nomenclature.uk.slang
R.B.Hardy
In a pub which I visit about once a week the landlord lists
and serves a bitter which goes by the in-house name: Rabbits Tail (sic).
The bitter is actually Abbot's Ale. The landlord was born, bred,
raised and worked for years in the Chelsea/Fulham area of
(West/SW) London. The term Rabbits Tail is his affectionate
translation of Abbot's Ale into non-standard (because West
London) rhyming slang. The term has been universally adopted
by regulars, and almost universally bewilders tourists,
(who have a difficult time associating a beer with the
back end of a rabbit.)
I see that (only bottled?) Abbot's Ale is known in the US.
Perhaps NA readers find this slang of interest?
The name of the pub is "The Duck Inn." Friendly pub, where
interesting people sometimes gather on weekend nights, after,
say, 9:00. Five minutes away is "The Three Horseshoes."
Both pubs are about ten - fifteen minutes from Canterbury.
Each pub serves a majority of its (non-bottled) beers from the cask.
You could drink five different bitters served from the cask,
and from the tap (i.e., not pumped), between these two pubs.
Other beers are hand-pumped at the Shoes.
Something to watch out for in the UK. Some brewers offer
what are apparently hand-pumped beers, but what are actually
gas-blanketed, with aritificially introduced CO2, N, ??
I think the blanket is maintained at the smallest possible
pressure. A local brewer, Shepherd-Neame, claims that
the taste is not affected. I'd dispute that.
One thing it does do is deprive drinkers
of genial one-up-manship-debates. These centre on
where in the barrel the pints being drunk come from;
they mostly occur in pubs where a barrel might last more
than four less than seven days. The taste changes,
among other things (autolysis, etc.), because
of the oxygen drawn in through the spile-hole. (I think
the spile is the piece of wood which plugs the hole.
There are soft spiles for casks in use; and hard spiles for
transport of the full barrels. Soft means porous. You
can blow through a soft spile, with effort.)
Good drinking.