stronk
09-22-2005, 08:17 PM
I went for a drink at the White Horse in Parsons Green today for the first time in more than half a year (I've been abroad) and found, to my dismay, that the entire food menu had been hijacked by the dreaded Stella Artois, the nastiest stain in Interbrew's varied collection of effluent.
The menu had previously been a worthy tribute to the cause of suggesting the appropriate beer alongside the appropriate wine to go with each dish. Now it's called the 'Artois September Menu' and all but three of the choices now have 'Stella Artois Bock' written as the beer suggestion.
Before you ask, no I haven't tried the bock yet (and I intend to as soon as I can work up the nerve and organise some method of washing my mouth out as quickly as possible afterwards). What surprised and saddened me is that a pub which had for years been the champion of rare and wonderful beers and had hidden all the mega-brand taps (including Stella Artois) out of sight behind the bar, has now gone over to the dark side so quickly and so unreservedly.
Now for the bright side: whilst I was sitting there with my sister lamenting and drinking some of the huge stock of great beer they still sell (we were drinking Rochefort 6, Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter, Paulaner Oktoberfest, De Köninck and Anchor OSA 2004), the landlord Mark walked up out of the blue and complimented us on our choice of drinks. I immediately started haranguing him about the fall into the poisoned arms of Interbrew and he told me that it was a temporary thing to help Stella promote a decent beer (for a change) and that I should apply for a job, as I seemed to know so much about beer. I, of course, replied that I already had, which confused him a bit!
Anyway, apart from that bit of news which will be irrelevent to almost all of you, I should say that I really enjoyed Anchor OSA 04. It was a good moderate strength (5.5%), which meant that it was malty, but not overly so and that a lovely lingering biscuity flavour was present just before the aftertaste which would have been consumed by the maltiness in a traditional strength winter brew. The malt was balanced by a moderate hit of unidentifiable hops, blended with the slight sour bitterness from the coriander, which matched and supplemented it very well. All sorts of other spices were present, but I was too busy enjoying the overall flavour gave up on further analysis.
EDIT: I'll try and get back to this thread with some notes on the bock, if I survive the tasting with all my brain cells and tastebuds intact.
Not that I'm biased or anything...
The menu had previously been a worthy tribute to the cause of suggesting the appropriate beer alongside the appropriate wine to go with each dish. Now it's called the 'Artois September Menu' and all but three of the choices now have 'Stella Artois Bock' written as the beer suggestion.
Before you ask, no I haven't tried the bock yet (and I intend to as soon as I can work up the nerve and organise some method of washing my mouth out as quickly as possible afterwards). What surprised and saddened me is that a pub which had for years been the champion of rare and wonderful beers and had hidden all the mega-brand taps (including Stella Artois) out of sight behind the bar, has now gone over to the dark side so quickly and so unreservedly.
Now for the bright side: whilst I was sitting there with my sister lamenting and drinking some of the huge stock of great beer they still sell (we were drinking Rochefort 6, Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter, Paulaner Oktoberfest, De Köninck and Anchor OSA 2004), the landlord Mark walked up out of the blue and complimented us on our choice of drinks. I immediately started haranguing him about the fall into the poisoned arms of Interbrew and he told me that it was a temporary thing to help Stella promote a decent beer (for a change) and that I should apply for a job, as I seemed to know so much about beer. I, of course, replied that I already had, which confused him a bit!
Anyway, apart from that bit of news which will be irrelevent to almost all of you, I should say that I really enjoyed Anchor OSA 04. It was a good moderate strength (5.5%), which meant that it was malty, but not overly so and that a lovely lingering biscuity flavour was present just before the aftertaste which would have been consumed by the maltiness in a traditional strength winter brew. The malt was balanced by a moderate hit of unidentifiable hops, blended with the slight sour bitterness from the coriander, which matched and supplemented it very well. All sorts of other spices were present, but I was too busy enjoying the overall flavour gave up on further analysis.
EDIT: I'll try and get back to this thread with some notes on the bock, if I survive the tasting with all my brain cells and tastebuds intact.
Not that I'm biased or anything...