Across much of the South-West, Sharp’s Doom Bar seems to be the current cask beer of choice to put on the bar. If any pub wants to do something just a little bit “different”, Doom Bar seems to be the beer they go for first. The brewery must have some very good salesmen, because I have to say I find it one of the dullest brown beers around, with nothing distinctive or memorable about it at all beyond a generic “beery” flavour. Other bloggers such as
Tandleman have commented on this before. Butcombe would be infinitely preferable, and to be honest I’d personally much rather have a pint of Courage Best.
It also seems to be very likely to crop up in the kind of pub where it ends up being served just a bit too warm, and with just a slight haze on it, which can’t do its reputation any good. The last example I had in the North-West fell into exactly that category.
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I had a few pints of Doom Bar in Cornwall and liked it a lot (slightly to my surprise, I admit - I'd had it before and found it a bit ho-hum). It's not a world classic, but kept well and served properly it's a perfectly decent brown, malty session bitter. Though I see that Tandleman seems to use 'brown' and 'malt-driven' as terms of abuse, so I guess I won't persuade him!
ReplyDeleteI do quite like malty beers - hell, I'm a fan of Sam Smiths' Old Brewery Bitter - but Doom Bar has never seemed to have anything distinctive about it at all.
ReplyDeleteWadworth's 6X is no hopfest, but in my view that's a fine beer when well kept.
Sharp's dumbed down Doom Bar several years ago. I first had it on holiday in 1995, when it was dark, spicy and around 5 point something ABV. Splendid and mourned...
ReplyDeleteI agree Doom Bar isn't what it used to be. I can remember seeking it out, now I actively avoid it.
ReplyDeleteI make a point of avoiding Doom Bar thesedays. It's a beer that seems to be everywhere at the moment, and I can't quite understand why. I admit to having enjoyed it in the past, but now it just seems rather bland.
ReplyDeleteDoom Bar is, as you say, the beer of choice in many a lazy food-based pub, particularly in much of the trendier parts of London. It seems to have taken over from Deuchars, Landlord and Adnams as a pint with a novelty factors to justify it's £3+ price tag.
ReplyDeleteAs you say, Courage Best would be a much better bet in it's current form.
I'm also not a fan of Doom Bar for the very reasons you suggest. Sometimes I think it's just what a lazy landlord "thinks" the customer wants.
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ReplyDeleteHave to agree with the sentiments expressed above-once an interesting beer worth seeking out, now just another "national bland" - much in the same way that the likes of Deuchars IPA, Taylors Landlord, Youngs Bitter, Pedigree etc have become-altho' admittedly it is possible to find a decent pint of any of the above now and again. Personally, I would nearly always go for the micro-brewery beer, mainly because for many of them, brewing tasty, quality beers is the difference between a successful business and a brief moment in the brewing spotlight.
ReplyDeleteI got a bottle of Doom Bar from Morrisons today. Very attractive bottle with "see-through" plastic labels. Unfortunately, the beer was just the same dull brown glop as the draught version. A less characterful beer is hard to imagine.
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