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Yeah remember Courage..... you needed Courage to drink it....that said they did get their act together into the 90s and that Directors Bitter wasn't a bad drink if I remember right...mind you things have evolved even more since then with ,many of the small locally based micro breweries producing a far superior beer. If I tried Directors now my reaction would probably rather meh!

Everything goes in cycles....I remember the biggest brewery where I grew up was the Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries (Banks's and Hanson's) crappy beer in the 60s and 70s....in the 80s and 90s it was the best beer in the area....they produced some great limited edition beers too, then early 2000s they merged with Marston's and its never been the same since....it doesnt have the flavour it once had....just bland, I guess the accountants got involved with money saving ideas, not realising that they are changing the very thing that makes the money, the winning recipe or brewing method and you end up with something very bland.

Talking of southerners and beer, why did they always drink beer with no head...in "exact pint" glasses, it always seemed like a different world down there.

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Courage Best, 75p a pint / Directors 85p a pint, in the Student Union Bar at Plymouth Poly in the late 80's. Them were the days....

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Thats pricey! "Southern" prices! lol I remember my parents pub in the mid 80s.... a Hanson's pub of course...Hanson's mild 54p Hanson's bitter 57p.... too bad I was too young to drink then! I remeber my Dad being disgruntled at having to pay a pound a pint during a family weekend in London around that time! If only!

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I think that depended on how good the landlord was.
Our local' s bitter was pretty good and the best was even better. Then Directors came along and it was very good but pricey. I had the feeling that the landlord deliberately let the quality of the others go so he could sell the more expensive one. But then he stopped caring and the Directors went downhill.

We stopped going and went into town instead for Ruddles County, Marstons Pedigree, Burton, something called 1057 I think, Royal Oak and so on.
Depends on the beer. More head, less beer. :lol:
I remember oversize glasses appearing temporarily. Maybe you northerners had big hands. :p

I remember going into a pub near Preston railway station in 1980. Two pints and two ploughman's and having change from a quid. I don't remember Bristol prices then but there wouldn't have been much change with just the beer.

Mind you, the ploughman's came with ordinary sliced bread which was a bit disappointing.

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Does a Jetta (aka a Vento) that I write off the mileage on for tax purposes count :) Manual transmission version so not as easy to drink a Kenko coffee and a muffin while on a sales conference call at the same time :)

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Whitbread Tankard, Watney's Red Barrel, Double Diamond, around 2 shillings a pint in the early 70's. Them were not the days.

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Ruddles County.... that was a good robust tasting beer.... good head too! ;):thumbup:

Ah a good Ploughmans and a Ruddles would be a good combo... funny the humble Ploughmans seems to have given way to more American style food now.... but you cant beat a properly served Ploughmans.... the ordinary slices bread is a no no! lol

Pork scratchings....another great accompaniment to a good robust pint.... its funny now though I tried one a year ago, my cousin brought some over, and I couldnt help thinking how scarily unhealthy they were, never really paid much attention before, but I guess my dietary habits have changed somewhat in recent years. Deep fried fat smothered in salt doesn't seem right somehow... :eek:

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Ooooooh no not the day at all..... Worthinton E Brew IX.... a couple more...I am glad I was too young to drink then! lol Mind you we still have the likes of Carling.....insipid dishwater.....:sick:

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There were 3 of us that used to do tag-team crossword when I bartended Saturday happy hour, (Malcom, Nigel, and I), and whenever one of us would travel to Vancouver, we'd bring back a couple of 2L bottles of Webster's Yorkshire Bitter and we'd make an occasion of it.

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You forgot Ben Truman's.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...c287ad508f.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...11e517fda1.jpg

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I believe Picaroons does a beer that passes for a Ruddles. Unfortunately I can't recall it nor recognise it from the website. But you could have fun trying them.

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There seems to be a lot of rather distasteful stereotyping that borders on uncomfortablism. Just because people who live in "the south" don't go around shagging pit ponies and wearing ridiculously large flat caps while their 18 rickets and tuberculosis stricken children carry home a Hovis bread loaf for the village doesn't mean that we don't occasionally savour a nice glass or two of Bavarian pilsner .

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Agreed. As in wine appreciation, snobbery isn't constructive. When you know beer and know what you like, it's like understanding the effect of terroir on wine grapes; it's all you need.

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:rofl: Well as a Northerner I don't feel insulted one bit as if asked to describe a person from Yorkshire I would have described them the same way but would have substituted the animal used for carnal pleasure.

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Of course, that's a much rarer occurrence now.
Sheep Have Exceptionally High Face-Recognition Abilities, News Study Reveals | Biology | Sci-News.com

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and... Whitbread (big head) Trophy Bitter... the pint that thinks it's a quart!

(that advert is playing in my brain :D... and here it is!

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I'd rather be Hemeling

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You southerners only wish you could live on Beasley Street

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Not really a beer drinker, him, more of a heroin man. If only he'd been exposed to Young's Ordinary or Fuller's Pride, he might have stayed off the smack and not got stuck with Nico. The curse of the north, I suppose.

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Do 'ave a Dubonnet.

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Indeed, you don't maintain a figure like that from drinking a gallon of Ol' Pit Head every day.

Anyway, I'm sitting on my balcony in Germany drinking a few alcohol-free Franziskaner Weissbiers in the sweltering early evening sunshine... one eye on the football, one on BE and the other on my holidays tomorrow... off to Cordoba, Jerez, Cadiz and Seville. Ole!

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:eek:

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We were still paying 80 pence at the Man Met Student Union for a pint of Boddington's in the late 90's.

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Somewhere when I was younger I remember drinking eight pints of lager and getting a packet of Bensons all for 15 quid.

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The Winking Judge in Hamilton has Fullers on cask every 3-4 months or so (not just London Pride, I've seen others over the years).
Some of the best cask stuff I've had this year has been from Clifford (also in Hamilton). Occasionally at the Judge, they had a few on at Because Beer (a great little beer fest in Pier 4 park).

Toronto types may have heard of Cask Days. Tip: swerve the Fri/Sat sessions (which are getting overpriced, full of "beer bros", and generally not as well run as previous years) and instead pony up $15 for the Sunday afternoon one which is far more chilled and they're pouring far more generously as it's the "get rid of it all" session.

So much great beer - and, at last, cider - being produced locally (at least, in my part of Ontario). That said, I've been blown away with equally great stuff in BC and QC (honourable mention to Quidi Vidi in St John's, NL - well worth a visit, and a great way to spend a tactical "free" 23-hour layover in YYT if that sort of thing floats your boat )

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This is a good one from Hamilton

https://untappd.com/b/fairweather-br...de-ipa/2185393

Collective Arts make some great beers..not sure about the cask lineup.

I was on a wine tour recently in Niagara and we went to Bench Brewery and some of their beer was not bad although the food was better.

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Fairweather is probably my favourite these days (declaration of interest: they kindly let our home brew club brew on their premises when we did a brew for Cask Days - cripes, three years ago... time flies).

I'm not aware of Collective Arts doing much (if anything) on cask; they're very much focused on their (frankly pretty aggressive) expansion plans, that include distribution to the UK amongst other territories. A friend of a friend takes care of the SW England distro. I was in Bath back in March, and had one of the first kegs of State of Mind (RIP - now replaced by the, IMO, highly inferior Hazy State... but haze sells to beer bros *sigh*). It kicked inside two days, and was very well received.

Bench do more sours (which isn't to everyone's taste, so feels right to give fair warning). Didn't realize they do food at the brewery. Some UK friends visiting right now may be heading that way tomorrow, I'll let them know (as they were thinking about hitting Bench).

If you're in the Niagara area, definitely check out Niagara College. They offer one of the only degree programs in brewing in north America (more applied than Siebel in Chicago, IIRC Olds in Alberta launched a similar program after the NC one was launched). The brewmaster/prof in charge is a Brit called Jon Downing, who's lived in St Catherine's for the past couple of decades and consults to breweries all over the world. Great guy, really knows his stuff, and has very much driven the success of the NC program from scratch as I understand it.
The college has a brewery store on site (just off the QEW) and the teaching restaurant is worth considering. As it's final year students, keep in mind there are some minor missteps, but overall is very good value for money (and you can do a flight of wines that includes ones made by the students on the viniculture program).

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No. Just, no....

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...50acb5d8f0.png

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Im inclined to agree with you there old bean.....must be for the Canadian yuppie market....

That said British breweries are at it too! My cousin sent me a pic of some Porter that was on in one of the watering holes... it was called "Stay puft" It was...... get this........ Marshmellow and Irish cream Porter!!! ....it was actually served with 2 marshmellows floating on top!! NO!!.. just no!! :eek:

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Finally bought a case of this recently - it's pretty good! It was just under $8 at Superstore, which for 12 cans beer I'll happily forego the alchohol content, that's a great deal. Only 3g of Sugar per can too. The taste is somewhere between Molson and Budweiser, so nothing exceptional but perfectly decent.

Also kind of nice to enjoy a beer without feeling sleepy afterwards, and it seems there is more studies coming out saying that all alchohol is bad for you so it's a good way to moderate intake.

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Somewhere between piss and shit? It must be the bollocks.

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Nah, 'taint.

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Well yeah if you're expecting an ale / craft beer experience you're not going to get it from this blonde brew. I'd say it's definitely nicer than budweiser though which I've never liked either.

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Astonishingly you may get the same quantity of Molson Exel from Giant Tiger for even less.

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Not in Langley, you won't.

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Good point. And maybe not here either. But for a different reason. I've not seen it there since I bought some how ever many weeks ago it was.