An excellent
beer (
real ale) if kept right, warm and
rich, but so sensitive to bad handling that it is, in the average
pub, horrible. It is both the best and the worst beer I have ever
tasted, and I wouldn't recommend trying it first in a pub you don't know. See how they keep their other beers then, if they're good,
go for a Burton.
That old slang expression meaning to disappear, to go out somewhere, may derive from the attractive properties of Burton beer. It is an old variety, and is of course brewed in Burton on Trent, one of the traditional brewing centres of England - possibly because of the quality of its water.
I can't quote the exact figures, but it was formerly rated at about 4.5% or 4.6%, until they realized that fermentation in the barrel brought it up to something more like 4.8% or more, which is how it feels.
For many years I lived on Burton. Far too much of it. At one point they tried to introduce a lower-alcohol version, and used my favourite pub as a test site, because they did so much of it. My friends and I simply boycotted the place, with apologies to our friend the landlord, for three weeks, until they withdrew the muck.
They have again largely withdrawn the original Burton, and it's much harder to come by these days. Bastards.