Sparklers - Friend or Foe?

I recently visited a wonderful Badger Ales pub in Salisbury called the New Inn, a traditional atmosphere and serving Badger Ales at their best. Its a long time since I had a pint of Tanglefoot on draught, but I've always enjoyed this beer so a chance not to miss. When it arrived my wife promptly said it looked flat, insipid and unappetising. She had a point, it had virtually no head, just a little froth. However on tasting then wow! The flavours literally torpedoed my taste buds as it was full of CO2 and condition.

Tanglefoot is a fine beer indeed and often overlooked. However it was served in the traditional manner, no swan neck and above all else, NO sparkler. The latter is what I have a growing dislike for. Designed to add a head to the beer and mainly originating from northern England, the sparkler became all the rage as the fashion for smooth-flow beers grew in the 1990's and people drank with their eyes. The most famous head of which was probably the "Cream of Manchester", Boddingtons Bitter.

Now its certainly true that people do drink with their eyes, we use all our senses when we enjoy beer and a pint with a creamy head can look great to some. However, the sparkler has a huge impact on flavour as well as its impact on looks and can dramatically alter the taste.

The sparkler works by forcing the beer through tiny holes in the sparkler as the beer is poured. The effect is the carbonation in the beer is forced into the head of the beer and not within the body of the beer. The result on flavour is that CO2 enhances bitterness so the if the beer has less, it can taste soapy, soft and a little flat. Less CO2 also means all those lovely fruity hop flavours the brewers have worked so hard to install in the beer are not as evident as they should be, so the sparkler has changed the character of the beer.

Depending on your viewpoint the sparkler has a negative or positive financial effect. The large head it generates can lead to a pint that has less than the 95% of beer in a brim full 20oz glass. Very bad news for the customer, but great news for the licensee and the pub owner as yields and profits go up. No wonder some pub groups have a policy that sparklers must be used!

The Sparkler

The large head can also have an impact on glass design and choice. Long slim glassware with narrow heads can make the effect of the sparkler worse, meaning more head and less beer. Some licensees find these styles of glasses generate more wastage as they try to compensate for the large head by over-pouring. The net effect is the long slender elegant glass is not liked for this reason so beer drinkers are stuck with a choice of conical style glasses.

Finally, with the fashion to load beers with masses of hops, they are naturally heavily conditioned so they generate a head in their own right when being poured through a swan neck dispense. Hence there is no need for a sparkler.

I'm sure by now you have guessed I am very much against the sparkler, I believe it ruins the true taste of the beer and can make if flat. It compromises glass choice and often means I don't get the full pint I've paid for so its unfair. I don't always agree with CAMRA and their policies but on this one they've got it spot on.