Formative Years (beer)

[Horners]

Given the broad age/ geographical range of demographics and contemplating nostalgic brews I was wondering what people's formulative beer years were dominated by.

For me:

Growing up in Southport, Lancashire draught Bass was a premium pale ale from Burton served in the better pubs and more local brews such as Cains, Higsons etc as well as original Boddies and anything from Robinsons to Thwaites' offerings dominated.

I went to school in Carlisle where S and N had most the pubs - Youngers scotch and McEwans export featured heavily but maybe some 70 or 80 bob too. A lot of Newkie Brown also.

Regular holidays in the lake district were all about Jennings.

University in Sheffield was mainly John Smiths (cask) and magnet their premium offering despite local giant of the time Stones and to a lesser extent Wards who had a lot of the pubs.

Moving to London I didnt get on with the ale at all (drunk Fullers Chiswick for a while because it was cheap) and after flirting with Guiness had my first pint of full priced lager. Lager drinking pervaded for some time purely on the basis that bitter was so inconsistent.

I then lived near some Youngs pubs in South London and loved most of their beers especially Special.

Now there is a mind boggling array available but I still get nostalgic for nearly all of the beers mentioned above (apart from lager).

In a similar vein, what's anyone else's lifetime of beer?

 

[Dutto]

Started off with a taste of Mansfield Bitter and thought "Surely no-one could possibly like this crap?" but then learned that I was one that could.

Moved on to Batemans Ale with bottles of Manns Brown as a "take-away".

Drank a variety of bitters by Shipstones, Bass, Watney's Red Barrel, Tennents, Sam Smith etc before being seduced by the lower price of lager and moved on to Carlings Black Label, which always had to be mixed with a "dash of lime juice" to make it drinkable.

It was about this time (late 60's) that I got into my first foray of home brewing and hardly ever saw the inside of a pub for the best part of a marriage, two kids, a mortgage and six years of my life.

I then went overseas a lot, gave up the home brewing for a while and got into Amstel, Schlitz, Coors, Kingfisher and Budweiser beers, all of which were sweeter than most of the beers that I was used to, but what they lacked in taste they made up with their laxative qualities! During this time I went to a "dry" country and my home brewing experience came into its own; albeit using malt extract, sugar, bread yeast and lemons instead of the normal ingredients.

A second marriage and Scotland put an end to a lot of my beer drinking. Too cold to make it and too sweet to drink the local beers I reverted to copious amounts of whisky for the best part of ten years before discovering Bellhaven's Best and Orkney Dark Island beer. This discovery was after a local brewery in Alford had to shutdown despite my own efforts to drink enough of their products to keep a battleship afloat.

A third marriage, a more sensible hand on the bank account and retirement all resulted in a surge of interest in Continental wines and beers and a return to home-brewing.

The only thing I can tell the youth of today is "There is no justice in this world." a mantra that I have often repeated since a young lass did an ultra-sound examination of my liver and told me that it was in perfect condition. YAY!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Growing up in the town where Hartley's was brewed it had to be Hartley's best bitter but I wasn't keen on other bitters in pubs that didn't sell it so I used to drink lager in those, I stopped drinking Hartley's a few years later as there were only a couple of pubs where you could get a good pint so I moved onto later.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I started on Newcastle Amber ale in bottles and then Exhibition - a lovely pint. Occasional forays into Camerons houses for Strongarm and also, on work days, lunchtime halves of Vaux Double Maxim. My uncle once took me to his local CIU club for my first taste of Federation ale - best beer I'd tasted to that point in my life.

 

[Horners]

Hi!
I started on Newcastle Amber ale in bottles and then Exhibition - a lovely pint. Occasional forays into Camerons houses for Strongarm and also, on work days, lunchtime halves of Vaux Double Maxim. My uncle once took me to his local CIU club for my first taste of Federation ale - best beer I'd tasted to that point in my life.

Forgot about double maxim - used to live opposite a Vaux pub in Sheff and they sold it in pint bottles and was cheaper than any of the draught so pretty much drank tgat for a year.

 

[MmmBeer]

Started off drinking lager, Carling, Hofmeister, Oranjeboom etc. Then after about a year at uni I was at a party where the lager ran out early on, so drank bitter for the rest of the night. The next night, I had one lager and had that lightbulb moment, 'this tastes of nothing', been drinking ale ever since.

In the late 80's / early 90's, was mainly the likes of Courage, Whitbread and M&B Brew XI, then regional beers like 6X, Landlord Fullers ESB and Old Speckled Hen became more widely available.

 

[MickDundee]

I’m only 34 so my story is probably fairly dull.

Tennents-continental lager-Real ale-Brewdog-craft beer and, apart from Tennents I still drink all of these.

Homebrewing was inspired by a microbrewery tour in 2014.

 

[prog99]

Growing up in morayshire in the 80s it would probably have been cheapo commercial lager. It was initially however my local that always let underage kids in was run by someone very into beer and there was always 3 hand pumps on and a fridge load of continental beer. Even by todays standards it would have been good.
I'm fairly certain that there was only one other pub in town with ale on and it was in the camra guide back in the days when anyone with mcewans 80 on pump could get in.
@Ghillie may now have worked out where I grew up... if your the right age you may even play guess the pubs.

 

[Bigcol49]

I’m only 34

Hi!
Boasting again!
I barely remember being 34 - to tell the truth, I barely remember last week!

 

[Graz]

Going to University was a big turning point in booze for me, quantity and what I drank

Drinking wasn't really a taboo thing for me, my Dad home brewed so we'd be allowed a shandy on a Saturday night and as we got older some actual beer. He mainly made bitter/ale from kits so weirdly for a teenager I had a bit of a taste for it from quite early on. Going out with mates back in Essex in the late 80's everyone drank lager so that was what I had, mainly Stella (strong back then!), but like I say I wasn't a big drinker at the time.

At Uni (Surrey/Guildford) the students union had Courage Best and Directors as regular beers with the odd guest beer. I got a taste for Directors and had quite a bit over the few years I was there You know what they say about not revisiting these things years later, well I had a pint of Directors a while back and it was not great. Someone mentioned Bass earlier, that used to be a guest ale on occasion and we used to really enjoy it when it was on. Also Theakston's Old Peculiar was relished and again stronger back then. In town most of the pubs had Tetley bitter on draught which again we liked but I'm not so sure I'd be singing its praises now. As well as the draught stuff we'd often have a few cans before heading out, again all pretty horrible stuff - Webster's Bitter, Ruddles, etc. On odd occasions we'd also get utterly sh*tfaced on cider (Ram Cider House, Farncombe (RIP )).

In the meantime in an effort to save a few pennies I bought a home brew starter kit in Boots and brewed up some pretty average beer that did the job, been doing that ever since, quality may have improved slightly

As it was the early 90's rave culture was very big and I may have dabbled in other things then (didn't inhale ).

 

[ACBEV]

1976 - Had a Light & Bitter, instead of school lunch... Same year I ran away from home... Walked from Essex to North Norfolk with a tent and a few pounds.

Managed to get a ad-hock job in a pub for room and board + mild ale. Best job I've had. Worst pub I've ever been in though, the landlady counted logs for the fire, was always cold.

 

[Gunge]

Meths, acetone and lighter fluid. When those ran out it was off up the road to the WMC and John Smiths.

 

[beertrap]

Early days was whatever was cheap. Coors, bud, Miller and some of the awfull stegmeyers lager which was $5.99 for a case, 24 bottles.
But my older brother had a better pallet and soon it was grolsh , becks and anything brewed somewhere other than the USA.
Decades later I traveled to Belgium and found out what really good beer was. Then the craft boom and here we are. Everything available most of the time.

 

[Clint]

Wrexham lager through my youth then as that died Marston lager or pilsner or whatever lager was on offer...a mixed bag round here at the time...mostly awful. Then went off lager and drank bitter for years...then off that on to Guinness then on to "real ales" and the craft beer revolution....

 

[Gulpitdarn]

Well, my earliest beer drinking was as you see in my avatar photo, Watneys Pale Ale, I was fourteen. From then on it was my Science/Chemistry teechur who brought in some ginger root, sugar, and other ingredients that I now forget, and produced ginger beer, it was alcoholic and when he noticed it was making some of us a tad too tipsey he must have watered it down somewhat, But I had already experienced the effects and this is what got me brewing back then. Leaving skool and onto Watney Manns Brown, Largers, Newcastle Browns and onto real ales. Not bought any beers since last autumn when I came back into brewing.

 

[Lawrence22]

My first ever beer, under age, was San Miguel with a bunch of older cousins while on holiday in Spain. I was sick as a pig. I then flirted with Bass, Harp and Carlsberg foe a few years before at the age of 19 I started to drink Guinness. Drank Guinness almost exclusively for the next 15 years, only exception being while I was on holiday abroad where the Guinness was crap. It was on one of these skiing holidays that I discovered quite by accident Paulaner Weiss (thought I was ordering lager) and this started a big change in my beer drinking. I realised there was much more out there than Guinness, standard lagers and the couple of ales available here Bass/Smithwicks. The beer available to us now is amazing locally compared to then. You would have never have seen a pale ale in local pubs and the only IPA was Greene King and even it was only in a couple of bars in Belfast.
Nowadays I rarely drink Guinness, I have been disappointed most times I get one. I recently brewed my own stout based on one of the 50 American clone recipes on the recipe forum here, and I believe it to be superior to what was my staple for years.

 

[Clint]

...forgot to add I did have a stint with HB when I was around 15. Me and a mate knocked up loads of Boots and John Bull kits in his mams airing cupboard...all bottled in glass 2 litre fizzy pop bottles. We got proper pissed on it too! To be fair it wasn't half bad either!

 

[phildo79]

Depending which brewery was the supplier, mid 90s bars in Belfast consisted of the following:

Guinness, Harp, Carlsberg and Smithwicks.
Or
Guinness, Tennents, Tuborg and Bass.
There was normally a premium tap which was either Miller or Bud. Stella and Becks arrived later. Cider was usually Strongbow, ocassionally Blackthorn. As far as bottles were concerned, you might have got Satzenbrau Pills, Grolsch or Becks but it was mainly what was already on draught.

Pretty poor compared to today but there are still plenty of bars that have just the bog standard shyte. Even in the city centre. You will also do well to find a draught stout that isn't Guinness. I can only think of 2 places that don't sell it and that's because 1 of them is an events arena that is sponsored by Murphy's.

 

[Ghillie]

Growing up in morayshire in the 80s it would probably have been cheapo commercial lager. It was initially however my local that always let underage kids in was run by someone very into beer and there was always 3 hand pumps on and a fridge load of continental beer. Even by todays standards it would have been good.
I'm fairly certain that there was only one other pub in town with ale on and it was in the camra guide back in the days when anyone with mcewans 80 on pump could get in.
@Ghillie may now have worked out where I grew up... if your the right age you may even play guess the pubs.

If I was to hazard a guess Mike, I'd say Elgin. Not through any detective work or the like, just because it's the largest town in Moray.

Unless you're a Forres loon, then I really am sorry for branding you with "Elgin"

 

[prog99]

No offence taken, I am indeed originally from Forres.
Pub in question was the Mosset Tavern with the Beastie being in the camra guide.