...to want a decent pint of traditional British beer in the local pubs ?

[FloControl]

I am fed up to the back teeth of seeing nothing but yellow cask ale behind the bar. Everywhere it's blonde this, pale that or golden the bleeding other. It never seems to change from one month to the next. Great if you like this variety of bland, tasteless witchpiss (the publicans and pubcos might suggest this) but those who like beer to look like beer and taste like beer are increasingly alienated. What happened to proper beers like Riggwelter, Bateman's XXXB, Old Speckled Hen, Banks' Mild ? Stop pandering to the lager set and let's have some adequate choice please.

Our local rock bar has Hobgoblin on draft. Beautiful ruby ale and a well-kept pint.

Bit far from Leeds though.

Boys I think we'd get on well. I don't understand how anyone can say that a pint of decent British Ale would be old speckled hen or Timothy Taylor's. All mass produced brew by numbers and spread sheets with essence of instead of real ingredients. Yes, at the moment Pale Ales are all the rage, you can't turn a corner without spotting an APA, IPA, EPA etc etc, but the trend is already turning to autumn brews. Soon it will be Porter and Stouts, Red and American Brown Ales.

If you pride yourself on enjoying Pedigree and Doombar you may as well buy bottles from a supermarket. The whole Cask & Keg Ale market is on the rise because it is no longer just middle of the road murky dishwater beer. Find yourself a local Micropub and settle in for a range of interesting new beer from local brewers, it's a game changer.

Leeds is at the centre of the modern, independent brewing industry.
Tbh, all of the beers you have listed are boring, mass produced swill.
Try Northern Monk, North Brewing, Kirkstall or Ridgeside.
For more traditional, try Saltaire, Sam Smith's or Mallinsons.
Honestly, it must be the pubs you frequent.
Tried the Turks Head? Amazing selection.

I haven't drank real ales for over 10 years, so can't comment on the vairtity now in your locals.

But if you like ales like wrigglewelter and OP, then keep a look out Ok not likely down your local for Old Mill Brewery (Snaith) for thier seasonal beer called black Jack. It is lushus!

In summer I use to disperse I could never find theakstons light foot.

• Despair

@TheWitchAndTrevor I'm not so far from Snaith, my DH buys their little kegs at Christmas 👍🏻. Come to York OP. Far better than Leeds for beer.

Op if you're seriously telling me that you are struggling to find mass-produced bitters of the type you seem to favour on one of Britain's biggest cities, you're not looking very hard at all.

I still think you're being very closed minded,
APA/IPAs et al will predominate in summer months. As I said upthread there's cracking examples of this style, along with plenty of dreck (as there is with any style of brewing).

Dismissing it out of hand as you've tried one or two (probably Punk IPA which is to be fair a faddy mess of a beer) is like dismissing all the wonderful Helles, Marzen, Dunkel style brews because you once had a warm can of Carling Black Label from the cornershop and therefore all Lager is vile and tasteless.

As smile upthread more Red Ales will soon be on stream for autumn, if you like things like Youngers no 3, a well brewed red ale from a brewery that actually gives a shite about what they sell, will blow your mind.

Smile I think so too.

I'm lucky in that a pub has opened up near me where there is a wide range of ever rotating beers in a variety of styles and crucially two landlords who actually know and care about what they serve, let you try samples and will recommend something you might like based on what you've drunk before. I find it hard to believe there's not an equivalent in Leeds.

I'm lucky in that a new pub has opened up near us is that not only has a vast and changing selection, near us but two owners who actually know their stuff and care about what they sell and is mercifully free of hipsters. They actually recommend stuff to you and offer free samples.

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Oops! Copied and pasted when I should have cut!

Boys. You mention "wide range" and "variety" in your last post. You seem to be able to have it locally - lucky you - but I don't. There is, by and large, only one style of beer served locally which I don't care for. That is my preference and prerogative but apparently I'm wrong to dismiss it. I'm not going to waste money drinking stuff I can't stand. And it isn't just a summer thing. All year for the last two or three years. My local Wetherspoon has ten handpumps. The last time I looked it was three ciders, one Abbot, one Ruddles, one obscure Red (bland and tasteless, one blonde and three pale. That represents piss poor choice for ten handpumps. It was so much better a few years ago when this pub became a Wetherspoon. But the choice has gone. Again, choice. All I ask, not one style.

Not nuts on Pedigree. And Doom Bar has deteriorated in recent years.

Bon sante.

Your problem is you are drinking in a Wetherspoons

YorkieDorkie yes I use to like quite a few of there beers, the group brewery tours use to be quite a night apparently.

Drinking in weatherspoons is your first mistake. Any decent pubs will do samples, to try before you buy and won't be shipping in beer that's nearly at its best before date or be overseen by a teenager whose tipple of choice is Blue WKD.

I live in a city roughly of a similar size
s to Leeds less than a minutes on Google found about 10 or 11 microbreweries operating in Leeds, selling their wares in pubs across the city and selling a wide variety of styles. Of particular interest to you may be the Whippet brewery who do a session bitter and an English style IPA

It is there if you actually look for it.

I went to another local on Saturday. Five handpumps; the choice - Tetley, John Smith, Thwaites Wainwright (drinkable but not enjoyable), Leeds Pale (scented wishy washy) and two other pales. So it's not an exclusively Wetherspoon thing. And their pub in the town down the hill is not at all blonde/pale fixated. Just mine.

Seriously, if you want to drink well kept, good real ales you don't go to a big brewery pub.

I thought it was the first thing you learn, once you decide you like proper real ales.

Because even if a big brewery is offering them as guest beers, the likelihood they are kept correctly or use enough for the beer not to go off, is pretty slim.

My old local (in the welsh valleys) always had old speckled hen.
I actually dislike it and think it tastes like arse tbh

I went to another local on Saturday. Five handpumps; the choice - Tetley, John Smith, Thwaites Wainwright (drinkable but not enjoyable), Leeds Pale (scented wishy washy) and two other pales. So it's not an exclusively Wetherspoon thing. And their pub in the town down the hill is not at all blonde/pale fixated

That's six pumps.

I'm really struggling to see your point here. They served two mass market cask bitters (which is your drink of choice) Thwaites Wainwright which you quite like, plus three more you aren't interested in (rightly or wrongly)

Go back 10/15 years and the local pub would have had two handpumps at most, if it were a tied or managed house it would have probably been one. It certainly would be six pumps of traditional cask ale.

You live in a city with interesting and creative breweries all around you and if you actually looked for them or did some research, pubs that sell them. Countless people who know far more about the brewing scene in West Yorkshire and Leeds specifically than you or me, have given you recommendations and not once have you said 'great I might seek those out' or even 'tell me more' all you can do is huff and puff and mump and moan about 'pale shite' which isn't what they all brew, not be a long chalk.

There really are none so blind as those who will not see!

I haven't had time to try all the pale and blonde out there. But the ones that have come to my attention, and there is more than a few, just aren't to my taste. It would therefore be illogical to give the time of day to more of the same style when there is a likelihood of disappointment. And I do ask for a taste first before committing myself. Give me a mass market beer with some flavour and depth any day, even if it is Abbot or Speckled Hen (same brewery, I believe). But not Tetley or John Smith. Please no.

If you consider I'm moaning and huffing and puffing, fine. I know what I like and dislike.

For the avoidance of doubt, op I am not recommending drinking "all the pale ales out there" as you put i or any of them if you don't want to

I'm recommending you try some of the products many breweries on your doorstep that make beer in a wide variety of styles including traditional session bitters that have been recommended to you, rather than arseaching about a problem that exists solely on your own mind.

I agree with Flo - it's definitely harder to find a good variety of dark beers than pale. And it's been that way for a few years now, regardless of season.

We have a good choice of beer in Sheffield (we're more fortunate than most), but even there most places will have one, perhaps 2 pumps of the dark stuff compared to 6 or more of pale.

Just checked one online - their beer line up from Friday. 9 hand pulls on there. Five pale ale, two IPA, one bitter, one porter. And that's typical.

What a load of nonsense on this thread. I get the sentiment Flo, I really do. But golden/pales are not any cheaper than bitter. If anything it is the opposite. American hops are often more expensive, particularly the 'C' hops. If the English hop industry is struggling it isn't because of them being undercut it is because there is a preference to the american style of beer. It's just unfortunate that it's a style you don't like.

And get thee down to your local Sam Smith's for a good cheap pint of OBB.