Does Anyone Remember "Jungle-Juice"?

[Briny Reck]

William Stones head brewer in 1968, when I left them to join James Hole's of Newark, was a man called Bert Smout.

Bass Charrington had recently taken over and Bert from then on had to brew with flaked maize which didn't meet with his approval. After that date Stones Best Bitter took on a distictly different taste.

 

The last thing to go into wooden barrels of beer before being loaded up for delivery were 'finings' made from isinglass i.e. dried fish bladders.

When the barrels were gantry mounted in pub cellars they were tapped then spiled with a porous wooden peg to allow the finings to clear the cloud and let the sediment settle to the bottom of the cask. This took about twenty four hours, prior to the beer going on sale. Casks not yet in use were hard pegged until they were needed.

T.

 

I wonder how it was discovered that you could clarify beer by adding fish's bladders and how many other things were tried before.

[Plain Talker]

who's was the beer/wine they called King of ale's had a tartan front to the little 1/4 pint bottle i know the "lady's "would drink in a little wine glass had one hell of a punch(said my mum)the name Younger's just came tto mind

 

I remember a "Younger's Tartan Bitter", but I doubt that is the same stuff, though..

 

( odd thing was, YTB was the same colour as my dad's Magnet and Stones' bitter, and not Tartan at all *scratches head* )

[chrishall]

Are there any beers around today that are similar to pre First World War ones? I would imagine that there are considering the number of small breweries and ever growing interest in real ale.

 

Don't think so as I doubt the old grain crops are available now. Any beer that relies on added sugar to get alcohol levels up is a bit of a con really. English methods of brewing in open vats were only really possible in this country because of our superior grain, since they disappeared beer brewed with sugar has lost it's character. Nowadays it's chilled, filtered, aerated and buggered about with to make it commercially viable, or should I say cheap?

[Texas]

There's some really interesting stuff on this thread, especially about the additives, 'fish bladders, flaked maize etc; etc.' Nothing to do with beer, but I remember reading somewhere that there hadn't been any decent cider brewed in England since we stopped going to war with the French. The reason being, a dead Frenchman in a vat of cider added a certain refinment to the brew. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but what I do know is that I told the above anecdote to an old friend of mine one time. He used to dabble in home brewing, beers, ciders, still liquer, a real piece of work he was. He loved the story. I'd forgotten about it, and months later on the '****' with the above mentioned friend, a gang of us went back to his gaff to partake of some of his home brews. One of them was cider. I had some, and it tasted fine. He told me later that he'd put a dead rabbit in the mix. What can you say, some people eh?

[hillsbro]

... I remember reading somewhere that there hadn't been any decent cider brewed in England since we stopped going to war with the French. The reason being, a dead Frenchman in a vat of cider added a certain refinment to the brew...

Dead right - Old English cider was a drink with body in it..

[flyer]

Dead right - Old English cider was a drink with body in it..

1950 Devon cider was 4p a pint and you could never drink two,in fact the landlord's was told never to sell anyone in uniform more than two, if you was going into battle that was another story two made you fighting mad:hihi::hihi:

[flyer]

P.S poor mans black velvet half rough Cider and half stout, knew a girl in Colchester knock them back like water, I'd be staggering at one

[Gormenghast]

William Stones head brewer in 1968, when I left them to join James Hole's of Newark, was a man called Bert Smout.

Bass Charrington had recently taken over and Bert from then on had to brew with flaked maize which didn't meet with his approval. After that date Stones Best Bitter took on a distictly different taste.

 

The last thing to go into wooden barrels of beer before being loaded up for delivery were 'finings' made from isinglass i.e. dried fish bladders.

When the barrels were gantry mounted in pub cellars they were tapped then spiled with a porous wooden peg to allow the finings to clear the cloud and let the sediment settle to the bottom of the cask. This took about twenty four hours, prior to the beer going on sale. Casks not yet in use were hard pegged until they were needed.

T.

 

Yes I remember Bert from when I worked there in the late 60s till the early 70s, and the assistant brewer Glynn Bradshaw. And Eddy Kidger the cooper, Ernest Murray the chief engineer and many more.

 

Do you remember alpine Albert?

[Texas]

1950 Devon cider was 4p a pint and you could never drink two,in fact the landlord's was told never to sell anyone in uniform more than two, if you was going into battle that was another story two made you fighting mad:hihi::hihi:

I remember that stuff when we got demobbed in Newton Abbot, down Torquay way. There was this big one story boozer right down on the harbour, you could walk around it. They sold this cider, never had nothing like it before or since, it was a light green in color, as rough as a bears ass, and as flat as a pancake. I think it was about sixpence (old English money) then, for a pint. Two was the limit, after that you didn't function right.

[OWDTOM]

 

Do you remember alpine Albert?

 

No, but why did he get the name 'alpine'; that was a Sam Smith's draught lager around that time.

 

My connection was with the Free Trade and Working Men's Clubs. Harold Killingbeck, Gerald Calderbank, Arthur Kirbyshaw, Ken Waite, Harry Bamforth, Harold Jackson and Jack Smith - ex Sheffield United goalkeeper and others, including Edna on the switchboard and Tony her pump fitter husband.

T.