Of Gobby Hobbits

I celebrated quite a bit on Saturday. Well, it isn't every weekend that Liverpool beat Manchester United at Old Trafford, especially not when they do it 4-1. The powers that be are convinced that playing big games at 12.45 GMT on a Saturday somehow negates the effects of drinking before the game, but ignore the effects of the game on drinking afterwards. As I say, we celebrated quite a bit.

Just round the corner from Zlata, is Pivovarsky d?m - so it was only natural to continue our celebrations there - well it was really my excuse to make sure that I got at least a little bit of decent beer before things got out of hand. Thankfully they still have their very nice stout on the one and only hand pump, and they also have a special M?rzen at the moment, which was rather nice as well.

At some point in the conversation, CAMRA came up - don't ask me why because I can't remember - and I told my friends what the MD of Marston's had said about certain sections of CAMRA (personally I think Knackered Old Cripplecock would be a grand name for a beer, but no doubt the Portman Group would object). At the mention of CAMRA, one of the guys on the next table looked over and we got chatting - he is a member of the West Middlesex branch, from the same part of the world as my dad, so we had a good chin wag, and being a good pub evangelist I marked a few places on his map.

I happened to mention that I was rather jealous of being able to wander into a pub and have a pint of London Pride whenever you feel like it, which led to a discussion about brands being so ubiquitous that they lose some of their appeal regardless of how good they are. The Czech Republic is a perfect example of this, especially the way we bash the big brewers such as Pilsner Urquell and Staropramen. Yes it is true that PU is not a patch on what it once was, and yes Staropramen is an abomination as it is made with corn syrup, but which would I rather drink - Staropramen or Foster's? Pilsner Urquell or Carling?

This then got me to thinking about how people equate smaller brewers with good beer, again back to the "gobby hobbits" that so irked the MD - big brewers do make good beer, take Budvar or for example, and small brewers do make bad beer, Pra?sky most na Val?? springs immediately to mind. So although I maintain that the likes of Pilsner Urquell and Staropramen are not beers I will drink regularly, I am happy to admit, we are very lucky to have the standard set so much higher than many other markets.