Drink Talking: Andy Brooks
Andy Brooks of the Laughing Fish, Isfield, East Sussex feels the need to defend an accused ale - Greene King's IPA.
Greene King IPA is often seen as a "very ordinary beer". And yet it won CAMRA's Champion Beer award in the standard beer category. You can't compare it to Abbot Ale, but as a standard-strength bitter it deserves the accolade which it received at the Great British Beer Festival. It is now one of Britain's best-selling real ales.
I sell it, alongside two other Greene King ales and one guest ale, and despite this choice IPA is always the biggest seller.
But I also get my fair share of customers turning their nose up at the mere thought of ever drinking it. So why do so many people write it off as "ordinary?"
The reason is, I suspect, that it suffers from the same problems as other widely available ales - that is,it is too easy to buy a badly-kept pint of it, and the really good real ale pubs are in the minority. That is why I support all efforts to improve the quality of real ale.
The problem for the big brewers is the conflict between the desire to sell as much ale as possible and the need for it to be properly looked after throughout the distribution chain.
I am also convinced that this issue is the reason why so many young people don't drink real ale, and are prepared to pay more for "Eurofizz". There are thousands of them out there who've tried real ale once and think that it is meant to taste flat, lifeless, and like vinegar! The consequence of this is that many so-called young persons venues don't even offer a real ale, or, if they do, it is such a minority seller that they don't bother to look after it properly.
Properly kept, Greene King IPA is a superb "session" beer. If those of us who know how to look after it put it on as "Bilbo Baggins Bitter" or some such other romantic-sounding title, even the worst of the accusers would probably enjoy it...
The Laughing Fish is a Greene King tenancy.
