On Beer

[Nervous Jock]

Fascinating thread, just a couple of things to add. For our friends across the Atlantic, what you refer to as "warm beers" are the equivalent of the hand-crafted beers you get from the current crop of microbreweries over there. They are called "Real Ales" over here. It is mostly an English phenomenon (although you do see it to some extent in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, probably decreasing in that order). There is even a campaign but I think you need to have a huge beard to join .

Spoken like a true west coaster

[thanmuwa]

Spoken like a true west coaster

Which bit, the bit about the beards or the bit about the popularity of real ale ?

Seriously, I agree with you, which was kind of my point. Real ale is an England-wide phenomenon, quite popular in Wales, popular in Belfast (the major population centre in NI) but has only really taken off on the east of Scotland, not really on the west, which is why I tentatively put Scotland last on my imaginary Real-Ale popularity list.