447 BARRELS OF BITTER BEER.

Shannon News, 6 February 1923, Page 3

447 BARRELS OF BITTER BEER.

A wonderful lesson in corr.cl.; beer drinking was given ut the* Dr ewers’ Exhibition at. the Agricultural Hall, Islington, recently, when twentyone beer judges threw • baci: their shoulders and began sipping samples from 447 of draught bitter. > II! was a solemn moment. There Was ho four-ale-bar gusto about it. No man dashed at Ids tankard, cried ‘ ‘Cheerio! ” Hung back liis head, put down the 'empty tankard, and said, ‘ < Same again! > > That would have been condemned as mere amatourishness. The professional beer-drinker approaches a Barrel cautiously, taps It with a little hammer, listens to it a moment, and if he hears any hops inside' swiftly drarvs a glassful before

they have time to take alarm.- - He then adjusts his horn-rimmed glasses, and holds,the beer up to the light.. Some experts .walk away, from the beer and. look at it from a distance, others take an olive and eat it veij slowly. Then, with the solemnity of a guest having a glass of sherry at a funeral, they raise the glass and take just a sip of beer, wvlnch / they roll over the palate. The ‘ ultra-modern school frankly gargles with'the beer. Ho judge swallows it. Beer judging is tw T ice as difficult today as it wuis before the war, because . modern beer is so much more elusive. Even lifelong experts are now and then puzzled-by it. A" tremendous sensation was created by the discovery of• a hop in a r ‘'saifiplb. drawn from a barrel. It was a wellnourislicd, adult hop. and experts gathered from all ends of the hall to examine it. Some of them shook their heads and looked grave.