Forbidden Beer

mcshugart,

You're probably referring to Scrumpy, which is an English Cider. If it's the show I'm thinking of, that's the one where Rick paid a visit to Mr. Wilkin's Land's End Farm. This might be the one....

http://www.somersetmade.co.uk/oldscrump/ciderfarms/wilkins.php

You can watch Rick's visit to the Wilkin's farm on this website, in either Real Media or Windows Media.....

http://www.ricksteves.com/tvr/clips/britain.htm

Cheers!

Probably Scrumpy, a cider mostly from the West Country, but the potency and fighting business is another urban myth.

It's runs less than ten percent alcohol by volume - - vodka is forty or fifty.

Bulmers (Herefordshire) sells it, I think,. They're either owned by Henikens or by everwho owns them.

It tastes like crap.

Actually, I've heard the story applied to all cider in general, Scrumpy is just the worst tasting of the lot. Just about any pub has a cider handle of some kind.

You may be talking about a drink called a "Snakebite". It's a mix of Cider and Beer, mostly cider, and usually a higher ABV beer.

You can probably find all kinds of theories and stories on the web regarding it, most attesting to some type of chemical reaction or other nonsense. My own unsubstantiated theory is that the taste is just sweet and smooth, encouraging you to just drink more...equating crazy with drunk leading to fighting and arguing.

I think the actual "banning" is more story than fact and you can probably have one served many places.

Special Brew? Tennants Super?

Supermarkets in some towns are banned from selling ultra-strong lagers, but it's less due to fighting than to dissuade skid row drunks from congregating in the area.

Might be "wreck the hoose ,juice"
Buckfast tonic....notorious in West central scotland

Bulmers, Strongbow, Magners and other mass-produced brands are all boggo-standard pub ciders; calling any of them scrumpy is like calling a sales-rep Mondeo a monster truck. Fine in their place but give me a Westons vintage or Rattler any day.
It is possible to get scrumpy legit if you look hard enough but most is illegal. But not because of strength - because it's undeclared and no tax has been paid. And at 6-8% abv, it may be 1/5th the strength of spirits but it takes a special kind of nutter to neck a pint of vodka whereas a gallon jug of scrumpy goes down very easy. If you don't take care you'll need pouring into a cab at chucking out!
If you find proper under-the-bar scrumpy stay near the loo the next day though. It'll be rough as, fermented in a plastic bin in the back of the barn where the vet won't see it, and unpasteurized. This will likely give newbies a certain amount of - how shall I put this - 'gastric distress'...

Here's a transcript from the Heart of England and South Wales episode:

Rick: You know, I'd love a scrumpy, do you have scrumpy here?
Bartender: We certainly have.
Rick: Why don't many pubs actually serve this farmhouse cider?
Customer: Makes people fight.
Rick: Is that right, changes the clientele?
Customer: It makes them very angry. If you're going to be that way, inclined, if you're going to be violent it'll make you that way.
Rick: This brings out the violence in a person inclined to violence.
Customer: No question about that.
Rick: I'm a lover, not a fighter.
Customer: There you go, too much of that and you won't be.*

A friend brewed a batch and we called it fightin' juice.