Of Guinness and ale

I chose my pubs very carefully in my late teens and early twenties. I liked them quite dark, not too busy and quite simply decorated. A good open fire for the winter months was a must as, of course, was a friendly clientele. Then there was the beer.

My two favourite drinks were brown and bitter and Guinness. Brown and bitter is a mix of one half pint of brown ale and one half pint of bitter, but I was very particular about the types of beer used. It absolutely had to be Mann’s brown ale and it had to be mixed with a good bitter of medium thickness and flavour (London Pride was a good one). That was a fine pint. Hard to find then and even harder to find now. Indeed, I can’t remember the last time I saw a bottle of Mann’s brown.

Guinness, on the other hand, is in plentiful supply and I have to admit of a better overall consistency now than it was when I was younger. I used to switch pubs on the basis of who had the best kept barrel on at any particular moment because, for some reason, landlords found it hard to keep well. Now it seems that almost every local round these parts does a good pint so I suspect that the storage technology has changed or some such.

Anyone else notice this improvement over the last ten or fifteen years or so?