Overdriven, after a while (3 years) of living in south west, its a bit tiring seeing the only drinks in pubs are ciders, sometimes with a lager. (Which I absolutely hate)
I don't know which pubs you frequent, but when ever I've gone down there they have had a decent range of beers/ales, dark, light, cider ect ect. I particularly like Doom bar (bitter from Sharp's brewery
http://www.sharpsbrewery.co.uk/).
Its too expensive to get drunk off of cider, you need like 10 bottles. Atleast with the ciders i had experience with
Normal cider yes. But get yourself some scrumpy. It's cheaper and stronger than normal cider. Tastes nicer to.
If any one can get hold of it, I recommend the program that Oz Clarke and James May did on British alcohol. It was very very interesting.
On the note of mixing fruit with beer, I tried some banana beer not long ago. It was actually very tasty, like normal beer but with a hint of banana.
It's made by Well's, who make the Bombardier beer I like so much:
http://www.bombardier.co.uk/http://www.wellsandyoungs.co.uk/ http://www.wellsandyoungs.co.uk/home/our-beers/ales/wells-banana-bread-beerAh I forgot to list London Pride, another good, and common, ale. Can be found in almost any pub.
http://www.fullers.co.uk/rte.asp?id=47