Blog Tracker
06-07-2023, 07:10
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2023/07/can-you-learn-too-much.html)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMOq404lKF6xakcr7rmIyv5fnO1RM3zXW6U4d4ARnvm4 6geF9Q6jWVPcAIsO3rIP5qMZNnZZo87LLsucwKfHdlh2svaLXs mydcB-Orh6r-KTYaKHPjRSXN2xm-yBrkNJiCirwfauYL-U8b7COGYcj2YNVV2HFIoBJaMa7ePFevSfipjtt-FnY-dGAOBo0/w319-h400/Tetleys_Mild_ad_3.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMOq404lKF6xakcr7rmIyv5fnO1RM3zXW6U4d4ARnvm4 6geF9Q6jWVPcAIsO3rIP5qMZNnZZo87LLsucwKfHdlh2svaLXs mydcB-Orh6r-KTYaKHPjRSXN2xm-yBrkNJiCirwfauYL-U8b7COGYcj2YNVV2HFIoBJaMa7ePFevSfipjtt-FnY-dGAOBo0/s757/Tetleys_Mild_ad_3.jpg)
Just been thinking about one of my favourite beers, ever: Tetley's Mild. A beer I adored in those far off days of my youth. When my legs still obeyed and my lungs weren't fucked.
We have to mention univacs/economisers here. The devices that recycled beer from the drip tray.
I was used to electric dispense when I arrived in Leeds as a scruffy student in 1975. It was almost universal in the Midlands, for both cask and bright beer. (An annoyance right there. Metered electric pumps were ambiguous, being used for both cask and bright beer.) Seeing cask Tetley's dispensed that way wasn't a surprise.
My initial impressions of Tetley's Mild were: pretty deccent, nothing special.
Until me and Matt ventured down into Sheepscar. To a pub surrounded by nothing, called, the Sheepscar. Probably being destined for demolition, they'd let the handpulls be. And the associated economisers. What a revelation.
Tetley's Mild was promoted from a supporting role to a star. Fuck me, it was such a better beer. How could the method of dispense make such a difference?
I cherished every Tetley's pub with handpulls I found. Mostly located in the less fashionable bits of Leeds: Sheepscar, Cross Green and Hunslet, for example.When the Cardigan Arms went from electric to beer engines, their Mild went from decent to amazing. Overnight. No wonder the possible hygiene problems were overlooked.
Tetley was the one bit of the Big Six I had a very soft spot for, not just because of the beer. Also how they didn't fuck up their pubs. When the Big Six swapped pubs in the 1980s, Bass immediately buggered up the pubs they acquired in Leeds. Whereas Tetley very rarely did. Weird that, despite owning almost all the pubs in the city, Tetley and their beers were incredibly popular.
That says to me that the Big Six overall could have pursued a different strategy and still made money. Maybe even more than they did.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KwJuPraO3jqC7xmurC6VlFEeXpOuYDwD0ytR-P37Icko7AbsYSWoOyhiBAEQb_XK9CIF_U4m6ULaqgyA4IHCqdG 4Jxm3M5-lqG_xWfUqwRzZ3SjqH_wRgEiQXYla_8RwopfzYg2skHjMdpfoI KPWhondWefWn4uAF49HfmEOiF8zXpUx_nGucboQmSQ/w300-h400/Tetleys_Mild_beermat.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KwJuPraO3jqC7xmurC6VlFEeXpOuYDwD0ytR-P37Icko7AbsYSWoOyhiBAEQb_XK9CIF_U4m6ULaqgyA4IHCqdG 4Jxm3M5-lqG_xWfUqwRzZ3SjqH_wRgEiQXYla_8RwopfzYg2skHjMdpfoI KPWhondWefWn4uAF49HfmEOiF8zXpUx_nGucboQmSQ/s1485/Tetleys_Mild_beermat.jpg)
I didn't immediately realise, after discovering and then worshipping handpulled Tetley's Mild, exactly why they could so recklessly spill it over the top of the glass. The niceties of serving weren't drawing my attention. Not like that lovely Mild.
That sea of Mild in the drip tray wasn't just there for decorative purposes. As lovely as it looked. (I'm thinking Brassmoulders Arms in Hunslet. Loved the photos of international Rugby League games they had on the walls.) That was getting recycled into your pint.
You know what? I didn't care. The beer only tasted right served that way. Well, the way I liked it. And I think the brewery did, as they reinstated handpulls and univacs in most of their pubs in Leeds.
Recently, I got my hands on the Tetley standards manual from 1985. With too much detail possibly even for me. Lots of the way they were brewing was the same as in 1945, the most recent of their records I've photographed.
The standards say for additions post-fermentation:
"Sterilised beer, 12.5% max, 1031ยบ, racking tank"
I think I know what that means: ullage. Returned beer and all sorts of other crap. The type of thing Watney got up to. Evil brewers like those. That's why their beers were crap.
But, if you talk to brewers, well, almost everyone did it. To one extent or another. Because there was so much money in, essentially, untaxed beer. The tax system hugely incentivised this behaviour. Until they changed the tax to being based on the ABV at the brewery gate.
Does that mean that all beers were crap? No. Objectively, they weren't. Surprisingly.
That Tetley's Mild I loved. Drip ray and ullage combined might have been 20% recycled. How eco-friendly is that?
More than I needed to know? Maybe. Well, no, not at all. It could have been 50% slops and 50% spit, for all I care. The taste was great great. I'm not going to worry about the nicetie of how it was created. Flavour beats everything.
To answer the question in the title. If you can remember that. No. Not in the case of Tetley's Mild. Learning of its faults makes it no less wonderful. Like Maradonna. But less druggy. The truth hasn't spoilt my, retrospective, enjoyment.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2023/07/can-you-learn-too-much.html)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMOq404lKF6xakcr7rmIyv5fnO1RM3zXW6U4d4ARnvm4 6geF9Q6jWVPcAIsO3rIP5qMZNnZZo87LLsucwKfHdlh2svaLXs mydcB-Orh6r-KTYaKHPjRSXN2xm-yBrkNJiCirwfauYL-U8b7COGYcj2YNVV2HFIoBJaMa7ePFevSfipjtt-FnY-dGAOBo0/w319-h400/Tetleys_Mild_ad_3.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMOq404lKF6xakcr7rmIyv5fnO1RM3zXW6U4d4ARnvm4 6geF9Q6jWVPcAIsO3rIP5qMZNnZZo87LLsucwKfHdlh2svaLXs mydcB-Orh6r-KTYaKHPjRSXN2xm-yBrkNJiCirwfauYL-U8b7COGYcj2YNVV2HFIoBJaMa7ePFevSfipjtt-FnY-dGAOBo0/s757/Tetleys_Mild_ad_3.jpg)
Just been thinking about one of my favourite beers, ever: Tetley's Mild. A beer I adored in those far off days of my youth. When my legs still obeyed and my lungs weren't fucked.
We have to mention univacs/economisers here. The devices that recycled beer from the drip tray.
I was used to electric dispense when I arrived in Leeds as a scruffy student in 1975. It was almost universal in the Midlands, for both cask and bright beer. (An annoyance right there. Metered electric pumps were ambiguous, being used for both cask and bright beer.) Seeing cask Tetley's dispensed that way wasn't a surprise.
My initial impressions of Tetley's Mild were: pretty deccent, nothing special.
Until me and Matt ventured down into Sheepscar. To a pub surrounded by nothing, called, the Sheepscar. Probably being destined for demolition, they'd let the handpulls be. And the associated economisers. What a revelation.
Tetley's Mild was promoted from a supporting role to a star. Fuck me, it was such a better beer. How could the method of dispense make such a difference?
I cherished every Tetley's pub with handpulls I found. Mostly located in the less fashionable bits of Leeds: Sheepscar, Cross Green and Hunslet, for example.When the Cardigan Arms went from electric to beer engines, their Mild went from decent to amazing. Overnight. No wonder the possible hygiene problems were overlooked.
Tetley was the one bit of the Big Six I had a very soft spot for, not just because of the beer. Also how they didn't fuck up their pubs. When the Big Six swapped pubs in the 1980s, Bass immediately buggered up the pubs they acquired in Leeds. Whereas Tetley very rarely did. Weird that, despite owning almost all the pubs in the city, Tetley and their beers were incredibly popular.
That says to me that the Big Six overall could have pursued a different strategy and still made money. Maybe even more than they did.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KwJuPraO3jqC7xmurC6VlFEeXpOuYDwD0ytR-P37Icko7AbsYSWoOyhiBAEQb_XK9CIF_U4m6ULaqgyA4IHCqdG 4Jxm3M5-lqG_xWfUqwRzZ3SjqH_wRgEiQXYla_8RwopfzYg2skHjMdpfoI KPWhondWefWn4uAF49HfmEOiF8zXpUx_nGucboQmSQ/w300-h400/Tetleys_Mild_beermat.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KwJuPraO3jqC7xmurC6VlFEeXpOuYDwD0ytR-P37Icko7AbsYSWoOyhiBAEQb_XK9CIF_U4m6ULaqgyA4IHCqdG 4Jxm3M5-lqG_xWfUqwRzZ3SjqH_wRgEiQXYla_8RwopfzYg2skHjMdpfoI KPWhondWefWn4uAF49HfmEOiF8zXpUx_nGucboQmSQ/s1485/Tetleys_Mild_beermat.jpg)
I didn't immediately realise, after discovering and then worshipping handpulled Tetley's Mild, exactly why they could so recklessly spill it over the top of the glass. The niceties of serving weren't drawing my attention. Not like that lovely Mild.
That sea of Mild in the drip tray wasn't just there for decorative purposes. As lovely as it looked. (I'm thinking Brassmoulders Arms in Hunslet. Loved the photos of international Rugby League games they had on the walls.) That was getting recycled into your pint.
You know what? I didn't care. The beer only tasted right served that way. Well, the way I liked it. And I think the brewery did, as they reinstated handpulls and univacs in most of their pubs in Leeds.
Recently, I got my hands on the Tetley standards manual from 1985. With too much detail possibly even for me. Lots of the way they were brewing was the same as in 1945, the most recent of their records I've photographed.
The standards say for additions post-fermentation:
"Sterilised beer, 12.5% max, 1031ยบ, racking tank"
I think I know what that means: ullage. Returned beer and all sorts of other crap. The type of thing Watney got up to. Evil brewers like those. That's why their beers were crap.
But, if you talk to brewers, well, almost everyone did it. To one extent or another. Because there was so much money in, essentially, untaxed beer. The tax system hugely incentivised this behaviour. Until they changed the tax to being based on the ABV at the brewery gate.
Does that mean that all beers were crap? No. Objectively, they weren't. Surprisingly.
That Tetley's Mild I loved. Drip ray and ullage combined might have been 20% recycled. How eco-friendly is that?
More than I needed to know? Maybe. Well, no, not at all. It could have been 50% slops and 50% spit, for all I care. The taste was great great. I'm not going to worry about the nicetie of how it was created. Flavour beats everything.
To answer the question in the title. If you can remember that. No. Not in the case of Tetley's Mild. Learning of its faults makes it no less wonderful. Like Maradonna. But less druggy. The truth hasn't spoilt my, retrospective, enjoyment.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2023/07/can-you-learn-too-much.html)