Lets talk about Charrington IPA

Originally posted by dynamiteninja
In 1982 the Darlington CAMRA branch area found just six different cask ale brands in a survey of all the area’s pubs. there was just Cameron’s (mostly Strongarm), Theakston Best, McEwan’s 80/-, Younger’s No.3, Tetley Bitter and Vaux (Samson I believe). John Smith’s was solely keg back then. And I believe that McEwan’s, Younger’s and Theakston were all owned by S&N.

I had a University friend from Redcar and I visited there several times in the mid 70s. I seem to recall finding one pub with Strongarm in the town. Otherwise we had to go a few miles to the Middl;e House in Marske which had Theakstons. My oldest GBG is 1978 and, although I haven’t counted them one by one I reckon there are no more than 250 beers in total listed. And I have about 80% of them ticked off. Somewhere in the vaults I have a notebook with (crap) tasting notes too. A grand total of 8 micros plus a handful of brewpubs are listed in the 1978 GBG. So there wasn’t really a lot of diversity or choice back then.

How has Theakston’s beers changed? I love Old Peculiar and it was one of my changing for the better beers during my younger 20’s.

That’s probbaly something called Boddington’s PR.

Originally posted by bobinlondon
the writing was on the wall for this mediochre beer.

And all other nainstream reddy brown beers!

Originally posted by tdtm82
How has Theakston’s beers changed? I love Old Peculiar and it was one of my changing for the better beers during my younger 20’s.

Ironically, I’ve probably never tasted Theakstons Bitter from it’s spiritial home in Masham. In the 70s it was made at Theakston’s second, but bigger, brewery in Carlisle - they had acquired the old Carlisle State Management Scheme brewery (that’s a fascinating story in itself if you aren’t aware of it) in the early 70s and shifted production of the bitter there. The Masham brewery only produced Old Peculier - which was highly prized but tough to find - and, maybe, some mild, I forget. Many people claimed the bitter had gone downhill after the move to Carlisle. In the 80s Theakston was taken over by Matthew Brown, which was itself taken over by S&N. The Carlisle brewery was closed and Theakston’s Bitter ended up being made in Newcastle. It was only in 2009, after the family bought back Theakston, that production of the Bitter returned to Masham. And I’m not sure I’ve had it since then. Never a big fan really. In the 70s I’d generally drink OP if I found it, which was not often - it certainly didn’t find it’s way down south then. As one the very few stronger year-round beers available in the 70s it was real treat but whether that was because it was a truly great beer or more to do with the lack of opposition, I’d be hard pressed to say so many years on. I think the ABV may have dropped a bit since the 70s but it’s difficult to be certain as ABVs weren’t displayed/disclosed back then, just the OG.

The Mild was introduced in 1982 or sometime later if irc. By the 1990s even some OP was being produced in Newcastle. The Best Bitter is good for a mass market family brewer bitter. OP was definitely stronger way back when though. It was described in the 1970s by the brewery as being somewhere in between Newcastle Brown Ale and barley wine in terms of strength. If barley wine is 10% and NBA around 5% then OP must have been around 7% at least. And back then it was traditionally served in third pints (or nips). I can’t imagine anyone drinking it in third pints now.

Originally posted by dynamiteninja
The Mild was introduced in 1982 or sometime later if irc. By the 1990s even some OP was being produced in Newcastle. The Best Bitter is good for a mass market family brewer bitter. OP was definitely stronger way back when though. It was described in the 1970s by the brewery as being somewhere in between Newcastle Brown Ale and barley wine in terms of strength. If barley wine is 10% and NBA around 5% then OP must have been around 7% at least. And back then it was traditionally served in third pints (or nips). I can’t imagine anyone drinking it in third pints now.

1978 GBG has Theakston Light Mild and Theakston Dark Mild (both OG 1032) listed. OP is listed at 1060.3 but it’s difficult to translate that into ABV without knowing attenuation level. But it’s not going to be that much stronger than the current version. It may have been stronger earlier in the decade of course. I rememeber visiting the White Bear in Masham several times between 1974 and 1978 (mainly after caving trips) snd don’t recall being expected to drink OP in nips then.

Originally posted by chriso

Originally posted by dynamiteninja
The Mild was introduced in 1982 or sometime later if irc. By the 1990s even some OP was being produced in Newcastle. The Best Bitter is good for a mass market family brewer bitter. OP was definitely stronger way back when though. It was described in the 1970s by the brewery as being somewhere in between Newcastle Brown Ale and barley wine in terms of strength. If barley wine is 10% and NBA around 5% then OP must have been around 7% at least. And back then it was traditionally served in third pints (or nips). I can’t imagine anyone drinking it in third pints now.

1978 GBG has Theakston Light Mild and Theakston Dark Mild (both OG 1032) listed. OP is listed at 1060.3 but it’s difficult to translate that into ABV without knowing attenuation level. But it’s not going to be that much stronger than the current version. It may have been stronger earlier in the decade of course. I rememeber visiting the White Bear in Masham several times between 1974 and 1978 (mainly after caving trips) snd don’t recall being expected to drink OP in nips then.

From my notes:

Yeah it was 1976 that it was described by Paul Theakston as having a gravity "approximately midway between Newcastle Brown and barley wine".

Old Peculier (in bottles at least) was 6% ABV in 1989.

If NBA was 4.5% back then, and a barley wine is perhaps 7.5% at its lowest, then that backs up OP being 6%.

Originally posted by FatPhil

Originally posted by bobinlondon
the writing was on the wall for this mediochre beer.

And all other nainstream reddy brown beers!

Thanks Phil. My new phone will have a better spell check funtion. However: I may use this adjective in future beer reviews.