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Thread: Lost Beers

  1. #11
    Get some gravy on it. Maldenman's Avatar
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    Hi Alan, I can't say I took to Pollards at all, at the time it was certainly a novelty, being a new brewery in a time when such things were rarely heard of, but it tasted earthy and twiggy. I'm sure you could get it at the Coach and Horses opposite Piccadilly Stn Approach and there was also a pub in Salford I recall.
    Agree about Hartley's before Robbies got hold of it, many a hazy lost weekend in the South Lakes on their stuff.
    Ok, maybe just for one......................

  2. #12
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    As a teenager I always liked Double Diamond but have recently read that they also brewed a version in Alloa called Diamond Heavy so might have been a different beer.

  3. #13
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    This is a lost beer.I was given two bottles of Gales -Last Drop.I drank one and kept one but I somehow must have drank the second one as I have checked the shed numerous times thinking it must be still there. Must have been very drunk as I have no recollection of drinking the second one.

  4. #14
    This Space For Hire Aqualung's Avatar
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    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!

  5. #15
    Old & Bitter oldboots's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aqualung View Post
    Owd Roger was always a bigger prize than Merry Monk. I don't really remember much about it!
    Merrie Monk was alleged to be Pedigree with added caramel in much the same way as Landlord / Ram Tam. Owd Roger was often sold in Marstons tied houses from a pin on the bar, fortunately I lived close to their Winchester based tied estate. The White Swan in Hyde Street, now The Mucky Duck, being the ex Winchester Brewery's Brewery Tap and Marston's depot was usually a good place to find it, as was the rough old Winsor beside Southampton Bus Station.

    Fun Fact: Pedigree in the late 1970s had a reputation as a very effective laxative.

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    It will no doubt seem bizarre to many but as someone who grew up on it what I really miss is Courage Best, and I mean the pre-1980 version from the old Simonds Brewery in Reading, not its feeble modern shadow. In good form it was an excellent session bitter with a slightly reddish hue and much better than the London, Bristol or Plymouth brews (not biased at all...). The Mild was ok but trickier to find in good nick, although Plymouth Heavy was a different story and worth the trip.

    Other sadly-missed brews include King & Barnes Mild or Bitter, Henley-brewed Brakspears Mild or Special and almost anything out of Gales (I still have a few corkers secreted away though!).
    On leaving the bar, I felt a strong blow to the back of my head. Turning round, I discovered it was the pavement

  7. #17
    Old & Bitter oldboots's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pangolin View Post
    It will no doubt seem bizarre to many but as someone who grew up on it what I really miss is Courage Best, and I mean the pre-1980 version from the old Simonds Brewery in Reading, not its feeble modern shadow. In good form it was an excellent session bitter with a slightly reddish hue and much better than the London, Bristol or Plymouth brews (not biased at all...). The Mild was ok but trickier to find in good nick, although Plymouth Heavy was a different story and worth the trip.
    ..
    I'll second that and the Directors from London was nectar, sadly when brewing of both moved to Georges in Bristol they used a high gravity brewing method and parti-gyled Best with Directors, utter pish. Fortunately I think Ringwood was on stream by then.


    Quote Originally Posted by Pangolin View Post
    ...and almost anything out of Gales...
    Gales lost its mojo around 1979/80 although POA retained something.

  8. #18
    It wasn't me Quinno's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oldboots View Post
    I'll second that and the Directors from London was nectar, sadly when brewing of both moved to Georges in Bristol they used a high gravity brewing method and parti-gyled Best with Directors, utter pish. Fortunately I think Ringwood was on stream by then.
    George's of Bristol you say? Look what I have

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  9. #19
    This Space For Hire AlanH's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oldboots View Post

    Fun Fact: Pedigree in the late 1970s had a reputation as a very effective laxative.
    Especially if you drank the murk in The Railway Inn. You were lucky to make it home in time.

    We were reprieved by its demolition.

  10. #20
    Still about Mobyduck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pangolin View Post
    It will no doubt seem bizarre to many but as someone who grew up on it what I really miss is Courage Best, and I mean the pre-1980 version from the old Simonds Brewery in Reading, not its feeble modern shadow. In good form it was an excellent session bitter with a slightly reddish hue and much better than the London, Bristol or Plymouth brews (not biased at all...). The Mild was ok but trickier to find in good nick, although Plymouth Heavy was a different story and worth the trip.

    Other sadly-missed brews include King & Barnes Mild or Bitter, Henley-brewed Brakspears Mild or Special and almost anything out of Gales (I still have a few corkers secreted away though!).
    Courage best was my staple beer from 1976 for most of the rest of that particular century, I don't miss it at all, but then my tastes are now the polar opposite.
    "Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
    -W.C.Fields

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