Sausages And Beer Anyone?

A question I am often asked is “What beer goes well with sausages?”

The obvious answer is a good quality English real ale.  A marriage made in heaven, like Peter Andre and Jordan.

 

“But the supermarket’s sold out of Plume’s Old Knob!  And there’s no Cockin’s Greasy Choirboy Light Ale left either!”  Where do you go from there?  Thinking laterally, sausages are a staple of the Great English Barbie, and what beer is handed out at 99.2% of barbies?  Foster’s lager.

 

You’re now looking at plundering the European lager section for the perfect accompaniment for your bangers.  And there you experience another conundrum....”Which European country makes the best beer to drink when you’re eating sausages?”

It’s a serious question.  Hence the latest cutting edge investigation by the fearless Rate My Sausage team.

Welcome, gentlemen, to the “Which European Country Makes The Best Beer To Drink When You’re Eating Sausages Challenge”. 

We invented an extremely complex and subjective scoring system, which we think fitted the nature of the debate.  Beers were purchased from BEERS Of Europe, which is situated conveniently around the corner from Rate My Sausage HQ.  Sausages were provided by Lynda Clark, who harvested them from some of the best butchers in Lincolnshire.

The scores are awarded in the following categories:

Alcohol By Volume:  Does exactly what it says on the, errrm, bottle.  Points awarded equate to the number on the label.

Flavour: We’re not complete heathens, so we chose to award a maximum of 10 points depending on how delicious the lager was.

Head: We all like good head, in a beer, so there are up to 5 points available, depending how long the head lasts.

Looks:  Does the bottle look sexy?  Inviting?  Do you want to guzzle the contents?  Up to 5 points for grabs.

Is It Better Than Fosters?  It’s a simple question.  Is the beer better than the default English barbie drink?  2 points if it is, -2 if it isn’t.

Beer/Sausage Compliment Factor (BSCF): Does the drink mix well with the sausage?  No point buying it if it doesn’t!  Up to 5 points on offer.

Do Flies Like It?  Flies are pretty bloody disgusting creatures, we all agree.  But they have a good nose for lager, and you often have to hoik them out of your pint.  So, an extra point awarded for every fly that dives into the beer.

The draw for the order of tasting was made by landlord Ian of The Woolpack pub.  Let battle commence!

Note:  The comments are reproduced verbatim from notes made during the tasting.  In vino veritas was our aim.  Bold text indicates a comment made after the event.