Bit of a contrast between the two Watney breweries. Webster, though not that many of its pubs sold cask, at least the beer was good in cask form. While Wilsons sold plenty of cask but it was rubbish.
I know the beers from Chiswell Street, on paper, better than any others. And better, i'm sure, than any brewer who ever worked there. Because I've pored over 170 years' worth of their brewing records. Which is a weird feeling.
Webster
Halifax,
West Yorkshire.
Founded: 1820
Closed: 1996
Tied houses: 288
Bought by Watney Mann in 1972. In terms of beers brewed, Webster was a typical West Yorkshire brewery.
| beer | style | format | OG | description |
| Pennine Bitter | Pale Ale | draught | 1037.5 | sweetish and full-bodied |
| Best Mild | Mild, Light | draught | 1033.8 | smooth, slightly bitter |
| Nut Brown | Mild | draught | 1033.8 | |
| Green Label | Pale Ale | bottled |
Wilsons
Manchester,
Greater Manchester.
Founded: 1834
Closed: 1986
Tied houses: 1,124
Bought by Watney Mann in 1960. Can’t say I ever cared for their beer much.
| beer | style | format | OG | description |
| Great Northern Bitter | Pale Ale | draught | 1037 | smooth, well-balanced |
| Brewers Bitter | Pale Ale | draught | 1033 | pale |
| Great Northern Mild | Mild | draught | 1032.2 | thin and malty |
Chiswell Street
City of London,
London.
Founded: 1742
Closed: 1976
Tied houses:
The original Whitbread brewery. I’m not sure if it brewed any cask in the 1970s. I think it probably did, but I can’t be certain. I did drink keg Best Mild in 1979, presumably brewed in Luton. It was pretty bland and forgettable.
| beer | style | format | OG | description |
| Best Mild | Mild | draught | 1030.8 | |
| Trophy | Pale Ale | draught | 1035.8 | |
| Best Mild | Mild | keg | 1030.8 | |
| Trophy | Pale Ale | keg | 1035.8 | |
| Tankard | Pale Ale | keg | 1039.3 | |
| Export Pale Ale | Pale Ale | bottled | 1048.8 | |
| Forest Brown | Brown Ale | bottled | dryish | |
| Mackeson | Stout | bottled | 1038.8 | sweet |
| Extra Stout | Stout | bottled | 1055.7 | |
| Final Selection | Strong Ale | bottled | 1079.6 | dry |
| Gold Label | Barley Wine | bottled | 1101.3 | blended and matured |
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5 comments:
I lived in Manchester for a few years, and frequently drank Wilsons, though it was far from the best beer in town. This was 1980-83. But the first time I ever had it would have been in the early/mid 70's. I was with my cousin Betty and a group of friends on a hike in the Bacup area and at midday we had to drop to valley level before following a disused railway track - well there was a pub, don't remember the name, but the brewery sign said Watney-Wilson and there was the chequerboard logo.
We went in thinking to have a swift one and carry on, but the bitter was so delicious that we stayed and had another, and another, and... and...
The rest of the hike got cut short. I don't know if Wilsons was better in the 70's than the 80's, or this was just one of those occasions when a cask ale, however nondescript, can be touched by angels and rise to a level of perfection.
I grew up on Wilsons, and except for three years away at university drank more of their beer than anyone else's from 1973 up to the brewery's closure. Better pints certainly existed, but it suited my taste at the time and never gave me a hangover.
I absolutely hated Websters; it tasted like homebrew which was being drunk before it was ready. A really nasty cloying taste. I could manage other sweetish beers perfectly well; I was rather fond of the much-despised M&B Brew XI.
After Wilsons closed the bitter continued to be brewed in Halifax for a while. Interestingly it was very little changed, and therefore still decent, whereas the native Websters continued to be nasty.
Wilson’s is where John Keeling of Fullers started his brewing career.
Interesting that Webster’s pennine bitter is described as sweetish while their light mild is described as slightly bitter.
Oscar
Ah, Gold Label!!! Yippee!!!
Whitbread’s brewery in Chiswell Street was closed in April 1976, and it did indeed brew cask beer until shortly beforehand. I can’t now remember whether I ever had the mild, but the Trophy was my favourite London-brewed beer in the early 70s – at least until the recipe was changed a year or so before the closure. I much preferred it to the Wethered’s that replaced it. As for Wilson’s, I drank a fair bit of the bitter, which was a pale, pleasant pint that slipped down very easily, even if it didn’t taste particularly distinctive (I certainly wouldn’t have said it was rubbish). I did have the odd pint of Wilson’s Mild, though it wasn’t particularly memorable either before or after it was given a new recipe for Wilson’s big relaunch in 1983. I only drank Webster’s a few times in the 1970s, but found it fine when I did – it was a different matter when Webster’s Yorkshire Bitter (which was pretty dire stuff) became ubiquitous in Watney’s pubs in the south of England in the 1980s.
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