A while back, I wrote about London beer as a bittersweet experience.  I also called that post preliminary thoughts, so I thought I'd come back to it.  To summarize the first post, I essentially stated that bitters dominate the landscape of London.  If you plan on visiting England, go to London for sure, but make certain that you are a ambulatory when it comes to the rest of England.  Time and again I've been told that you've got to explore smaller areas and towns to really get the whole ale experience.  Having said that, let me recommend a couple of places to obtain beer in London, should you visit: The Lowlander specializes in Belgian Ales.  Many of the better/more unique beers that I tasted in London were at this location.  I drank some sours, lambics, and some triples.  Unlike the lower alcohol beers that dotted the landscape, the Lowlander had some fairly big beers.  Of course, you are going to pay for them. This is not only due to the fact that more ingredients and time went into the beers but also because many places in Europe base taxation of beers on their alcohol content. The Museum Pub: It seems to me ...

Well, we're back from our trip to Europe, and I'm finally feeling a little rested. Sometimes things happen so quickly that your head can spin (or was it the 80 new beers that I tried in Europe?).   It's taken me a little time to think through what the first Europe post would be, but here is a little ditty about London town. We all know how lager dominates the market in America (and sadly starting to elsewhere). It happens that most of the lagers are largely the same with some subtle differences. I'm talking about big brewery lagers and even some "craft" ones. I think the situation is largely the same with a lot of beers in England.  Bitters are the kings of pub-life, so far as I could see. Now they all have some differences, and I don't want to make English bitters look like American macro lagers--I would drink an English bitter over American swill lager any day. But it is really surprising that the populace at large is drinking beer with less and less character. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the bitters I had in London. However, it ...