Flat beer

[Cheetah Designs]

**Larger....Becks Vier to be precise.

I was in a pub/bar the other day and the lad behind the bar has poured a flat beer. I don't know whether it was technique or equipment, but that isn't my gripe.

I said the beer was flat as you could see absolutely no bubbles rising, even when you moved the glass, it looks like apple juice. However there was a head on the drink and the guy tried tried to argue that because there was a head, there was nothing wrong with it.

Now the lady next to him, said it was the glass, snatched the glass off him and poured it into another (still looked flat after she did that) and then refilled it from another tap (guessing the tap was the problem).

Now my question is, is a beer with a head always "not flat", and why do the staff get so ****y when I ask for a proper beer?

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

Is it one of these pubs that give you a 1" head on everything?

 

[pingwing]

Staff get shirty because they have no standards or appreciation for what they are doing, pouring a beer is just a quick earner and drunks complaining about the taste are just drunk cash cows that need to be told to stop mooing and like it

 

[LizardKing]

Most likely the glass widget not being clean enough to work.

 

[postbox]

If you asked for a proper beer, you'd get an ale?

 

[mattyprice4004]

**Larger....Becks Vier to be precise.

proper beer?

Uwot?

 

[Gooner Leroy]

Most likely the glass widget not being clean enough to work.

Yep, definitely the glass widget. Most bar workers especially the young ones really don't know how to work and look after the glass widget

 

[Adsta]

I drink Belgian Beer ! far better in every way.

/end thread

 

[starfighter]

I would have asked for another brand of larger and if that was also flatfor my money back.

Don't put up with flat beer.

 

[Turambar]

**Larger....Becks Vier to be precise.

Like them big eh?

 

[a1ex2001]

Most likely the glass widget not being clean enough to work.

Yep, definitely the glass widget. Most bar workers especially the young ones really don't know how to work and look after the glass widget

Widget or no widget there should still be some bubbles, even in an every day smooth bottom glass there should still be bubbles!

The pub should replace the beir without question, if not you should take your business to one that has an interest in customer service!

 

[pitchfork]

Is it one of these pubs that give you a 1" head on everything?

Can I get a flake with that?

CO2 doesn't dissolve into warm beer and so if their kegs were in a warm cellar (with this warm weather) or had just come out of the heat on to a line they would have flatter beer.
Even if it was cold coming out the other end (because their beer lines go through specialised chillers).

Basically it's poor cellar management, sign of a crap pub.

Nucleated glasses (glass widgets) only aid in the retention of head and carbonation, they won't really do much for increasing the beers carbonation. Although if the glass is washed badly (for example in dish soap) the surfactants and dispersants left in the residue will repel the lipids and proteins in the beer head and make the beer go flat much quicker effectively rendering it useless - common problem in pubs when the dishwasher is knackered.

Even if the glass widget was buggered, in a lager you would expect to see some bubbles rising.

A beer can't have a head without carbonation, but it can with low levels of carbonation (for example Ales are much lower carbed than Lagers).