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    Friday 16 January 2009

    It's Dark


    I don't know which is worse: the bar person who warns you that the mild you've just ordered is dark, or the bar person who pulls the mild and then says "ooh that's dark isn't it?"

    Person number one is perhaps trying to be helpful, but I don't need warning thanks. I usually associate mild with darkness and I'm not frightened by a bit of colour.

    Person number two should know his product. Pulling a beer for a customer shouldn't be the time they discover what that beer actually looks like.

    Maybe I'm a moody old git but both these scenarios wind me up.

    8 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    I notice that whenever I tell someone that when someone orders Timothy Taylor's Golden Best and I tell them it's actually a light mild (everyone thinks it's a bitter) I get strange looks. Jus' tryin' to be helpful, is all.

    I prefer the darker, roastier milds anyway.

    Mark Dredge said...

    I was warned about a Mild being a dark beer a few weeks ago, and it was in an award winning pub! I was slightly incredulous and bewildered. It was Black Dog too, which is a fairly suggestive name. The beer was great though!

    The Woolpack Inn said...

    Person number two is inexcusable.

    When working behind a bar and you get the occasional customer complaining that they didn't know that the beer they had ordered was dark, and if they had know they would not have ordered it, and I should have warned them, and it's all my fault, and they make a big scene about it....you do like to start to let the customer know what they are getting.

    I'd have a little sympathy for person number one.

    It always amuses me when I order a beer and the reply is "A pint?" I often reply "Why, can you serve it in bigger measures?"

    Unknown said...

    It recently took me three attempts to be served the porter I ordered after being given two mid-brown bitters.

    And it not just beer. I once ordered a double espresso and was warned by the kettle-monkey that it was 'a strong black coffee'.

    Fidothedog said...

    Best one is ordering it and the semi trained monkey behind the bar saying "Is it meant to be that colour?"....

    Yes I have heard those exact words.

    Anonymous said...

    I was warned about mild being dark in Asbourne. Only time it's happened to me. Got my own back, asked for beer to be served without a sparkler. "But it'll be flat" she said, "that's how beer is supposed to be I replied".

    Anonymous said...

    I think you are just grumpy.

    Anonymous said...

    Even worse. I ordered a dark mild in my local Wetherspoons once (the exact name of the beer escapes me, although it ended in 'Dark Mild'), only to be handed a light straw-coloured beer. Upon challenging the 18-year-old barman, I was told 'Just because it's called Dark Mild doesn't mean it's *actually* dark. It's just a name you know'. I was utterly speechless.