Bottled or Tinned?

An American gentleman, if there is such a thing, posted, on behalf of his dog who struggles with keyboards, about the Brewing of Beer.  This is a subject much loved by people with nothing else to do.  A blog worth reading I say.

Naturally I was intrigued.  The detailed information even going far back into History to the dawn of life in Sumer 5000 years ago.  Here women brewed beer as this was a mainstay in those crowded cities, it was issued to the workforce as payment along with a bowl of food, and women had nothing else to do with their time.  The inference of the Dogs long tale, which is well worth a read, being that beer was always brewed by women until men took over.  Typical feminism!  This shows how strong a hold his wife has on him!

 

 

This reminded me of my third job, I having quickly been disposed off by the first and second ones for the rather unfortunate talent of being totally useless.  For four years I developed this talent in the office taking orders over the phone from pubs around the nation and pushing bits of paper together to organise loads for the lorry drivers.  Actual 'work' I knew not.  It was not a bad time for a ignorant 16 or so year old and when I reached 18 I received an allowance of beer for myself FREE! 

 

 

 

Tennents produced a famous Lager, the kind of beer drunk by youths just to get drunk rather than real beer for taste.  This was not brewed in Edinburgh as far as I knew, that came from the Glasgow brewery but as far as I know both have long closed so I no longer know where it originates these days.

However, each day I passed through the huge noisy bottling plant where all to often bottles of 'Piper Export' were passing by.  This replaced the failing 'Husky Export' which had to be put down.  'Piper' itself was also 'improved' as sales were poor, but in thosed ays all beer was losing flavour and large breweries cared not for taste. 

During the late 60's and through the 70's both 'Tennents,' part of the huge 'Bass Charrington Brewery,' and 'Scottish Brewers,' chose to lower the quality of their beers and produced cheap, easily made simple beers.  The quality of the public houses reflected the unoriginal taste of the beer.  This was universal, in England 'Watneys' produced 'Red Barrel' beer, somewhat akin to left over washing up water, but this came in large '7 Pint' tins which found favour with partygoers who care little what they drink.  

In days of yore beer was counted in shillings, 60/- was light beer, 70/- mild and 80/- 'Heavy.'  The term 'India Pale Ale' I believe came about as 60/- beer lasted the voyage to the Raj in India better than any other.  

However, at Tennents the slop we sold included 'Toby Beer,' and English intrusion that was taken in lorries equipped with large containers filled with beer.  For some reason Miners welfare clubs found this popular.  Interestingly, the miners of Ayrshire like light beer, the 60/-, but it had to be 'Extra Dark.'  If you take a barrel of beer and add a thimble of dye it becomes 'Dark,' two thimbles it becomes 'Extra Dark.'  The miners of Fife however refuse this dark 60/-, indeed, if you gave it to them they would refuse it because "The taste is off."  The Ayrshire men felt the same in reverse.  

The Lager cans decorated with the 'Lovelies' you see at the top were very popular at the time.  By the 70's however ugly girls were being upset as the attention of men became lodged on looking at the cans and not them, so they shouted about  'early sexism,' and had them stopped.  The girls themselves continued to pose as far as I know elsewhere, too grown up to follow such nonsense, and they made money.

Eventually, just as I was enjoying my work, the girls answering the phones needed me they said, and I needed them more than I ever said, but change was coming.  The office was a place where we talked openly about many things and life was good, but Jesus intervened.  One day as I collected my free beers he arrived and said "Oi! Walk this way."  So I did, sort off, moving to London and soon working in a charitable organisation 'Helping people.'  At least that what I said.  

By this time people were sick of grotty beer and a campaign began to return to a higher standard.  Soon smaller breweries were arriving and offering proper beer again, and today they appear to be in many peoples back gardens.  Not that they can sell much during LockDown unless a supermarket takes them on.  The slop mostly died away, Tennents Lager continues, youth gurgles it down and men over 35 drink stuff with flavour.  

Is it too late for one now?

 

Stout

A long time ago and in another life I worked in a brewery.  The term 'work' as used here must be taken with a pinch of salt in truth as the office where we piled the loads together for the lorries could not be said to be full of men fighting their way to the top.  The girls took the orders over the phones, typed them up and passed them on.  Bob went round and put the price totals correct afterwards as some of the lassies found counting a bit difficult.  I must say I was happy there, the people were good it was fun and the young girls all wanted me, what?....oh!  However the beer made there was not great.  'Tennents Lager' was our biggest seller, and indeed it still is up there but the rest of the beer was lousy on the whole.  One famous beer introduced was the 'Super.'  It has remained popular and all drunks are known to be held in bondage to the 'purple tin!' 

Since the war breweries had begun to merge, large conglomerates taking over small local breweries, and the varieties of beer began to dwindle.  As they did so it was in the big companies interest to produce less variety and keep costs down.  This being the late sixties and industrial strife breaking out regularly cost was important.  I say industrial strife, what I mean is bad management, greedy workers, poor laws, even poorer union people, incompetence and buck passing everywhere.  For instance the men in the office were annoyed after the drivers struck for more money, within a day or two they got what they wanted thus leaving them a good deal better off than the office workers.  We formed our own union and made a wage demand, this was rejected, so we had a one day strike (which I spent watching 'Midnight Cowboy) and all our demands were met the next day.  Poor, thoughtless, management led to the strike we didn't want (the only strike day I've ever had) and worse management caved in.  The directors you see didn't care as long as they were OK.  Typical attitude off the day.  It was a combination of bad management and short sighted unions that destroyed British output and growth during the 60's and 70's leading to the arrival of the lower middle class Thatcher!  Her answer was to sack everybody at the low end and keep the money for the top lot, like her friends.  Strong but thoughtless leadership which could have been successful but just brought division.  Our brewery management and union needed strong sensible leadership, it just didn't exist.

Brewers were all producing run of the mill beer.  Scottish Brewers dropped their 'Heavy' and 'Light' to replace this with 'McEwans Export' and 'Tartan Special.'  Sewers produce tastier brews.  At that time we young folks all drunk Lager & lime, costing 1/11 pence in the 'White Cockade' Monday to Thursday, and 2/1d Friday and Saturday.  We had not developed taste in those days. For many years vile brews dominated the land, England became famous for 'Watneys Red Barrel,' a concoction so vile that people drank sea water in preference.  Well in Scotland anyway, the English just drank it without thinking, they are like that.  Rebellion however was brewing.  Men gathered in groups demanding to taste their beer.  The 'Campaign for Real Ale,' CAMRA, was launched by folks we all considered a bit, well middle aged men-ish.  Laughed at by many it is clear they were right!  

By the eighties beer adverts were dominated by the Thatcher followers, young get rich quick males for the most part, dressed in striped shirts with red braces, drinking beer out the bottle in overpriced pubs and among all the right trendy, moneyed people.  The TV adverts appealed to them with exotic sounding foreign lagers which image conscious types fell over themselves for.  When you actually tasted the stuff it was all very similar and not up to much, it was also very expensive!   CAMRA did produce results however.  By the nineties taste was beginning to be seen again.  Bottled beers with exotic names, Theakston's 'Old Peculiar,' 'Abbot Ale,' 'Spitfire' and 'Bishops Finger,' were to be found by an older wiser type.  Quite how these brands got their names I know not, and possibly this is the wiser option.  The economic collapse (begun by America!) has led to people spending less time in public houses.  Many happily buy from supermarkets, at cut down prices, and drink at home.  Any consequences of this tend to be limited to their families and close neighbours rather than the High Streets of the nation.  That is some sort of plus I suppose.  An interest in beer with taste has increased and said superstores are following the trends happily.  Grossly overpriced beers in my view they may be but a variety now abounds.  While the large breweries have been failing, my old brewery works are now an overpriced block of crammed flats, the smaller breweries have been developing.  

Small premises closed in times past are now reopening and over two hundred such 'micro breweries' are enjoying good sales, at first locally and then further afield.  Possibly a revulsion against the empty aloof corporate giant helps here.  We feel a satisfaction when drinking 'March of the Penguins' from Williams wee brewery in Alloa which we don't when drinking Tennents, where ever that is brewed these days.  Now I don't drink much these days, half a bottle is enough for me and I tend to fall over easily afterwards, but when I do I wish to taste the thing.  These days I drink 'stout,' a concoction they claim was started long ago in London's Covent Garden when it was the fruit market of the city. That may be the case, it may not, whatever I find Fullers 'London Porter' to be the best I have come across, and naturally not enough sold in our Sainsburys for it to remain in stock.  Mann's 'Brown Ale' went the same way sadly.  Ah well, while I contemplate my next bottle of 'Piddle in the Pot,' named after an English village they say, or maybe a 'Kelpie Seweed Ale,' I will wish you a good evening and wander off to find all the football scores I missed while waiting for the BBC Alba coverage of the Ross County game.  After that game believe me I need my  'Old Speckled Hen!'