This is a small excerpt from the "B" section.
Boddington
Manchester,
Greater Manchester.
Founded: 1778
Closed: 2005
Tied houses: 280
The largest of Manchester’s independent breweries, Boddington managed to fight off a takeover attempt by Allied breweries. The tied estate was spread across Lancashire and Cheshire and into a corner of Derbyshire. Their distinctively pale Bitter had somewhat of a cult following. Bought by Whitbread in 1989, for a while their Bitter was heavily promoted in “smooth” form.
| beer | style | format | OG | description |
| Bitter | Pale Ale | draught | 1035 | well hopped |
| Mild | Mild | draught | 1031 | Dark Mild medium sweet |
| Best Mild | Mild | draught | 1033 | medium dark |
| Strong Ale | Strong Ale | draught | 1060 | mellow and smooth |
| Light Ale | Pale Ale | bottled | approaching a Lager in character | |
| Strong Ale | Strong Ale | bottled | 1060 | |
| Nut Brown Ale | Brown Ale | bottled | Sweet | |
| Extra Stout | Stout | bottled | Sweet Stout |
Border
Wrexham,
Clwyd.
Founded:
Closed: 1984
Tied houses: 170
Border was the largest independent brewery in North Wales. They were notable for their large range of Mild Ales. Their pubs were mostly either side of the North Wales border with England. Though they did extend as far north as Chester and east to Staffordshire. They were bought by Marston in 1984.
| beer | style | format | OG | description |
| Bitter | Pale Ale | draught | 1034.3 | hoppy |
| Light Mild | Mild | draught | more like a Bitter | |
| Dark Mild | Mild | draught | 1031.6 | medium-strength |
| Exhibition Mild | Mild | draught | 1032.2 | stronger |
| Pale Ale | Pale Ale | bottled | ||
| Exhibition | Pale Ale | bottled | a stronger Pale Ale | |
| Royal Wrexham Ale | Barley Wine | bottled | ||
| Brown Ale | Brown Ale | bottled | ||
| Strong Brown Ale | Brown Ale | bottled |
Brain
Cardiff,
Wales.
Founded: 1713
Closed: still open
Tied houses: 100
A decent-sized independent brewery in South Wales. Their tied estate was located in South Wales, stretching as far west as Swansea.
| beer | style | format | OG | description |
| Bitter | Pale Ale | draught | 1035.3 | well balanced |
| SA | Pale Ale | draught | 1040.6 | full bodied and malty |
| Red Dragon Draught Dark | Mild | draught | 1035 | Dark Mild |
| Tudor Light | Pale Ale | keg | ||
| Gold Dragon | Pale Ale | keg | stronger | |
| Pale Ale | Pale Ale | bottled | ||
| IPA | IPA | bottled | stronger | |
| Amber Ale | Pale Ale | bottled | strongest | |
| Extra Stout | Stout | bottled | 1043 | medium sweet |
| Srtong Ale | Strong Ale | bottled |
Posts
21 comments:
Looking forward to reading it, Ron. Any idea when it will be published?
Matt,
probably spring next year. At least that's the plan. It depends on how carried away I get.
Chester was handy when I lived in Manchester as you could get Border beer there, as well beer from the other Wrexham Brewery, Wrexham Lager. I liked Border Bitter, I thought it was 'biscuity' and at that gravity one was never going to pass out on the train home!
That and Roman and Medieval history - well Chester was a natural haunt.
I only ever had Exhibition Mild once. Unfortunately and unwisely I bought a packet of salt and vinegar crisps to go with it. I don't know if there had been a mishap at the Seabrooks factory, but the salt and especially vinegar flavour was so overwhelming I was unable to taste the beer. Which was a pale mild, a style I was normally partial to.
You would find plenty of people are interested in this sort of stuff.
Oscar
I am most certainly up for your list of 1970s breweries and their beers. I am particularly interested in Wem . . . so I might have to wait a while if you continue to do this, alphabetically. As fer Brains, well I have brewed up my own Brains SA a couple of times here in Mexico, and can pretty confidently say that it is the only time that has been done here. Brains moved to a big shiny new brewery round about 2019, then Covid arrived. Then and for a while, they couldn't sell a pint for tuppence and had to have their beers brewed by Marstons for a while. The list of Brains beers here clearly is from the brewing log you found them in. Nowadays they have a few others, most of which are crap, like SA Gold.
I would have thought both the book and the list of breweries is an important part of brewing history in the U.K.
This period was, of course, dominated by keg and the Big Six but maybe what's forgotten is that regional breweries like Hardy and Hanson or Tolly Cobbold still existed and offered an alternative that as a drinker you searched for.
Everything changed after the 70s with the internationalisation of mass brewing and an end to regional breweries that served local communities with distinctive styles and taste.
Craft may have a distinctive taste but has more in common with North America than the local communities where it's brewed.
It's got to be worth documenting these changes to British heritage.
Thanks
Thanks for the blast from the past, I lived in Cardiff for several years in the 70s and remember the awful Brains Tudor on keg and, sadly, the pretty nice bottled Strong that was a favourite with the oldies, a pint of strong and dark was half of dark with a half pint bottle of Strong tipped in, for extra kick.
They relaunched it about 15 years ago as a 6.5% but I seem to remember that the original was more like a dark version of something like Newcastle Brown.
Bribie G,
thanks very much for your comment on Brains beer. It'll be going in the book.
Any comments anyone has on the beers of the period is much appreciated.
Why on earth did Boddingtons bother having two dark milds with just two gravity points difference in the OG?
My Dad was a bitter drinker and always said Brains was terrible - he'd probably sampled it following Liverpool FC around the home nations.
I wonder if Timothy Taylor and Harvey's enjoyed a similar reputation as they do now back in the 1970s? If not, which brewers were considered among the finest?
Anonymous: Brains took a bit of getting used to as unlike most non-northern beers the draught was served through a tight sparkler (like Tetleys at the time) and you ended up with a pint of something that looked like custard, which settled out to a clear but flat beer with a thick creamy head, sort of like Guinness. Then a sharp pull on the handle to top it up, and most of the head spilled down the sides of the glass.
The SA was magnificent but you needed to have grown your "Brains Gland" to appreciate it. It was also very malt forward - my Boddingtons drinking cousin from Manchester thought it a bit weird. Vice versa when I visited Manchester!
Rob, I don't know the reason for it, but in the North West at least the stronger Best Mild was pale and the Ordinary Mild dark (maybe because a pale beer was seen as classier?). The Mass Observation book The Pub and the People, about the licensed trade in Bolton in the thirties, mentions it, and one of the three Robinson brothers who were directors of their family brewery in Stockport for years always insisted on calling their pale mild ale Hatters Best Mild, even though the darker version of it was eventually just tweaked to change the colour and was the same strength (as Hydes' pale and dark miles,1863 and Dark Ruby, are now). I'm guessing that the only slight difference in the OG is because they were squeezed together by the gravity cuts imposed by two world wars.
Rob Sterowski,
quite a few northern breweries had Mild and Best Mild with gravities only a couple of degrees apart.
Matt,
usually Mild was dark and Best Mild was pale. But some brewerries, such as Less, did it the other way around.
Timothy Taylor always had a good reputation. Harveys didn't use to stand out as much because there were other southern breweries with similarly distinctive beers.
Appreciate that Bribie. He'd have been a Whitbread or Higsons bitter drinker, the latter only if it was all that was available. Tetley as well, often in Liverpool. He was terrified of draught Bass I recall because it was perceived as so much stronger than the above. He didn't like Brains at all, which could have been served badly of course. His worst ire was reserved for the usual - Watneys Red Barrel. On holiday in Spain in the early 80's it was available in a rank British pub and he went into a rant about how awful it was. As I say, his knowledge of regional beers was acquired from following Liverpool around Britain and always trying to find a decent pint before and after the game, and probably during in those days as well.
I seem to remember that Thwaites (Blackburn) had two milds and both were dark.
Even though Bass is not that strong.
Oscar
Bass isn't comparatively all that strong perhaps nowadays, but back in the day when almost everyone drank mild or ordinary bitter, Bass was a big step up for the unwary.
Good point.
Oscar
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