Volockies

[nicknorman]

15 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Who can remember some other real ales available back in the early 70s?!

I went to Bristol university between 1974 and 1978. We all had motorbikes then. So standard Friday night would be out into the country to a pub, 5 pints of Wadworths 6x, Ruddles County, Theakston's Old Peculiar (maybe just 4 of them) etc, and then of course drive home at high speed. Those were the days!

When I first moved to Aberdeen in 1980 the beer was totally dreadful. Guards Heavy being the pits. But the ray of sunshine was Devanha brewery which produced a reasonable real ale.

[MtB]

On 20/07/2017 at 20:54, nicknorman said:

I went to Bristol university between 1974 and 1978. We all had motorbikes then. So standard Friday night would be out into the country to a pub, 5 pints of Wadworths 6x, Ruddles County, Theakston's Old Peculiar (maybe just 4 of them) etc, and then of course drive home at high speed. Those were the days!

When I first moved to Aberdeen in 1980 the beer was totally dreadful. Guards Heavy being the pits. But the ray of sunshine was Devanha brewery which produced a reasonable real ale.

 

That's IT, that's the one the Hautboy sold the most of and I couldn't remember!! 

I actually found a bottle of it in Tesco the other day. It didn't disappoint. I should have bought more than one bottle but I didn't trust Theakstons not to have bin bought out by someone like Greene King and the beer wrecked when brewed for bottle. Pleased to confirm it hasn't bin.

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, nicknorman said:

I went to Bristol university between 1974 and 1978. We all had motorbikes then. So standard Friday night would be out into the country to a pub, 5 pints of Wadworths 6x, Ruddles County, Theakston's Old Peculiar (maybe just 4 of them) etc, and then of course drive home at high speed. Those were the days!

When I first moved to Aberdeen in 1980 the beer was totally dreadful. Guards Heavy being the pits. But the ray of sunshine was Devanha brewery which produced a reasonable real ale.

HLX 352N was the registration of the one and only brand new motorcycle I have ever bought , it was april 75 I havnt been that daft since I let others take the hit on new bikes. Like you say those were the days, the twisty roads in Devon and Cornwall were I was at the time were fab

[mross]

25 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Must be a wetherspoons at a guess? why else would they give beer away at less than it costs them? busy fools springs to mind.

Just checked and its not a wetherspoons, just bloomin daft.....................

Look it up on Whatpub.com.  It's well worth a visit and is close to the Rochdale canal.

https://whatpub.com/pubs/HAL/1022/polished-knob-todmorden

[Jerra]

9 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Down here we like to get the whole pint of beer in our pint glass we just paid for, not 7/8 of a pint of beer and 1/8 of a pint of bubbles.

After all it just cost us approaching a fiver!

I thought the law was that a pint was a pint i.e. unless it is a lined glass, where the beer comes to the line, the beer had to fill the glass.  At least that is what Trading Standards told a mate of mine when they warned him for serving over measure i.e. a lined glass full to the brim.  Admittedly that is a good few years ago so things may have changed.

[mrsmelly]

2 minutes ago, Jerra said:

I thought the law was that a pint was a pint i.e. unless it is a lined glass, where the beer comes to the line, the beer had to fill the glass.  At least that is what Trading Standards told a mate of mine when they warned him for serving over measure i.e. a lined glass full to the brim.  Admittedly that is a good few years ago so things may have changed.

You are quite right. The offence is one of not giving the correct measure, it is the same offence commited if you give more than the correct amount as it is to give less. A short measure it may be on occasion but that is not the specified offence.

[billS]

Sorry - I missed a few pages - I had to go to the gents.

So are we saying that a volocky should fill a lock as if they were pulling a pint, or are we saying that a barman should not pull the handle until we make eye contact with them?

[Jerra]

25 minutes ago, billS said:

Sorry - I missed a few pages - I had to go to the gents.

So are we saying that a volocky should fill a lock as if they were pulling a pint, 

I have seen a number of locks that had a good "head" on them.

[Athy]

2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Who can remember some other real ales available back in the early 70s?!

The only one I remember (from the mid-'70s) was McMullens's, which was the beer sold at the Farriers' Arms.

[dogless]

You're all very picky.

We drank anything we could get our tonsils around.

Even Party Sevens.

We were young and naive, but happy (and often suffering from multiplying eye).

You've got to drink some muck to be able to recognise the good stuff.

Rog

Adnams are well into good quality gin production, which is well worth sampling if beer's not your thing.

 

[Athy]

3 minutes ago, dogless said:

You're all very picky.

We drank anything we could get our tonsils around.

Even Party Sevens.

 

 

Not all of us, no. I said as much in an earlier post.

[bizzard]

Many train spotters during the 1970-80's after noshing a Casey Jones burger probably washed it down with ''Mc Ewans Export'' and spilt it all over their Ian Allen spotters book. It was available at London mainline termini stations at any rate. It came in red cans or from the pump at the station bars.  I rather liked it, it was quite a malty beer.

[LadyG]

Watney's Red Barrel in a half pint dimple glass, with white glass triangular ashtrays on the side.

A birthday treat was a visit to an Aberdeen Angus Steakhouse, which served real [frozen] steak, medium only.

Edited July 21, 2017 by LadyG

[Dave Payne]

11 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Who can remember some other real ales available back in the early 70s?!

Cant remember the early 70s!

15 hours ago, john6767 said:

Morrison's online service, which uses Occado is good for Brains beer.  We used them for our Welsh themed gathering during the 6 Nations, ie themed to whoever England is playing that is, not that I was supporting Wales you understand.

Yes, morrisons is the only place i have found that sells it up here in the midlands, Coleshill is one i know of.

Must trek over next week and pick some up.

[Tawny75]

Can I just say that reading this I am feeling extremely young as you are talking about drinking in the early 70's and I was not born.  Thank you one and all you have made this 41 year old a very happy woman today.

 

[Mike Todd]

12 hours ago, Jerra said:

I have seen a number of locks that had a good "head" on them.

Next week we expect to go down through Bank Dole Lock on our way towards Selby. Will never forget going this in 1960's when controls on river pollution were not in existence and mills frequently put all sorts of 'stuff' into their discharges. As a result, many weirs ended up with a lot of froth. The lower gates at Bank Dole had been left open (I think that at the time they had a tendency to drift open but the lower landing was less than ideal) with the result that the lock chamber had been completely filled with what looked like brilliant white froth.

We only had a tiny 20ft boat (as our starter!) and on coming back up there was no choice but to drive into the froth. What we quickly discovered was that, far from being really white, the froth carried a large amount of black particles which quickly covered the boat! Yuk . . . I doubt that it tasted like beer but I failed to sample it . . .

Anyone who tries to tell me that regulations are uniformly 'a bad thing' has to contend with a re-telling of this incident!

Edited July 21, 2017 by Mike Todd
Change Beal to Bank Dole

[cuthound]

14 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Curiously, when I was 17(!) we used to seek out pubs that sold decent real ale as we loathed keg bitter. And this was before the invention of CAMRA I suspect. 

Our favourite was the Hautboy Inn at Ockham in Surrey. Now lost to an avaricious businessman who turned it into flats, deeply sadly.

http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/surrey/ockham_hautboyinn.html

Likewise. We used to seek out the Dolphin at Betchworth for the Ruddles.

Also Youngs used to give you a free barrel if you obtained signatures from the landlord of all of their pubs in a year. I never quite made it as they were expanding faster than I could visit.

[Athy]

1 hour ago, Tawny75 said:

Can I just say that reading this I am feeling extremely young as you are talking about drinking in the early 70's and I was not born.  Thank you one and all you have made this 41 year old a very happy woman today.

 

You'd better go and have a drink to celebrate. You've got some catching up to do.

[MtB]

On 21/07/2017 at 08:59, Tawny75 said:

Can I just say that reading this I am feeling extremely young as you are talking about drinking in the early 70's and I was not born.  Thank you one and all you have made this 41 year old a very happy woman today.

 

 

Give it ten minutes, then you'll be in your sixties just like us lot!

(Remember last month, when it was your thirtieth?  )

[Athy]

3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Give it ten minutes, then you'll be in your sixties just like us lot!

(Remember last month, when it was your thirtieth?  )

Wistful greeno for that (if only to bring you up to a landmark greeno birthday)!

[Mac of Cygnet]

2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Give it ten minutes, then you'll be in your sixties just like us lot!

(Remember last month, when it was your thirtieth?  )

Young whippersnapper.  My only regret on becoming 70 was that my age was no longer a sexual position.

[jake_crew]

14 hours ago, Athy said:

The only one I remember (from the mid-'70s) was McMullens's, which was the beer sold at the Farriers' Arms.

Lower Dagnall St, St Albans ?

[Stilllearning]

17 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Who can remember some other real ales available back in the early 70s?!

When I was 14 in 1966, my parents moved to a house next door ( sort of, it was across a field from) the owner of Gales Ales, so my earliest beer drinking was the Gales range of beers: the light mild, a fabulous lunchtime ale, the ordinary bitter, then HSB, a fantastic strong bitter, their winter ale, called I think 5X that was best when mulled with a hot poker, and never forgetting the cork stoppered Prize Old Ale, only 9.2% - and I am still hoarding two bottles of that.

[Machpoint005]

16 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

the beer wrecked when brewed for bottle

Old Peculier[sic] is no longer bottle conditioned, but it's still brewed by Mr Theakston in Masham, and doesn't seem to suffer as a result. It's also rather less strong now. 

[DRP]

So ,this topic started as a discussion on the merits (or otherwise) of volunteer lock keepers, became an opportunity for a few to engage in exchanges of personal abuse (subtly and not so subtly), and has now evolved into an exchange of reminiscences about real ales.

Is that it, then?