Yesteryear beers and were they as good as we remember

[Random Badger]

My favourite which has disappeared, the brewery’s gone but the company still exists, was Brakspear’s Special. I think it was about 4.3% but it was a lovely best bitter. The Courage Director’s brewed in London was really nice too. The modern equivalent doesn’t hold a candle. On the other end of the scale was Welsh Brewers Allbright, aaargh! Or Watney’s Starlight, which at the time was rumoured to be so weak that it would have been legal in the US during prohibition!

When was Courage Director’s brewed well in London?

My understanding of the Courage days was that the cask real ale (parti-gyled Directors, Best and Bitter Ale) was brewed in Bristol (until the brewery was closed in 1999) and the keg beer was brewed at Reading.

 

[micklupulo]

When was Courage Director’s brewed well in London?

My understanding of the Courage days was that the cask real ale (parti-gyled Directors, Best and Bitter Ale) was brewed in Bristol (until the brewery was closed in 1999) and the keg beer was brewed at Reading.

I think you are correct about the source and this brings back good memories. About 40 years ago a sprawling run down old M&B pub in Wolverhampton was taken over by a couple of Irish descent (together with three personable daughters) who did a deal with Courage and rapidly transformed the place into one of the busiest pubs in town humming with craic and music and flowing with beautifully kept Directors and Best.

 

[StJayJay]

I did not start my beer career until the late 90s so it was quite bleak then. My local was a Greenall’s pub but by that point, their own breweries had gone. When I went out in town, it was bitters like John Smiths or Worthingtons, the usual suspects for lagers and Guinness.
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be!

 

[Bigdok]

I'm from Sheffield originally, when I was young there was the Jubilee Milk Stout brewery a short walk away, Whitbread, Stones, Wards. Of them all I would like another pint of Wards, cruelly shut by Vaux.

I used to enjoy a pint or two of Wards once I'd got over the distinctive aroma

 

[Sym]

My Dad was brought up in Manchester in the 50s and 60s and used to love Boddingtons, but he wont drink it now as it tastes of nothing, Many of the old breweries have been taken over and now brewed centrally by Marstons , Scottish Newcastle etc and they are just not the same anymore.