I have always loved the British pub - it is part of my psyche - I was lucky, - as a late career move - to have been an assistant brewer over 4 happy years at the Earl Soham Brewery and have always loved "real ale" - I prefer to call it cask conditioned ale; - pints and pints of it!
Now I am retired and happily living on the waterways of France on our barge called "Body and Soul". Many bottles of wine later and after ten years, I am still searching for proper beer and a decent pint in France :- I have to admit abject failure so far. Maybe our proposed trip to Brittany starting in Spring 2015 will bring much needed relief. Curiously the Pelforth Brewery, previously a French Company, now wholly owned by Heinekin does produce "a near thing" using top fermenting yeast and I also like the occasional bottle of "Goudale" which one can buy at most supermarkets and which does the same - but both these beers are filtered and are either "pression" or bottled.
Now here lies the issue which has compelled me to write this article for the record. I have observed that there is a cultural and physiological difference that separates us from the French in matters of alcohol consumption.
This is an issue like the left hand drive cars and driving on the right hand side of the road ; it is not going to change. It's neither right nor wrong. It is a fact.
The French are essentially a wine drinking Nation and they therefore, from childhood, use the front of their mouths and nose to taste what they are drinking. I have observed that they sip small quantities at a time; more importantly perhaps, they sip and savour over time.:- "Thirst" does not come into the reason for drinking. They find their pleasure not from any sense of "quenching thirst" but from the pleasure of the alcohol itself (at from 11.5% to 14%ABV) and the subtle effects it has on the senses in the front of the mouth (and the nose) when combined with the fermented juice of the grape.
This assertion may seem axiomatic because, of course, the French, produce and drink amongst the best wine in the world and one learns to appreciate wine in a sophisticated way at an early age; But they also drink beer of sorts, Pernod type spirits and Scotch Whisky.
I have always been puzzled by this difference since we are, after all, two nations separated by a mere 22 miles. We love their wine too! We are perhaps their best customers.
Like drinking wine, A Frenchman (or woman) will sit sipping a 25cl glass of over-priced, near freezing, euro-fizz ( at 5% to 9% ABV) for what seems like hours or indeed a shot of Pernod or whisky at 40% abv........ clearly the pleasure from any alcoholic drink is either from, in the case of beer, the effect that the induced CO2 bubbles has on the front of the mouth or the extreme taste and "nose" of the pernod or whisky. Hence again, the sipping and the savouring - over time.
In contrast, the British and possibly, more specifically, the real ale drinker, prefer to quench their thirst by swallowing a great deal of liquid at a lower gravity ( from 3.3% to 5%ABV) but get their pleasure out of the "Throat opening" experience caused by the alcohol and any remaining unfermentd sugar as it passes under the nose and quickly through the mouth to the throat and beyond.
Quality is usually expressed using such adjectives as hop flavour, balance, bitterness, sweetness, conditioning, smoothness. There is an important difference between North and South in the degree of "Head" required by drinkers. The further North one goes, the greater the head preference and this is caused at the pump head by the server and the type of nozzle used.
What is important is the balance of hops and fermented liquor (fermented extract of malted barley) and the over-all conditioning (ie how well it has been brewed and kept). Real ale is "alive" at the point of sale; A secondary fermentation is still producing its own natural CO2 gas which has dissolved (more quickly the colder the liquor) within the cool liquor in the cool cellar (from 10C to 14C) and is only gently released, firstly in the glass as it is pumped in to it, and then in the warmth of the mouth.
Dominated by the German and Belgian names, (Heinekin ( and Pelforth,) Fischer, Kronenbourg, 1666, but also the tastier Monastic Beers ....etc) - the bars in France - and there are only a few "pubs" as we would know them and even fewer cellars - sell their "euro-fizz" output as "Pression" beer which is "Keg" beer with a very foamy head. It is essentially lager which is made with bottom fermenting yeast and the unseeded European hop. Good "Conditioning" is not an adjective one uses when trying to describe its quality. It is cold, carbonated, bright, consistant and, on average, stronger in alcohol:- A bottle of the same beer is indestinguishable from the "pression" except in the manner of service. It is filtered from all yeast and fermenting deposits and therefore quite dead, highly carbonated, very cold and hard to swallow quickly.
I believe it is true to say that you will rarely find a Frenchman who will drink a pint of beer - let alone of real ale - and certainly not several in an evening! It is not in their culture nor their memetic physiological make-up - like being asked to drive on the left- hand side of the road; It is an anathema to them ! Vive la difference!