Southern Beer

Harvey's Best Bitter is the absolute nuts.

Dark Star, Partridge Green, Sussex.

Lovely stuff.

Hophead, for instance, is about as drinkable as washing-up water.

We have the Young's brewery not far from me in Wandsworth, they do decent beers T.D. A local pub that I go to, the Dulwich Wood House sell their brews and they are all pretty good.

https://www.thewoodhousedulwich.co.uk/

Someone will be on here lamenting Fuller's buying out Gales and how HSB has never been the same since

Abbot Ale is a good drink, where's that brewed?

The only good southern beer is from Cornwall imo.

Greetings from Sussex

Message for Jed - Dark Star is a weird Brewery.   I agree with you about Hophead, and many ale drinkers will, BUT it remains their single best selling beer. Which when you think they make fine beers such as Festival and Sunburst is somewhat strange. It is said that Hophead was the main reason Fullers bought them out earlier this year.

To return to the subject, Harveys of Lewes make very fine beer.  The Sussex best is one of the countries best bitters and the Old is legendary - this years launch is 5th October.  Long Man Brewery is good, and Bedlam (next door to me, or was until the very fine vineyard on which they sat needed more space) make some excellent beer.

For the Cider drinkers among you, try to get hold of Silly Moo from Cowfold (geddit!!) - They feed their cattle on the apple press residue, hence the "silly". Their beef is amazingly good as is available on line (Trenchmore Farm)

But good days cooperman, when bitters were dark and didn't taste of Oranges and Elderflower.

Fullers 1865 is a great beer, but then again their standard London Pride is a lovely beer if kept properly and with care - so many places in and around London serve it as their token ale offering and don't bother taking proper care of it, so people assume it's vinegary filth everywhere it's served.

That Dogbolter was a bit lively.. firkin pub in Lewisham

Is that a southern trait - serving beer in dirty glasses?

For many years I considered Timothy Taylor’s Landlord to be a tremendous beer, full of flavour and something to be sought out whenever possible. The last few pints of it however have been so disappointing. At their flagship pub in Skipton, The Woolly Sheep, they served it far too cold and at a couple of other places I found it so bland and tasteless.
The other one they do, boltmaker, I think, was quite good but really not up to the standard of beers that got me drinking real ales.
My guess is that it’s down to mass production and hop pellets being used.
Oh, for those first few pints of Sam Smiths old brewery that I had way back when. Bateman’s and Wards too. Beers that you would go out of your way for.
Strangely one of the best pints I’ve hah in the last few years was in the wAiting room at Manchester’s Victoria Station, a pint of speckled hen. It tasted like proper beer.

Saddo, talking of Cornwall, have you had spingo fro the blue anchor in Heston. Had a great night there on holiday a few years back.

I drink in the midlands and in the sarf

loads of good beer every where and of all sorts of outstanding flavours and ways of presentation