When Is A Stout Not A Beer?

[Barry]

The answer seems to be "When you are in England".
Just talking to my son who flew to England on Monday re a money transfer. He said he just had a long conversation with a barman that kept telling him that a stout was a stout and not a beer. The barman ended the discussion with " You have to be a lot more actuate now you are in England". :blink:

 

[RdeVjun]

The answer seems to be "When you are in England".
Just talking to my son who flew to England on Monday re a money transfer. He said he just had a long conversation with a barman that kept telling him that a stout was a stout and not a beer. The barman ended the discussion with " You have to be a lot more actuate now you are in England". :blink:

G'day Barry, I say bollocks to the snooty barman, I think he needs to take a long good hard look at himself. Here's a funny thing, what beverage is it that is made with malt, hops, yeast and water again??...
Bingo...

 

[Trent]

I have had that discussion with people before, that are adamant that there are 3 types of beer, ale, lager, and stout, but never heard of someone that declares stout as a different beverage altogether. Maybe the said bartender came out to Australia on holidays once, and got caught by the old "drop bear" story, or was told before leaving England that he would have to catch a kangaroo from the airport to his backpackers in Bondi, as there are no taxis, etc.... and your son was the perfect oppurtunity for him to finally exact some "revenge"! :lol:
All the best
Trent

 

[PostModern]

Interesting theory, Trent, but in cases like this, I pull out Halon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. There is no reason that the average punter or barman in England is any more beer savvy than the average punter in Aus.

 

[np1962]

This is common over there.
When the barman asks what beer you would like and you reply " A pint of Carling, thanks"
The barman will likely tell you "That's not beer, it's Lager!"

Or vice versa if you happen to be the Aussie behind the bar as I was for a number of years.
Punter "What beer you got"
Me "Carling, Kronenberg, Heineken........"
Punter "them's not beers, they're Lager's"

Some things will never change, like most bad habit's.
To many of them ale is beer, lager is lager and stout is stout!
When in Rome...... or London etc..

Nige

 

[hazard]

I think that the barman showed typical pommy attitude to "beer". I was drinking with a work associate on Friday night, who hails from the north of England. I ordered a Hoegaarden, which he adamantly described as a lager. In his view of the world there was "beer" which was anything darker than a lager (and from the examples he gave, included mostly english bitters) and there was "lager" which was anything paler than a beer. Hoegaarden was pale hence fell in the "lager" category!! Note that he did not say 2 types of beer - there was beer, and lager. So it is consistent for the barman to say that stout is stout, not beer.

BTW - I am married to a Pom, so I won't say anything bad about them. I love them all, especially when we beat them at cricket.

Hazard

 

[petesbrew]

oh FFS.
IMO The only time a stout is not a beer is when it's infected.

 

[tcraig20]

What Ive heard is that 'beer' originally only meant what we would call bitters.

If that's true, its become somewhat confused over the years.

 

[Bribie G]

Growing up in the North East of England, the term 'beer' wasn't generally used, nor was 'bitter'. In fact the first local beer actually to be called bitter was Sunderland Draught Bitter which was a keg product produced by Vaux of Sunderland and they ran a competion to come up with the name, and there was a lot of growling locally about this 'southern' sounding name. I grew up on a diet of Newcastle Exhibition Ale, McEwan's Scotch, Lorimers Scotch, Vaux Sampson, Etc.
"A pint of bitter please" would immediately label you as an effete Southerner.

Later, with brewery amalgamations, Southern Beers started to edge into the market such as Whitbread Trophy Bitter. On holiday in Devon as a teenager I was amused to hear so many people ask for a 'pint of beer'. Apparently that was their term for ordinary bitter. Until lagers started coming in, the distinction was between ales and stouts.

 

[kook]

You're just lucky that he didn't reply in polish h34r:

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Really who takes any notice of what a barman says? They are not rocket surgeons :blink:
GB

 

[eamonnfoley]

I have had that discussion with people before, that are adamant that there are 3 types of beer, ale, lager, and stout, but never heard of someone that declares stout as a different beverage altogether. Maybe the said bartender came out to Australia on holidays once, and got caught by the old "drop bear" story, or was told before leaving England that he would have to catch a kangaroo from the airport to his backpackers in Bondi, as there are no taxis, etc.... and your son was the perfect oppurtunity for him to finally exact some "revenge"! :lol:
All the best
Trent

The BJCP is very americanised. The UK and European countries have different ways of classifying our grain beverage, especially in general conversation. There is a really good article on this somewhere - see if i can find it.

 

[kirem]

I reckon it's got some merit.

If you go to a pub and ask for an ale, you get an ale, if you ask for a lager you get a lager and if you ask for a stout you get a stout!

Beer is such a loose term. and there are certainly many lagers masquerading as ales in the Australian market.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Really who takes any notice of what a barman says? They are not rocket surgeons :blink:
GB

ROTFPIMP! Nicely added Neville :lol: !

C&B
TDA

 

[warrenlw63]

They are not rocket surgeons :blink:

Neville I think when you quote that one TD demands a licensing fee.

Warren -

 

[caleb]

"When is a stout not a beer?"

A: When it's a stick used to soundly beat the perpetrators of such nonsense.