Sparkler/No Sparkler

[Mike Neilson]

Make up your own mind? Me im a Beer pump sort of a guy I dont like any blockages that are going to disturb my flow of beer!!

[JoKing]

Yeah - I had plenty of condition on my Levitation Ale... so that was cool. But, I was talking to Martin Townshend today and was gonna grab a bag of Cathcarts off of him, but he said they get a bit flat in the bag. So I figured a sparkler would be the ticket. Plus - I was thinking I could re-use the bag... meaning that the sparkler would be a go. You dont have to squeeze the shit out of the pump and force the living shit out of it - just enough to form a cap on top. Nice?

I've never been to the UK before - so can't be fucked with the politics behind it all... At the end of the day - whats wrong with it so long as you get the desired result?

Plenty of life in the Ale - dont need one. A bit flat - better screw it on. It's all good.

Having said that though - I'm not sure that I've had an Ale pulled through a sparkler - better start paying more attention!

[Reviled]

" I'm not sure that I've had an Ale pulled through a sparkler "

Im pretty sure Fuggles at the Cock n Bull is pulled through a sparkler from memory??

[Stu McKinlay]

if you have been to Galbraith's then you have... I can't remember what the standard at Twisted Hop is.

[Glynn Foster]

On vague memories, I think they usually serve with the sparkler on - but you can of course ask to take it off.

[Stu McKinlay]

No need to apologise Jo… I generally prefer the sparkler, and northern style darker bitters. And I'm proud of it.
so fuck you all!

[best further debated over a beer, or three, I reckon.]

[Patrick]

I spent a bit of time working in pubs around the UK, the sparkler seems to be a northern thing, the argument is the foam reduces the bitterness so the northern beers are over-bittered to compensate for the sparkler's effect, whereas the milder southern beers can be ruined by being served this way.

Sounds like a load of bollocks to me, but there you go.

[kier]

I'm a fan of the sparkler on a real ale - so long as it's poured from the bottom up via the swan neck. Get it right and the beer 'folds' as it's poured - meaning it has to settle in the manner of a nitrogen pumped stout and creates a denser head foam.

It is definitely a north/south divide. I never saw sparklers on real ale taps until I went to live in York in 1991.