This time, there's no difference at all in the average value for money between cask and keg. Though the cask average is distorted by the spectacularly poor value of Watney Fined Bitter. A beer which was 4.5p per pint more expensive than the second dearest, Charles Wells Fargo. A beer which was considerably stronger.
Fined Bitter was a bit of a funny beer. It was the first cask beer bearing the Watney name for quite a while. As they didn't have casks, it was served from a modified keg. Based on the gravity, it looks like a cask version of Watney Special Bitter. I had it a couple of times and wasn't particularly impressed. Though that might have been down to poor cellarmanship. As Watney landlords mostly wouldn't have any experience of looking after cask beer.
A sign that keg and cask prices were levelling out is provided by Draught Bass and Worthington E. I'm pretty sure they were just cask and keg versions of the same beer. And you can see that the price of the two is identical: 25p.
That's all I can think of for now.
| Cask Best Bitter in 1976 | ||||
| Brewer | Beer | Price | º gravity per p | OG |
| Charles Wells | Draught Fargo | 28 | 1.82 | 1051 |
| Robinson | Best Bitter Ale | 24 | 1.75 | 1042 |
| Courage | Director's Bitter | 27 | 1.74 | 1047 |
| Devenish (Redruth) | Cornish Best Bitter | 26 | 1.63 | 1042.5 |
| Bass | Draught Bass | 25 | 1.60 | 1040 |
| Watney | Fined Bitter | 32.5 | 1.36 | 1044.2 |
| Average | 27.1 | 1.65 | 1044.5 | |
| Source: | ||||
| Sunday Mirror - Sunday 01 August 1976, page 17. | ||||
| Keg Best Bitter in 1976 | ||||
| Brewer | Beer | Price | º gravity per p | OG |
| Tetley | Imperial | 24 | 1.75 | 1042 |
| Usher (Edinburgh) | Double Amber | 26 | 1.65 | 1043 |
| Bass | Worthington E | 25 | 1.60 | 1040 |
| Charles Wells | Noggin | 25 | 1.60 | 1040 |
| Average | 25 | 1.65 | 1041.3 | |
| Source: | ||||
| Sunday Mirror - Sunday 01 August 1976, page 17. | ||||
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6 comments:
I had a friend who lived in Ewell, Surrey, aho I used to visit occasionally. His local was a big Watney's pub, which wasn't very satisfactory. At my urging we used to head out to Ewell village, where there were Charrington's IPA, Ind Coope Bitter and Courage Directors to be had.
Then Watneys Fined appeared. Actually I quite enjoyed it. Also another nearby pub started selling Truman's Tap Bitter. That was nice too. The pubs in the village were still the best places to go, but the local offerings had made a significant advance. It was the start of a resurgence of cask (or caskish) ale. It seemed a long time at the time, but it was only 8 years until John Smiths would reverse their policy and reintroduce cask Bitter and Magnet. And at the time those were magnificent beers.
Worthington E's the beer
There's satisfaction here
It's the Worthington taste that satisfies
Your Worthy Worthington.
That's from the early 70s and that's permanently engraved in a collection of neurons somewhere in my 75 year old brain. As for what I had for breakfast yesterday that's a total mystery.
Worthington E's the beer
That satisfies the queer...
OK, you couldn't say that nowadays, and I've probably got myself in trouble. But that was what used to be sung back in the day.
Obviously, I didn't approve!
Then there was this:
Because it's Whitbread Bitter
Trophy Bitter
The best you ever bought
Whitbread 'Big Head' Trophy Bitter
The pint that thinks it's a quart.
The problem was that the head was so big that the amount of the beer in the glass was restricted. So we used to change the words of the song to 'The Pint that thinks it's a Half'.
I should add that this was later on than when I used to drink the excellent (ex Nimmo's) Whitbread Trophy in Durham, which was dispensed by metred pumps and didn't have an absurdly large head. After the old BYB brewery was closed in the early 70's, the Trophy on sale in Yorkshire was pretty dreadful.
In the mid 70s There was a pub opposite the old Marlborough Crescent bus station in Newcastle that served the pretty good Nimmo derived Trophy brewed at Castle Eden. It was the only Whitbread pub in the centre of Newcastle IIRC. As standard practice, the windows in the pub were frosted but they had one small clear pane in the bar so you could look over to the bus stands and see if your bus was in yet!
Up in Alston I had some Trophy but it came from Duttons in Blackburn and was somewhat nasty.
Dutton's (or rather Whitbread Blackburn) used to produce a bottled beer called OBJ ("Oh Be Joyful") and this continued into the late 80's and maybe even into the 90's
. It was a strongish ale, sold by the pint bottle, and rather good. I used to drink it at the Traveller's Rest at Glenridding, up the road towards the lead mines.
Absolutely splendid when coming down from the summit of Helvellyn.
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