Fizzy Bitter
A word on the controversy which has been going on in The Times letters column about the
state of the nation's beer. It is of course a scandal that the brewers (with the connivance of the publicans, it must be added) should make good cask bitter a thing of the past. But the process has gone much further than most town-dwellers seem to realise. They, poor deluded creatures, think that if you can get far enough away into the country you can be sure of the old-fashioned stuff. Not a bit of it. A friend of mine recently spent a few days in the Constable country (not, incidentally, at East Bergholt) and at a village pub was offered a choice of two fizzy canned bitters. At another pub he couldn't get any mild. Indeed the disap- pearance of mild—in any form—seems to me as reprehensible as the disappearance of cask bitter. Mild is an excellent drink whether on its own or mixed with bitter or stout. But the brewers appear to think that it's not quite nice. At most London pubs with any pretensions to gentility it is unob- tainable.
QUOODLE
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