Quote Originally Posted by AlanH View Post
My lost beers. Some vanished, some ruined, some rare and remembered with nostalgia.

Most Manchester brewers had two milds (Boddingtons, Robinsons, Lees, Hydes)
We travelled for miles to get Robinsons Dark Mild in the last two pubs serving it. We were never disappointed with it.
We used to drink Lees Dark Mild in a pub near work. When they merged their Dark and Light milds into one, it was never as good.
Hydes had Three! milds. A light and mid dark in Manchester and a Black Mild for the Welsh areas. When a Camra member first reopened the Marble Arch, he insisted on the Hydes Black Mild . Maybe nostalgia but we were convinced these black rare milds were superia.
Thwaites Best Mild was superb, but you can't take the Black out of Blackburn (Burns too many holes!)
Wilsons Bitter - The 1974 GBG said "Can be excellent" It was! The same beer in the 80's could have said "Avoid at all costs" Wilsons later admitted they ruined it to save costs.
Boddingtons Bitter - The beer that changed my life (for the better). It was a very pale dull straw colour, almost hazy. When it turned golden and shiny it was gone. Boddingtons ruined it themselves to save money long before Whitbread got their hands on it. That was just the final death sentence.
Pollards bitter. The first of the new breweries in the 70's. We used to drive to Camra's White Gates in Hyde in our lunch (hour!). I bought gallons of it in their Stockport brewing shop.
Hartleys Bitter. Another regular lunchtime trip to the White Gates. When they changed to Hartleys Best Bitter it was not as lunch time slutching.
I was also very partial to Marston's Merry Monk before they gave up brewing (proper) beer.
That's an interesting list. Robinson's Dark Mild was rare as I recall. I do remember the landlord of the Vaynol Arms in Nant Peris telling me about a cask of their light Mild that turned out to be dark It was in fact Old Tom and provided hours of fun for the locals.
I remember getting bottles of Lees Dark from the Morrisons in Loughtom and then they knocked the ABV down to 2.8%. It tasted rubbish like a watered down brown ale and I wrote to the brewery telling them so.
I've never really got along with Hydes but I can't really explain why!! Thwaites were highly rated back in the day and actually opened a pub in North London. For me Wilson's (and Webster's) were tainted by the Watney ownership.
The downfall of Boddington is the first great tragedy in my drinking memory.
I remember that Manchester CAMRA pub but only remember an area called Belle Vue
Owd Roger was always a bigger prize than Merry Monk. I don't really remember much about it!