Other than Okell, which was rather inaccessible on the Isle of Man, Ann Street ditto in the Channel Islands and Gray which had stopped brewing by the time I was really drinking, I drank beers from all of this set.
Felinfoel was one of the first beers that I served at the Great British Beer Festival. Lovely stuff – and in great condition – it was, too. King & Barnes. Well, I loved that brewery. Such good beer. I was so annoyed when they closed. Jennings I have very happy memories of from a holiday in the Lakes with my brother.
Holts I only ever drank in their tied houses. Because they didn’t sell their beer anywhere else. Including beer festivals. I drank in one of their Salford houses which had no branding on the outside, no pump clips and I had to lean over the bar to look at the bottles to work out which brewery’s beer was being served. Low-key or what?
Hydes owned one of my favourite pubs, not just in Manchester, but anywhere: The Jolly Angler. The beer was pretty good, too. Straightforward Mild and Bitter.
My time in Swindon left me with a very soft spot for Arkells. Especially BBB. A typically malty Southwestern Bitter.
Despite being pretty small, Adnams beers had a good reputation and started turning up in free houses in London. Where, sadly, it wasn’t always in as good condition as it was at beer festivals. When looked after well, their Bitter was lovely.
Wards brewed an excellent Dark Mild which was, unfortunately, difficult to find in their hometown of Sheffield. It being very much a Bitter town already in the 1970s.
| Breweries with 50 to 99 tied houses in 1973 | |||
| brewery | no. tied houses | brewery | no. tied houses |
| Ann Street | 50 | Adnams | 70 |
| Hydes | 50 | Felinfoel | 75 |
| Gray | 52 | Jennings | 79 |
| Gibbs Mew | 55 | Holt | 80 |
| King & Barnes | 58 | Okell | 80 |
| Arkell | 62 | Gale | 88 |
| Ridley | 62 | Ward (Vaux) | 96 |
| Elgood | 65 | Total pubs | 1,087 |
| Palmer | 65 | Total breweries | 16 |
| Source: | |||
| The Beer Drinker's Companion by Frank Baillie, 1974. | |||
Posts
2 comments:
I was 20 in 1973, and I think my palate was reasonably well developed by that time - having started on Gales & King & Barnes, while still a 15 y.o. sixth former. I also believe I was pretty lucky - location wise - living in a three-county border region (Surrey, Hampshire, West Sussex), where the majority of tied houses, I seem to remember, belonged to either Gales (Horndean), Harvey's (Lewes) or King & Barnes* (Horsham). All of whom, brewed a wide range, of pretty dam good cask beers. I think it was also the case, that despite the presence of large corporate brewers, with national brands & keg beer. That the majority of people I knew - and the majority of those drinking in the pubs, and CIU clubs I visited, were also being served cask beer, more than anything else.
Also, without going too far afield, other beers you could readily find included, Wadworth, Breakspear Hall & Woodhouse, Fuller's, and Young's, amongst others. Again, I think we were quite lucky, in that the area had a good proportion of pubs in the "free trade".
Then, after 1978/9 into the 80s, we started to see more small breweries appearing. Such as Ringwood, Ballard's**, & HopBack. Sadly, a few of the above mentioned are no more.
Sev
*Like you Ron, I have lamented the demise of King & Barnes - their beers were excellent.
**Ballard's also used to brew (on & off) some excellent beers. Including a very good Mild about 4%, a Pale called Nyewood Gold 5%, and a fabulous Old/Strong ale 6.3% called Wassail
Funny place Mabo, it only had one Soulby's pub as well, according to my notes, despite them being just up the road in Alford and omnipresent in many of the Marsh villages ~ the geographic nature of them is why Whitbread didn't buy them originally, although they ended up with them when they brought J W Green / Flowers and immediately sold most of them - with a few becoming free houses but most that survived as pubs becoming either Batemans or Hewitts. You would think a seaside town, full of Midlands families with holiday money to spend, would be a more attractive place for breweries.
Post a Comment