Breweries

[slimjim]

I'm a keen ale drinker but believe that a lot of the breweries these days do not operate to a good ethos. What breweries should I seek out/avoid? Basically, which breweries care most about the quality of their beer and the quality of their pubs? And which ones concentrate on other things (like making money from food/accomodation, or over-controlling their landlords, or creating identikit pubs, or brewing poor-quality rubbish)?

[Bob...]

See here http://tinyurl.com/6jatsall listed breweries are worth checking out. Best bet is to try and find a free house.

[splodger]

Black Sheep Brewery should be admired for going it alone when the Theakston's Brewery was taken over. Harvey's of Lewes make a cracking beer and their pubs are very good too. I'm not fond of Weatherspoon's as every one I visit has a congealed chip and four peas in the ashtray. I think it's company policy.

[sapphie]

If you want to find good local pubs then buy CAMRA's Good Beer Guide. Don't buy the similarly named Good Pub Guide, where pubs csn buy their way in, or are in for food or family faclities etc. Let us know what area you are from slimjim and I'll let you know your local indi breweers and a few good pubs.

[slimjim]

I live in West Berkshire and also spend a lot of time in Edinburgh.

[Bob...]

Heres a list of pub within your area

http://tinyurl.com/6gbsv

[SKCOLL]

Try to find the Heather Ale Company stuff - Fraoch, Kelpie, etc - rare on draft but some good pubs will have bottles.

[New Forester]

Frioch, heather ale to a pictish recipe - I had some of that last week -- lovely. I like the phrase on the label: "Brewed in Scotland for 2000 years". I agree about Harveys. Ringwood brewery is also very good (last night I could smell the malt on the wind). And I've only just this moment realised that "New Forester" is one of their brews, so now I know where I got the moniker. You could also brew your own -- it's not too hard to make a good traditional ale from kits or proper ingredients, and you'll know where it's come from. Generally, the smaller the brewery the better. Some pubs nowadays have their own microbreweries, and also some microbreweries let you make your own batch with their kit.