Jan and John Maggs Antiques

An Anglophile's Guide for Americans Traveling in The United Kingdom

Part 1: The Pub -- an English ale primer

Everard's, a fine Leicester brewery.

To get to the roots of the English culinary experience, one should first get to know the pub (short for 'public house') and -- the mainstay of pub life -- the pint of bitter. At the beer event we attended a year ago at the University of Pennsylvania, beer authority Michael Jackson spoke of a fellow Englishman who informed him that he didn’t care for American beer. When asked what American beers he had tried, the man replied, “I don’t know; I just ask for a beer.” Michael’s response was, “When you go to a restaurant, you don’t say, ‘I’d like some food,’ do you?” We hope that the information below will help the casual beer drinker to make more educated choices while in the UK.

The bar at The Old Swan in Notting Hill Gate

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