are Pedigree and (here in very sunny London) London Pride.
Of the lagers, Stella is my favourite, and Howegaarden is the mutts nuts (but hideously expensive)
This is a tough one because people who have strong views may say that “good” and “mass market” are contradictory ideas. Also, there really isn’t a brand of bitter/ale that is available in every pub, so the most common beer in any town will be a local brand, even if its brewer has a national (or multinational) parent company.
Bass and Tetley are probably the most widely available.
The most widespread lagers in England seem to be Carling, Carlsberg and Stella Artois these days.
Greene King Abbott and Adnams Bitter are both widely available and are even given the thumbs up by the Real Ale crowd.
Mmmmm, this is a great thread! Having been brought up in a Budweiser household I though all beer tasted like that and never touched the stuff up till a few years ago when I had a local (to me) beer and loved it. Now I’m a big fan of Samuel Smith’s and have been looking to try other Brit brews. I’m making a list!
Scottish beers are different from English ones, they are never called “bitters”; being generally sweeter and less hoppy, although I’m far from being an expert on beer varieties. There are loads of new small breweries in Scotland now, but since you ask about mass market ones, Caledonian and Belhaven are both good. They are dwarfed by Tennant’s and McEwan’s; don’t bother with their beers if you don’t have to. “80 shilling” (of various brands, such as Caledonian) is now the default dark beer in most Scottish pubs, for a more hoppy one try Deuchar’s IPA.
Not really “mass market”, but until you have tried Chimay, Leffe Triple and Duvel you have missed an amazing taste experience.
You have, however, also saved yourself a bastard of a hangover. No wonder Trappist monks take a vow of silence.