Franconian Beer Message Board
Kraus Hirschaid |
| Posted by barry on 2018-08-09 04:21:25 |
| I think that you summed it all up in your last paragraph! Another factor (maybe one that hasn't really hit Franconia yet - but probably will, one day) is fashion. This is something that is changing really rapidly in contemporary society, due to increased access to the media, especially the social media. Reading historic accounts of changes in taste for beer in the UK (Ron Pattison is really interesting in this respect), we can see shifts in taste over time but, prior to, perhaps, the last twenty years, maybe a little more, these happened fairly slowly. An example is gradual drift away from darker beers, such as milds (though I know we have also got light milds) to bitters and lighter coloured beers, accompanied by a gradual increase in strength. Previously, these happened over quite a long period, whereas, now, we have constant shifts, with the addition of new beer styles almost every day. As I said in the Facebook account of my trip to Sheffield, I found it quite difficult to find what I would call a 'northern bitter' (i.e. a balance of malts and hops, using British hops, and brownish rather than pale in colour) among the plethora of so-called IPA's, fruit flavoured concoctions (fruit probably added after brewing rather than as an integral component), citrussy beers, summer ales, golden ales, etc., etc. I (maybe sometimes a little reluctantly) welcome diversity but it would be nice to have the option to drink some more traditional styles (there were one or two milds and a few stouts and porters), which is why the two Barnsley bitters came as a nice surprise. Still, as the man in the Fat Cat said 'There's never been a better time for the real ale lover', probably true but I need to think a bit more about it! |
| Followups: |
 Northern bitter (was:Kraus Hirschaid) by Barm on 2018-08-10 03:23:15 |
| Northern bitter (was:Kraus Hirschaid) by barry on 2018-08-10 05:06:18 |