Real ale - not something you find in Thailand.
The John Smiths draught at your local farang bar does not constitute real ale, as it has been filtered before being shipped. As any ale drinker will know, a beer has to be stored & served from a cask, rather than a keg.
For two years I was the cellar-man at the biggest pub in Europe. We used to hold beer festivals & could be selling up to eighty different kinds of ale from all the main players, plus many micro-breweries, at any given time, so it is something I know a lot about.
Your average punter will know the usual suspects, such as Theakstons Best or Pedigree, though sadly, there are many brands that just don't get the exposure they deserve, mainly due to a lack of money to advertise.
I will introduce you to some of these fine, unknown ales here & importantly - tell you where they can be sampled.
This one is my all-time favourite - Summer Lightning, by the Hopback Brewery.
It won an award for best newcomer at the time it was released & is unlike any other ale I have tasted.
I could go all Jilly Cooper on you & describe it as a quaffable, fruity beer with aftertones of the oak cask it was brewed in, but I would sound like one of those CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) idiots, who I promise you - do not know what they are talking about. I can say this for certain, as I used to have dealings with them all the time.
Let me tell you a story about CAMRA.
We were inspected by them one time, looking towards inclusion in that Good Beer Guide that they do. Before they came to visit, they gave us a list of what beers they wanted to sample. One of those beers was Adnams - a very fine beer indeed.
Unfortunatly, we had previously stolen - amongst others - the Adnams delivery & the last I saw of the cask was at the local university campus. Even if I was minded to get it back, it would have certainly been empty. Fearing having to tell my boss I had been diverting his deliveries, I set to work on a cunning plan.
I swapped the pump clip from the Boddingtons with an Adnams one & because the colour is lighter I added some slops from the drip-trays to the cask of Boddies, gave it a shake & left it to settle overnight.
I will never forget the bearded buffoon from CAMRA taking a sip & pronouncing 'that's good Adnams, that is, well done'