To wish my local would stop offering so much 'yellow' beer and start to offer some more traditional brown stuff ?

[vienna1981]

Local pub always has five pumps put aside for guest cask ales. If all five are available it's highly likely that at least four will be of the blonde/pale/golden genre, i.e. yellow-coloured witchpiss. Great if you like that stuff - probably aimed at lager drinkers - but no good for traditionalists like me. Why is the dark, flavourful, full-bodied beer so often overlooked by this (chain) pub ?

[MorticiaLiverish]

Possibly because it doesn't sell as well as the yellow-coloured witchpiss?

[Outfoxed]

agreed. There are so many great blondes and tripels but most pubs won't be stocking them

[vienna1981]

The annoying thing is the lack of choice. Admittedly, the other night, there was a beer called Golden Phoenix or something similar. It was excellent and popular and quickly ran out. But it was a triumph of taste over appearance. Most of the yellow beers are scented, fragrant, citrussyy shit.

[Junosmum]

Yadnbu!

[Werksallhourz]

Darks are more expensive. You can't make as much profit on them. That tends to be why pubs carry more blondes and pales.

[Trills]

I personally prefer yellow beer but YANBU at all.

Variety is better.

[vienna1981]

Thankyou werks. That is most interesting. I feel a letter to The Chairman coming on. FWIW, these are some of the beers I'd like to see more often round here:

Old Speckled Hen, Batemans XB and XXXB, Double Maxim, Adnams Broadside, Banks Mild.

I could go on.

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

Personally I much prefer the pale ales.

[holdontoyourbutts]

What pub chain is it?

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

To be fair though, the Golden Ales are summer ales. People drink the dark toffee horrid stuff more in winter.

[vienna1981]

Wetherspoon.

I fully accept that everyone likes different styles of beer. I reiterate that it's the bias towards the yellow stuff that irks me. There is no balance and therefore no choice.

[HermioneJeanGranger]

Surely you'd be better off going to a decent local pub if you want dark beers?

[Pipbin]

I was going to say just that Hermione.
But then I'm lucky. All three of my local pubs are independents, two of them have on site breweries.

[HermioneJeanGranger]

Me too Pipbin all my local pubs stock decent dark beers. Wetherspoons is the place to go for cheap alcohol, not decent quality ale!

[TwentyCupsOfTea]

yanbu, pales overwhelm most bars. I like an IPA, don't get me wrong, but May is supposed to be the month of Milds and I hatdly saw any!
See if you can get hold of any Preservation (Castle Rock). It's a good traditional bitter.

If you like dark darks I love Titanic's stuff as well!

[BoneyBackJefferson]

The local here has two ales on.
they have a passable Pale ale, they don't 'do' Blonde or wheat beers.

I haven't seen anywhere that has sold a mild for a long time.

[TwentyCupsOfTea]

I'm very lucky to live in a town with at least 6 good pubs specialising in real ale/world beer and I saw only two milds ( I was looking!)

[Oldraver]

Decent beer...in Wetherspoons ?

I've just had an Old Golden Hen, and about to have a Butty Bach so the witches piss wouldn't bother me

[nancy75]

A big chain will analyse exactly how much each pump makes them ( down to the pence) if the only have one dark it is because it doesn't sell in that pub. Your average wetherspoons customer probably is a lager drinker so that is who they will aim most of their offering at. If you want a proper drink look up and support c.a.m.r.a pubs in your area

[StickTheDMWhereTheSunDontShine]

I'm partial to a glass (only a half, these days) or spotty chicken or riggwelter but some light coloured ales do have good flavour. IPAs tend to stick up for themselves fairly well, even if they're less chewy and sweet than flowers or even heavily mass produced boddies and you might find you really enjoy a good weissbeer of the hoegaarden variety if you find one on offer.

[vienna1981]

Ironically, Wetherspoon have some sort of CAMRA promotion going on at the moment. 50p vouchers off a pint of cask beer or cider. I have two left.

Looking at their latest news magazine, many of their featured pubs have pictures of the bar complete with glasses of beer. All brown, no yellow. Even the other two local Wetherspoon pubs I visit don't have this intriguing bias. Must be a local management thing .

[IrenetheQuaint]

It's fashion, isn't it. Partly coming from the US. I like a trad pale ale but so many these days are ridiculously over hopped. If I wanted a grapefruit cordial I'd order one!

[OhGoveUckYourself]

YANBU. I too am not a lover of over-hopped or citrus-flavoured beers and there are far too many of them around. Even the local CAMRA pubs seem to be favouring them over more traditional brews and not just during the summer. I also hate it when you ask for a dark beer and they try and palm you off with mild. If I wanted to order a pint of mild I would ask for it.

[Pipbin]

They will know what sells in their pub to their clients.
Stop going to Wetherspoons.
Is there a good free house near you?