First taste of beer

[Clint]

....what a bunch of artists!

Cheers

Clint

 

[BeardySi]

First taste was Smithwicks when I was 8 or so, then onto Kilkenny, Carlsberg and Guinness in my teens... I didn't discover that beer is supposed to actually taste good till I moved to England in my 20s!

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[Cwrw666]

Double Diamond has to be a contender for the worst beer ever award.
Have we done a thread on the worst beer ever? I thought about starting one but I can't believe it hasn't been done (I did search).

A slight problem might be that those of us who started drinking in the late sixties / early seventies could probably just list everything they drank in those days. Beer really was awful back then. Well it was in Middlesbrough anyway, all served up with about an inch and a half of foam on the top.
Best of the bunch was Newcastle Exhibition and then in descending order: Camerons, Vaux, Sam Smiths and if you were really desperate, John Smiths.

 

[HebridesRob]

A slight problem might be that those of us who started drinking in the late sixties / early seventies could probably just list everything they drank in those days. Beer really was awful back then. Well it was in Middlesbrough anyway, all served up with about an inch and a half of foam on the top.
Best of the bunch was Newcastle Exhibition and then in descending order: Camerons, Vaux, Sam Smiths and if you were really desperate, John Smiths.

Newcastle Exhibition was the best keg beer I drank (still not good). We were lucky in Cardiff because we always had Brains ( :-D )
I've always looked on Sam Smiths as very good quality, was it different in those days?
John Smiths, of course, still available and still awful. The smooth would definitely be on the shortlist, there's more flavour in mineral water.

 

[marlon]

Watneys Red Barrel was my first.....tried to put it our of my mind.......but I still shudder when I think about it....followed that with Whitbread Tankard........CHRIST....!!

 

[HebridesRob]

Watneys Red Barrel was my first.....tried to put it our of my mind.......but I still shudder when I think about it....followed that with Whitbread Tankard........CHRIST....!!

The recipe for Whitbread Tankard is here...
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/lets-brew-wednesday-1971-whitbread.html

The recipe was pretty decent, would have thought the beer would be reasonably palatable. Obviously, the process of filtration and gassing killed the beer off.
When I look at these old recipes I'm often struck by the fact they include two types of base malt, two pale malts in this one, which is supposed to increase the complexity of flavours. Something you never see in home brew recipes.

 

[marlon]

The recipe for Whitbread Tankard is here...
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/lets-brew-wednesday-1971-whitbread.html

The recipe was pretty decent, would have thought the beer would be reasonably palatable. Obviously, the process of filtration and gassing killed the beer off.
When I look at these old recipes I'm often struck by the fact they include two types of base malt, two pale malts in this one, which is supposed to increase the complexity of flavours. Something you never see in home brew recipes.

Thanks for the link Rob, it's very interesting to me, in a nostalgic sort of way. On the face of it, it looks like a reasonably good recipe. At the time, in the 70's, I drank it. I knew exactly what it would taste like before I'd even sipped it. Around here, there wasn't much choice: Shepherd Neame Masterbrew or Whitbread Tankard ( Which, being lads, we ALWAYS refered to in it's 'Spoonerism' form...) I didn't realise at the time how widespread T.W. was. Did it make it to Harris as well?

 

[Pope]

When i first started in the pub at 16!!!!!! I alterated between these two.....propa beer then!

Were you only allowed to drink beers with the word "Newcastle" in the name when you were growing up?

Anyway, in answer to the original question...Stella Artois, which I drank when I was 16 until I ended being sick all over a club's toilets.

 

[Robin54]

Slightly off topic..(agree with all the sentiments above about **** beer), but my band played 2 gigs at the Whitbread head office in the City of London, and Im not lying when I tell you that the pile on their carpets was about 1 inch thick...amazing. So thats where all your money went, after you pissed away their beer.

 

[Tripster]

Whitbread Pale Ale was my first taste of beer It was In shandy form, my dad was in the Air Force and he used to buy quart bottles of It from the seargents mess and we'd have It every Sunday with our Sunday Roast hated shandy then 36 years later still hate It. He started to do homebrew and put It in the empty bottles and create bottle bombs, that was fun.

First draught pint Double Diamond at Wendover carnival drank 4 pints got pissedd told my mates I'd drunk twelve, well I was only Fifteen. Halcyon days

 

[HebridesRob]

Thanks for the link Rob, it's very interesting to me, in a nostalgic sort of way. On the face of it, it looks like a reasonably good recipe. At the time, in the 70's, I drank it. I knew exactly what it would taste like before I'd even sipped it. Around here, there wasn't much choice: Shepherd Neame Masterbrew or Whitbread Tankard ( Which, being lads, we ALWAYS refered to in it's 'Spoonerism' form...) I didn't realise at the time how widespread T.W. was. Did it make it to Harris as well?

I'm from Cardiff, only lived here for a few years. We were lucky in Cardiff, we had Brains beers keeping the quality up, I only had to drink Tankard a handful of times, though you should feel thankful if you never had occasion to drink Albright (Welsh Brewers, part of Bass Charrington) or Welsh Bitter (a Whitbread Wales production, probably one of their other beers rebranded?).

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPzLh98sVdY[/ame]

 

[Robin54]

Youngs Best Bitter...at the age of 16 I think...it was bloody awful...............still is!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tau]

Used to drink this as a toddler 5-6, whenever grandparents thought you looked pale or was hyper active was given a tiny can to get you to sleep - no calpol around then. Although never really developed a particular thirst for stouts or beer for that matter. Was always given half a beer shandy or cider from about 7. At 10 I was brewing my own, so wern't that bothered, before teaching my father how to brew and make wine later in my teens.

 

[Pfeffer]

It was Hoegaarden Witbier I think, it never really grew on me though. Learned drinking with Beck's and Paderborner though. The German military can be pretty hard on your liver.

 

[hoptoit]

A slight problem might be that those of us who started drinking in the late sixties / early seventies could probably just list everything they drank in those days. Beer really was awful back then. Well it was in Middlesbrough anyway, all served up with about an inch and a half of foam on the top.
Best of the bunch was Newcastle Exhibition and then in descending order: Camerons, Vaux, Sam Smiths and if you were really desperate, John Smiths.

They still do serve it with 1 1/2" of foam on top round Middlesbrough. The welly at Wolviston always ask if you want a banker if you have camerons. Had never heard of it. Looks like a Mr whippy.

 

[LarryF]

I used to pour it for my Dad, had a first taste when I was eight and hated it, much to his amusement.

 

[Gerryjo]

Guinness you either love it or hate it.i love it but preferably on draught and not the cold flow.My first was Satzenbrau,got drunk ended up sick but didn't deter.I remember my mate and a few others drinking terrible concoctions like 6 cans of Bavaria and a 1/2 bottles of Mundies fortified South African wine or 4 cans of Breaker with a half bottle of Clan Dew just to get wasted as you sat on the Walls of our great city or went into a nightclub as you couldn't afford to pay bar prices but must say we were civilised compared to the youth of today.🍺

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