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.