On Being Mansplained to...

...on the subject of murky beer.

So I've remarked before that Eastbourne is a bit behind the beer times in terms of modern beer styles.

Even at beer festivals, they have a bit of tendency to go with beer styles they know and love (lots of emphasis on trad bitters and nice, but unremarkable golden beers).

This week our local's beer festival was being set up and a new beer was set up and ready to go.  I ordered a pint of it for the boy.  It was described as a "bitter" by a local good, but not very adventurous brewery.

When it came out it was about the same colour as Hophead but was a tiny bit hazy.  I looked quizzically at it and said "you're sure that's it?" - what I meant was that I expected it to be browner.  She looked and seemed concerned.  "Actually, I'm not sure it's ready yet - it's a bit hazy.

I smiled and said, "I'm used to cloudy beer...it might just be unfined"

Then the bloke next to me chirped up "Oh, it looks OK I think.  It's a bit murky but perhaps that's just condensation on the glass and then proceeded to rub his finger down the glass (WTF?).  Girl behnd the bar still looked worried.  So I said "it'll just be easier for me to try it..." and did.  It was fine.

It was probably a beer designed to drop clear but it didn't seem any the worse for its haze.

"Ah yes", the bloke said "I told you it was OK".

Now, here's the thing.  I get a bit annoyed when blokes tell me that they think they know more about beer than I do.  But it's expontetially worse when the know-all in question had just bought a pint of Fosters for his mate and a pint of nitro-Guinness for himself.  In a pub with 5 cask beers on.

I didn't say anything else to him.  I couldn't.

Still, on Friday when the festival proper started I particularly enjoyed the pint of (unfined) Holler which was as murky as a perfect pint from Tapstone.  Maybe Eastbourne's starting to catch up.