Thats b******d it.

[Mobyduck]

Just been thinking about some well known beers from the past much loved (by some),that have been victims of brewery takeovers, I cant think of any that have improved, unfortunately the reverse. here are a few there are many others I know.
Doom Bar-totaly mundane now,
Young's Bitter (ordinary) ,never been the same
Young's Special, ditto,
Gales H.S.B. still a very good beer, but as good?
Old Speckled Hen,not for me now,
Old Thumper ? not tried this since Marston's takeover of Ringwood so cant comment,
Fosters only joking but you get the Idea.
Anyone got any success stories? I suspect more tales of woe.

[Quinno]

Doom Bar-totaly mundane now.

Disagree - a good pint of Doom Bar is still a winner...just finding one these days is the problem. The London Pride dilemma, expansion over quality.

As to going downhill...well I don't think the Thornbridge beers I've had over the past 18 months are a patch on those of the 2009/10 vintage.

[Mobyduck]

Disagree - a good pint of Doom Bar is still a winner...just finding one these days is the problem

I agree ,a good pint of Doom Bar is a very nice pint,I just haven't found one in at least the last 18 months ,I just wonder if such a thing still exists? I wonder if Gill has found one whilst down in Cornwall?

[Aqualung]

In my experience tbe beers in the Marstons stable remain as good as I can remember. I don't believe they have messed with the recipes at all. I haven't tried Pedigree for a while but I have memories of pretty poor pints of it in North Wales in the 70s and 80s. I recently had a pint of Old Thumper in an N4 Spoons and it was fine. They seem to be allowing their numerous breweries to keep brewing independently from the Burton master.

Compare this to Greed Kerching with the likes of Ruddles County and Old Spotty Boiler which are just a joke. They don't deserve to keep the name from where they originated. I haven't tried GK Ridleys but I doubt if it resembles the original brew.
The only brewery that GK kept going is Belhaven, mainly for keg beers aimed at the whisky drinking Scots that just want a half of keg beer to go with their whisky. In this respect they are no better than the Scottish breweries that were part of the Big Six in the bad old days.

Belhaven still apparently make beer for Maclays beers. In the old days I believe that Maclays and Belhaven were the only independent Scottish brewers. Their beers don't match up to the quality of the new Scottish micros and that includes Caledonian who are now really a major Scottish brewer.

As for Youngs then I think they have completely sold out. This started years ago when they got rid of the public bar in the Windmill on Clapham Common. Youngs Special is a shadow of its former self and as for Wells, there beers are really nothing special.

As for Hall and Woodhouse just don't get me started!

[gillhalfpint]

We had a decent Doom Bar in the Admiral Benbow in Penzance last month, but I have to admit I see so much of it I usually have a go at other beers if available.

Old Thumper was fantastic at the Red River Gwithian a couple of weeks ago, but that was aided by a thirst following a walk of around 7 miles trying to follow the Red River Valley from Poole to Gwithian.

[oldboots]

The stand outs for me, other than the cruel jokes played by Greene King, are HSB, which I think changed for the worse in 1979 (they switched from whole to pellet hops) rather than anything Fullers did later, London Pride which is Fullers fault and Pedigree which also appears to be the expansion over quality thingy that Quinno mentions, again that dates back years to their expansion.

Some of the changes could be down to changes in materials (whole V pellet hops, sticky yeast or that stuff Marstons uses), changes in equipment (conical V round/square fermenters) or changes in dispense (the almost universal change to the swan-neck, narrow bore pipework). There have also been changes in methodology especially filtering out a lot of yeast then reseeding as part of an attempt to make cask beers easier to handle by poorly trained cellar staff. I wont mention my ageing taste buds as some beers, Landlord for example, taste to me exactly as they did 30 years ago.

[AlanH]

For me, the biggest fall from grace must be Boddingtons. It's reputation and cult following in the '70's was immense. The first pint would "take the roof of your mouth off" but would condition your tastebuds so that you wanted many more.
The colour was also very unusual at the time, being the same colour as lager but very dull and straw like, rather than a polished sparkling look. When it started to get that shiny gold look, things were already on the slide. A "popular" bland taste gradually took over before Ewert Boddington decided to take the money and run.
It actually improved slightly when Hydes were brewing it, but nowhere near as good as it's peak.

One beer that has improved since the '70's must be Holts. A good pint was available then, but inconsistency both from the pub cellar and the brewery meant that most people would not touch it.
As quality improved, it soon took over from Boddingtons as the cult beer that everyone sought out. It is still my "desert island beer" (see 'Desert Island Brewery' thread by Mobyduck).

[oldboots]

For me, the biggest fall from grace must be Boddingtons. It's reputation and cult following in the '70's was immense.

Likewise Ruddles, totally trashed by Grand Metropolitan, better known as Watneys (or Grotneys)

[Aqualung]

For me, the biggest fall from grace must be Boddingtons.

I totally agree.

Ruddles County lives on as far as I'm concerned in the shape of Everard's Old Original. To me it always tastes just like County as I remember it. The bottled 4.7% GK Ruddles County tastes like Abbot to me (I tried it when Morrisons were knocking it out for a quid, which is about all it's worth).

[Brakslover]

Having drunk Brakspears for the best part of 50 years, I am delighted to say that in my view Brakspears Bitter is now as good as ever. The sometimes variable quality of the past, is now exactly that - ie. mostly a thing of the past.