Non-motoring > Brown Ale Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Zero Replies: 23

 Brown Ale - Zero
I have in my hand, a thin glass with Manns Brown Ale contained therein. Saw a bottle on the shelves at Home Bargains, and thought, "Blimey not seen that in years, i'll get me one" and so I did, hoping to remember that lovely sweet nutty chocolate flavour, of my early (still at school) favourite tipple down at the The Castle or the Quart Pot, my two preferred boozers.

Well, it tastes like fizzy water.

A memory shattered.
 Brown Ale - Alanovich
I had a couple of those 2 or 3 years ago. Thought it was perfectly drinkable for a midweek evening, taking its 2 point something percentage of alcohol in to account. I'd never drunk it before, it was well out of fashion before I started troubling the pubs of Great Britain.

I think beer is generally of vastly superior quality and flavour now than it was when I first got the taste for it (late 80s). My assumption is that beer before the advent of CAMRA was universally awful. Am I on the right track with that assumption?
 Brown Ale - Mike Hannon
My late uncle worked high up in Watney/Mann. He told me years ago, when I complained about what had happened to my favourite beer, that production of Mann's brown was switched from Whitechapel to the Watney brewery at Mortlake and ruined in the process. My friend, a pub landlady, always called Mann's brown 'mother's milk'. I still have some of the belly to remember it by.
 Brown Ale - Armel Coussine
I used to drink that when I was very young and first went to pubs. I didn't like draught beer yet.

Herself was wondering last night what had happened to Barley Wine, very strong ale that used to be sold in nips. One of them was called Russian Imperial Stout... must scan the off-licence shelves next time I remember.

We were in the Rising Sun with the cousins lifting a glass to Peter Donaldson's memory. The pub still belongs to the same people but their nippers were running it last night.

Pint and a half of nice solid Fuller's London Pride would have left me legal I think. Tsk. Must be getting old.
 Brown Ale - Mike Hannon
I like London Pride but another old friend, a Londoner, always called Fuller, Smith & Turner 'Full o' s*** & Turnips'. Chacun a son gout, as we say.
 Brown Ale - Alanovich
Despite being a southerner, London region, by birth and upbringing, I've never been a great fan of London beers. I've always preferred Yorkshire/Lancashire and West Country stuff. Must be something in the water. Burton/Derbyshire stuff I'm not so keen on either, never took to Marstons, and that even extends in to Sheffield I suppose as Wards always upset me. As did Banks's from Wolveryampton.

First beers I truly loved were Robinsons, Theakstons and Wadworths. These days I tend to frequent free houses and have whatever the guest beer is, and I are seldom disappoint. Although my two most local breweries, Two Bridges and Loddon, produce some utter corkers. Windsor&Eton are good, too. Far better than the nasty Reading beers I first tasted, like Courage (which was b***** everywhere in the 80s, good riddance). Anyone remember Simmonds? I don't, but I bet that was revolting.
 Brown Ale - Armel Coussine
My local in London was a Courage pub. After a while I found Directors' bitter too strong and I knocked it on the head, or vice versa. The ordinaire bitter was usually well kept and if you didn't like it you could have something else. Other pubs with good beers were within a brisk trot.

Used to be a place in Chelsea or Fulham that had Theakston's Old Peculiar. You need to be big to absorb much of that without injury.
 Brown Ale - Alanovich
>> Theakston's Old Peculiar. You
>> need to be big to absorb much of that without injury.

Yeah, when I worked in a pub in Nottingham as a student (Grove Hotel, Castle Boulevard), we had OP on permanently, the pubco was part of S&N at the time which had taken over Theakstons recently. I used to stick to XB (glorious stuff), OP was mental juice.

We had one regular who was an older guy with OCD. Used to turn up at the bar every day at 10.59pm and order 5 pints of OP. He arrived that late because he spent all evening worrying around his flat over the road about things being turned off, until it got to 10.55 and his alcoholism got the better of his OCD. He always had the 5 pints finished by chucking out time at 11.20.

We used to get a couple of celebs in there. Vivian McKerrell (the bloke Withnail is based on) and Jim Bowen. We were round the corner form the Central TV studios where Bullseye was filmed. VM kept himself to himself, JB was an insufferable tosspot.
 Brown Ale - R.P.
Leffe Brün for me...lovely.
 Brown Ale - Alastairw
Living on Robinson's doorstep makes it my default choice on a night in the boozer. Four pints of their seasonal 'Trick or treat' made for very satisfactory evening last night.
Saying that, variety is the spice of life, so I will try any proper beer at least once.
 Brown Ale - Harleyman
>> I like London Pride but another old friend, a Londoner, always called Fuller, Smith &
>> Turner 'Full o' s*** & Turnips'. Chacun a son gout, as we say.
>>

In 1977 I left my home village near Newark, Nottinghamshire ( a beer desert with not a decent pint of real ale for miles around) to join the Army. all the local pubs back home were either Courage or John Smiths, so imagine my dismay when I alighted from the train at Wokingham, to be faced by the Molly Millar pub with a big "Courage" sign outside; oh hell, it's no better down here, but dammit I'm having a pint before I go to the barracks anyway.

Walked in to be greeted by a bank of pump clips advertising AK, Courage Best and Directors; hmm, this looks promising! Soon realised that there was a world of difference between this stuff and the carp they served back home. Subsequent ventures to the local hostelries, after the army had done its best to try and teach me the art of soldiering, introduced me to Fullers, Brakspears and various other delights. I remain a Fullers devotee to this day, especially ESB on draught.

Fast forward a few years, to the late 1980's when pubs were first allowed to sell guest beers. I was back in a small town in Nottinghamshire, and the local yokels, used to John Smith's gnats pee keg rubbish, were struggling to come to terms with the Courage Directors in the bar which was causing them serious mobility problems after only a couple of pints. I was on my fourth or fifth and seemingly unaffected.

"How the hell do you manage to drink that stuff man? It's lethal!"

"You learn to drink properly in the Army mate".

 Brown Ale - ....
When I read the title I thought we'd be talking Dog.

Since moving Newcastle Brown Ale down Sarf it's never been the same. My old man worked for S&N, he got two cases ( 48 cans in a case ) every month of his choice, usually McEwan's Export.

These days if I'm having wreck the hoose juice I go for Kwak.
 Brown Ale - Runfer D'Hills
Kinda posh girl who works us reckons she's a Brown Ale. Or at at least something to do with the Girl Guides anyway...

Coat located, no worries...
 Brown Ale - Armel Coussine
>> a Brown Ale. Or at at least something to do with the Girl Guides anyway...

Ever heard an Ulster Protestant reciting pronunciation thingies?

"Hoy Noy Broin Coy!"
 Brown Ale - Runfer D'Hills
I just have to try to get them to say 'eight', 'late' or 'straight' etc. Childish I know.
 Brown Ale - Armel Coussine
>> I just have to try to get them to say 'eight', 'late' or 'straight'

'Yäte, lyäte and stryät' you mean Humph?

Useful sign the, er, Umlaut.
 Brown Ale - Roger.
Stuff the brown & mild concoction - never as good as its adherents reckoned!
As I type this I'm downing a nice Mahou Cinco Estrellas; expensive in the UK, but malty and a decent abv of 5.5.
¡Salud!
 Brown Ale - Robin O'Reliant
Brown ale used to be every under age drinkers choice till the palette matured a little. I did once work with a guy in his forties who still drunk nothing else.
 Brown Ale - Zero
>> Brown ale used to be every under age drinkers choice till the palette matured a
>> little.

In my case it was Brown and Mild. Watneys Mild, and Manns Brown. The alternative was WRB - Watneys Red Barrel. In the Quart Pot I had to use the public bar, as my uncle often used the lounge bar.

Edit. hmm that might have been the Carpenters Arms.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 13 Nov 15 at 18:32
 Brown Ale - Armel Coussine
I liked mild and bitter for a while. But so few people drank the mild that it went rancid in the pipes, so I gave that up.

Had some in Dorset or somewhere one hot summer that came out of the pipes hot. It took a mort of ale to cool them pipes down to a chap's satisfaction I can tell you Gabriel, and mine hostess wasn't best pleased, tee hee.

I guess they all have refrigeration by now, and if I know the b*****s they'll have it turned up too high for the lager-scoffing nancies.
 Brown Ale - mikeyb
I remember being 16 / 17 and it was known that there was one local pub where you would get served unless you looked pre-pubescent. It was a courage pub, so I used to drink courage best for no other reason than the regulars were always ordering it so it helped to blend in.

I drifted into lager soon after that, but in the last few years have moved back to real ales, and luckily the new pub down the road is a Hall and Woodhouse establishment, so usually a decent choice
 Brown Ale - NortonES2
I used to like asking for a pint of "mother in law". Outraged feminists when I told them the constituents...
 Brown Ale - mikeyb
>> I used to like asking for a pint of "mother in law". Outraged feminists when
>> I told them the constituents...
>>

Is that like my lager of choice "wife beater"
 Brown Ale - NortonES2
Never tried that lager, or very little lager anyway. But my beer wasn't really for drinking. Just to cause a fuss if those in earshot had never heard of it….
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