For one, I agree with you that the Americans are getting more sophisticated in their beer selection. No doubt, they too are tired of drinking bottles of Bud.

I also agree that the big distributors like Bass pretty much dominate the market and dictate the stock.

This is where I disagree: if you look around, you will find that there are a number of bars and pubs in London that serve an excellent selection of beers, from the Belgium greats to the international boutique micro brews.

Remind me to take you to one… Until then, I’ll enjoy a bottle of Scotland’s Innis & Gunn.

The places you speak of, are they mainly chains, like ‘Belgo,’ or primarily independents?

I’m not a big consumer of them mself, but they are the “differentiator” that pubs ought to be looking for

the reason they cannot do it is that staff training is so awful, because retention is so bad, because pay is low and loyalty doesn’t exist … except for a few locations.

the US has, possibly counter-intuitively, more independent outlets (whether by state or locally), whilst the UK is totally dominated by chains hell bent on profit maximisation

but if you can find a place selling real ale (check out the CAMRA approved sites) you’ll get much greater variation and authenticity

My personal favourite (at the moment!) - Arcadia, in Headingley. No crap beer at all and both German beers and real ales on draft, world beers in bottle - something for everyone!

Granted, I’m no expert in this field. We had some reservations about running the piece for that reason, but Sean said, ‘let’s see what happens…’

I guess my complaint still remains: why must I search for these places?

Why can’t all these brilliant pubs be located next door to my house?

Sadly, my local closed recently, and it is a blight on my street — all boarded up and painted brown… but then it closed for reasons unrelated to beer selection. Turns out it was too rowdy and the landlord had simply had enough.

Perhaps a selection of lagers helps fuel uncivilised behaviour. But that is a whole other blog entry.

See you Tuesday.

What you describe is exactly what I feel this town lacks… so the piece would probably be better titled: ‘The Lousy Lagers of London.’

Right now, I have a bottle of Innis & Gunn, as per Sean’s advice, and find it truly outstanding. The nice vanilla hints are a surprise to me.

But the bottle seems too small.

Guess there’s no pleasing some people.