[colinramsay]

In the UK there's a definite sentiment that a cloudy pint is a bad or off pint. I've seen a few breweries that specifically label their beer as "unfined" to make sure people know what to expect.

I do find the slight distaste of fish bladders in this article a bit baffling though.

[talldan]

Not sure I agree with that. There's the same attitude pretty much everywhere, its not any more prevalent in the UK. Lager the whole world over has the same sort of clarity.

In fact, the UK has a stronger craft beer and real ale scene than many other countries, so I'd say there are a lot of people here willing to drink a cloudy glass.

It's much more likely that the continued use of Isinglass is due to tradition, and no great desire to change an existing product/process.

[forlulz]

For a long time, in the UK at least, clarity just is more visually appealing. In the past the role of the cellarman was much more hands-on; there was a time where beer was unfined leaving the brewery and fined on delivery once casks were put in place. Much of this art is disappearing, but it has been a while that the beer has been designed to be clear. With that, the bottom of casks are murky with yeast (since filtering is uncommon) and isinglass - which may make you ill (it tastes bad too) so cloudy beer has been associated with off beer or the end-of-cask.

I've tried serving a cask wheat beer which was rejected purely by appearance in the past.

Mind you, things have been changing rapidly in 5/6 years and many breweries make their tasty products without isinglass (or vegan-friendly alternatives+). Some choose to be fairly close to pin bright and others less so - depends on many things like more flocculant house yeast, etc.

I can say that around 5 years ago, a brewery made the decision to switch to being unfined for flavour - and their products were cloudy then onwards. It was difficult to 'sell' then, but now it's a commonplace. And yes, a pub did an informal experiement: flavours were altered with the addition of isinglass but from a general public opinion was divided in which they preferred (almost 50/50)

+ not necessarily equivalent. Some products are introduced during the brewing process, not after

[colinramsay]

Oh I wasn't saying it was necessarily more prevalent, just that it's something that I've seen in person.