alt.hn

7/5/2026 at 8:55:47 PM

Pint in England

 https://dispatch-media.com/the-best-pint-in-england/

by gripfx

7/5/2026 at 10:24:56 PM

I reckon East Anglia has the best beer in England. There are so many great local brewers. Adnams is down the road in Southwold and keep putting out brilliant, innovative beers. Then there's Lacons in Great Yarmouth and a host of small names, from Nene Valley Brewery to Mr Winters. If you're in Norwich, check out the Trafford Arms: it's in a nondescript-looking building which was rebuilt after a WWII bomb, but it has a constantly rotating playlist of brilliant ales and a landlord couple who really know their stuff.

by dash2

7/6/2026 at 2:39:05 AM

I’ve always felt beer should be taxed on distance - the further from the brewery, the more expensive.

Beer is easy, every town should have their own.

by bombcar

7/6/2026 at 12:51:58 AM

I love that I see this on hacker news of all places. As an east-anglian I would definitely second this opinion. Times are a bit harder now but there are still so many great breweries.

by jdsnape

7/6/2026 at 1:26:03 PM

For an article about beer it's horribly misinformed.

The most important part first: bewing water

Theres a lot of talk about "gypsum" and "mineral rich" and what it does to the brewing water. Much of it is not exactly wrong per se, but very imprecise. The natural water in Burton is rich in calcium and VERY rich in sulfate (SO_4) but low on sodium. The ratio of sulfate:sodium is responsible for the perception of hops flavour and bitterness.

BUT: "a lot of the lager brewed here makes greedy use of Burton’s gorgeous natural mineral-rich water"

This is plain bullshit. This kind of water is absolutely unsuitable for lager beer, that's why the local beer style is a pale ale.

The thing is: the by far biggest brewery in town (Molson Coors) demineralizes the brewing water and re-adds a mineral mix for different beer styles. This is also the brewery that makes tons of mass market lager beer there. (this is not uncommon in modern breweries, e.g. Flensburger in germany is publicly know to do the same while most german breweries use well water as-is. This is one of the reasons for the differences in beer styles. The german beer market has very little presence of international brands and customers are very sensitive when it comes to brands trying to close actual breweries just putting their badge on beer brewed by another brewery... exactly the type of thing that happened to Brass and other traditional Burton brands)

also: "Sure, the town is now made up of megacorporate monster-breweries pumping out half of the world’s lager"

This is again very imprecise. There is one "megacorporate monster brewery" in Burton - Molson Coors. That brewery is big but not remarkably so, comparable in size to e.g. the Krombacher Brewery in germany. And there are dozens of breweries of that size in Europe alone.

(source: I'm a hobby brewer and also interested in brewing culture and tech)

by kiney

7/5/2026 at 10:09:22 PM

> Walk around Burton and everything is named after beer: Cooper this, Brewer that.

I recently learnt that a "cooper" is someone that makes wooden casks or barrels.

by n4r9

7/5/2026 at 10:29:43 PM

"cooper" derives from the verb "coop", which likely derives from Latin "cūpa", from which we get the word "cup".

by throwrioawfo

7/5/2026 at 11:39:03 PM

Perhaps (citation needed)! Barrel usage in Britain is a lot older than the Roman occupation of Britain. A cup is not a barrel.

If I was to bet, cooper is probably an anglicized form of a brythonic language word. Any Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Cornish or even Cumbric (int al) speakers hanging around here?

by gerdesj

7/6/2026 at 3:22:19 PM

Barrel usage in Britain is old, but we do not have the slightest idea about how barrels and those who make barrels were named at that time. Even much later, by the time of Old English, it is not known whether the word "cooper" was already in use.

Etymonline says about "cooper": "either from Old English (but the word is unattested) or from a Low German source akin to Middle Dutch cuper, East Frisian kuper, from Low German kupe (German Kufe) "cask, tub, vat," which is from or cognate with Medieval Latin cupa."

Old English had the word "tunne" for barrel, hence "ton", which is a word widespread in many European languages and in Medieval Latin (e.g. French "tonne", Gaelic "tunna"), so it is uncertain where it comes from.

The word "barrel" was borrowed into English around 1300 from Old French.

by adrian_b

7/6/2026 at 4:50:43 PM

No need to bet, and NEVER rely on opinions of people about word origins. False etymologies are insanely common.

"Cooper" from Middle Dutch "kūper" (container or tub) from Latin "cupa" (cask or tub).

by IAmBroom

7/5/2026 at 10:17:42 PM

HN auto-title editor strikes again:

"The best pint in England" is the title.

by mmooss

7/5/2026 at 10:46:14 PM

Why is the cropped title HN's fault?

by IndySun

7/5/2026 at 11:56:04 PM

HN auto edits some clickbaity/tropey titles in submissions.

Submitters have a grace period of several minutes to edit them back to anything they want, which will not get autocorrected, but many fail don't. They may not realize it or be too lazy to care, we'll never know. (Personally, I think anyone who considers themselves a "hacker" would at least try to bypass such a primitive system, but I digress...)

Some HNers complain every time that happens, gleefully oblivious to the countless other times the autoedit feature works as advertised.

by airstrike

7/5/2026 at 11:11:29 PM

Probably because "The best X" is generally clickbaity.

by ahartmetz

7/5/2026 at 11:18:10 PM

One of the worst designed features of all time. More problems than solutions with that one

by whynotisay

7/5/2026 at 11:35:00 PM

Why did you create an alt account for this comment?

by wartijn_

7/6/2026 at 1:45:34 AM

I create a new account for every top-level comment, and have for years.

The moderation is so childish on this site I just take their power away.

They are not actually good enough to fully ban by IP or anything else.

by whynotisay

7/6/2026 at 7:21:45 AM

Thank you. You've articulated a common flaw in almost the entire comment-based internet. I'm an idiot and come here to learn, from a genuine curiosity standpoint - that doesn't stop experts behaving childishly though. It's simply far too easy to chide or downvote whilst 'hiding' behind account names, pseudonyms, and by the same token a flood of mob-rule can decimate curiosity in a matter of seconds. It's worse for kids. The best of the best is out there too, the well meaning, the guilty, the innocent, all at once.

by IndySun

7/5/2026 at 9:44:23 PM

If there's one type of beer I didn't associate with Burton on Trent it was lager.

by andybak

7/5/2026 at 10:48:56 PM

[dead]

by nimchimpsky

7/6/2026 at 2:02:54 AM

> a landlord couple who really know their stuff

Old boards with new lords?

Splintered floors? Gaps in doors?

Pay no mind – a fee will do!

Abundance for all, or at least these two.

Feudalism!

by pgisapedo