Foreign Beers

Although not real ale in the traditional English sense many pubs and bars in Birmingham sell a wide range of bottled beers from across Europe. Most of these will be from Belgium or Germany. The beer styles range from pale pilsener style through fruit beers to dark and sour lambic beers. Belgian beers in particular tend to be much stronger than a traditional English ale. Strengths of 7% and 8% are common and even strengths of 10% and 11% are not rare.

Most of the Belgian beers are "bottled conditioned". This means that the beer hasn't been pasteurised and filtered before it's bottled, so it's still a living thing. As a result the beers contain sediment, this can make the beer appear cloudy. It is true that this can affect the flavour of the beer and not always for the worst. Some people enjoy the beer with the sediment whilst others not. The key is to experiment with what suits your taste.

How to Pour Belgian Beers

Pouring Belgian beers is the key to whether or not you get the sediment in your glass.

Most Belgian beers come with their own special (and somewhat fancy) glass. These are important, if you don't have the correct glass use a large wine glass with a stem.

The bottle needs to be treated gently, don't shake the bottle, this will stir up the yeast sediment in the bottle and leave you with no choice whether to drink the beer with the sediment.

Hold the glass at least at a 45 degree angle and slowly pour the beer in a continuous stream with the neck of the bottle almost touching the rim of the glass. The larger the angle you hold the glass the less head you will have.

Ideally you want about an inch of head on your beer. It is not necessary to pour the whole bottle in the glass in one go however it may disturb the sediment if you don't.

Finally all that is left is to enjoy your drink