The 1987 Good Beer Guide

These old Guides are all well worn but they were working documents pressed into frequent service. The 1987 edition had a hefty 10% mark up to £4.95. Now that Thursday night clapping for pub tickers has stopped, we are left to our own devices and wistful recollections. Lockdown may be taking its toll but once……

The 1986 Good Beer Guide

Overwhelmed with a request to follow the triumph of the 1985 post with a sequel, I offer you the 1986 Good Beer Guide, complete with details on how pubs were selected. No change there? There were some familiar themes: ‘the past twelve months were probably the blackest period in British brewing since CAMRA was set……

The 1985 Good Beer Guide

I hope lockdown ends and the pubs reopen before this blog trickles towards the present day, but in the meantime here is a glimpse of 1985. That year’s Good Beer Guide contained a useful review of the year. Some things had changed: Scottish and Newcastle produced a cask version of Exhibition Ale, the first real……

1984

At a time when living in the past seems more popular than living in the present, I am going to take you back to 1984. It was a rather grim time. Virus of the year was the newly discovered HIV. The Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo before the city was engulfed by a brutal……

A Pub with No Beer

A Pub with no Beer was the title of a song borrowed by the Dubliners in 1967. For a while recently there was plenty of beer with no pubs, as 3 million casks and kegs of beer had to be poured away after passing their sell by date. The Dubliners were, of course, an Irish……

Going to the Pub with Dad

During this Pandemic thoughts naturally turn to loved ones it has not been possible to see. I have been thinking a lot about my Dad, not least because he has been in hospital for the last week and no visitors are permitted. He will be 86 very soon, if all goes well. It was Dad……

It’s still 1983

How was it that The Police- an otherwise bland, unremarkable band – were able to foresee the current crisis with Don’t Stand so Close to me? Not to mention their tribute to the Derbyshire Constabulary, Every Breath you Take (I’ll be watching you). For those of us not providing front line services it can feel……

Back at The Ranche in Hamilton

If you walk up Strathaven Road about a mile from the centre of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, you reach a corner where once stood the town’s most famous pub. The Ranche was a somewhat notorious pub with a sloping bar as evidenced by the picture below. This was caused by underground coal mine workings that riddled the……

The Pub Years: 1983 When it all Began

I took a solemn vow on January 1st, 1983, a vow honoured to the present day. It was that I would list every pub visited. Reader, I married the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. We were both young and foolish. Well the Guide was ten years old but in human years that made it twenty so……

Turning the Lights Off

One last throw of the dice. I left you in Bishop’s Stortford over a week ago, on the day people were advised not to go into pubs. Four days later this became mandatory as all pubs were required to close. This virus has got a lot to answer for. My plans to finish Suffolk and……