Beer

Up until last night I was a saddo. Going to the pub was a solo affair, sitting self-conciously at the bar trying to have a conversation with a busy barman and attempting to avoid looking like someone with no friends. I inevitably failed, as the barman would be more interested in talking to the group of female students down the other end of the bar, and said group of females would view me with undisguised contempt. But not anymore, haha! Last night I went to the pub with a bonafide group of 'people I met'. OK, so they were physicists and I'm probably still a saddo but at least I was a saddo in company. The department had held a party in order to welcome the new PhD students and afterwards a few students and I (I was the only staff member to go out) went to the pub. We first went to The Dugout, which is a scruffy studenty place over the road from my office, and from there we repaired to the Boston Beer Works which is a "brewpub" (i.e. they brew their own beers) situated next to the Fenway Park baseball stadium.

Now, there are various issues with suppin' a pint in the States:

The first is getting someone to go with you, and as you have probably gathered this isn't the easiest of tasks. If you are lucky enough to entice an American to the pub for a beer it will probably be for just that - a beer. More likely it will be for an iced tea or some other abomination.

Second, you need to get into the pub, and without some form of ID (it has to be American or a passport) you won't get in. This country has some strange topsy-turvy laws. At 18 you're old enough to enter the military and die for your country but you can't buy a pint. So I have to carry my passport with me until I obtain a Massachusetts driving licence, which isn't ideal. Anyway, in some respects being 27 and asked for ID in a pub is quite nice!

Third, whatever beer you order, you won't get a pint of it. It might look like a pint glass (the US pint is slightly smaller than the British pint), but it won't be full as the theivin' buggers have a habit of leaving the top inch empty. I have found it best to order a '20oz' beer and make sure they fill it to the brim (this is the Yorkshire Tea Party blog afterall!).

Fourth, whether you've ordered a pint of ale or lager it'll be cold and fizzy. Why this is the case I don't know, but cold and fizzy bitter is just, well, I don't know it's just... wrong! And US beer is generally too hoppy for my taste, but at least they try and I do appreciate the range of beers they have here. I was surprised to find that I can buy Boddingtons, Bass or Guinness in most pubs, but to be honest I'd rather have a good local brew like Sam Adams than a bad imported one.

Finally, the dark art of tipping. I just haven't got used to it yet - the concept of tipping a barman for opening a tap for thirty seconds and then extending his arm to put the full glass on the bar is just strange. I know all the arguments about the wages being poor and the bar staff depending on the tips for money etc. but for me a tip should be an optional payment for good service, not a mandatory payment for them doing their job adequately. In other words, they should get paid more in the first place. The result for the punter is that if you don't tip at the bar, you won't get served by that barman again. Ah, but then, how much does one tip? A dollar (or two) per visit, a dollar per drink, fifteen or twenty percent of the bill? I haven't figured it out yet so I just ask the native I'm with - oh, that's assuming I did manage to get one into the pub in the first place.

The result of all this is that simply ordering a pint is a minefield for the unsuspecting Yorkshireman. Happily, it's one that I'm prepared to brave as many times as it takes for me to become good at it.