Bottle Conditioned Beers

Beers are produced by soaking malted barley in hot water to extract the sugars so that the yeast can take in the sugars as food, give off carbon dioxide and deposit alcohol as a by-product of their life. Most beers have been pasteurised and totally cleansed of yeast, carbonated and put in a container, be it keg, plastic, bottle or what ever. The contents will be dead!

Many years ago we could get bottled beer that was still alive and kicking, having had the yeast allowed into the bottle (or reintroduced as a different strain) so that a secondary fermentation could occur in the bottle.

Bottle conditioned beers (BCB's) could be allowed to age like a fine wine. The law requires that bottled beers have a "sell by" or "best before" date but this can be meaningless to something that improves with age. Indeed, certain bottle conditioned beers are only at their best after several years. Such beers have a natural sediment and require a steady hand when pouring - unless of course you like the sediment. Worried? Don't be. The sediment is only brewers yeast, something you would have to pay for in a health shop!

Many public houses around the province could never have the custom for real ale served from a cask via a hand pump. However, they did have a growing custom for bottle conditioned beers that could sit on the shelf for a long time while it just got better. Worthington White Shield was the mainstay of campaigns many years ago by the N. Ireland CAMRA branch. Many pubs who stocked such beers went on to serve cask conditioned ale. In those days there were only a few BCB's. Today they number in several hundred! If you are interested then try the latest edition of Jeff Evans book "The Good Bottled Beer Guide" available from CAMRA.

I, for one, would like to see BCB's brought back to the province's pubs, clubs and restaurants - not just off-licenses. If I ever get enough time then I guess I will have to start a one man campaign.

If anyone remembers White Shield in pubs or at the Belfast Beer Festivals and would like to see it (or any other BCB) back in vogue then feel free to send me an email.

REAL ALE IN A BOTTLE ACCREDITATION SCHEME

CAMRA have a Real Ale In a Bottle (RAIB) scheme running and can be found at RAIB. The page is revamped with less information but to include cans.

WAS BOTTLE CONDITIONED BEER POPULAR IN THE PROVINCE?

I think the following list, compiled for the N. Ireland branch Newsletter in the mid 1990's, and confirmed by Bass (Ireland) at the time, says it all. Although you can get foreign sedimented beers in some bars (and off-licences), sadly, there are no more on-license outlets for UK BCB's that I am currently aware of. Here is the "once upon a time" list. READ THEM AND WEEP!