A pint of John Smiths

I’ve forgot what it tastes like. I hope I still like it.

 

like a pint of Magnet me

 

Do they still produce it? When I and my friends were a lot younger,we would go to the King George Hotel in Barnsley. It was the only place I recall,having Magnet on draught,much better than John Smith's Bitter.

 

you can get it at the Hare and Hounds Hoyland Common

 

It will still taste she ite only good for cleaning drains

 

John Smiths? John Smiths? If you like that kak then you've got dodgy taste buds!

 

John Smiths Bitter never really replaced Barnsley Bitter. Shortly after Courage/John Smiths took over the Oakwell brewery they brought out something called ‘Starlight’,I think, as a replacement. It was short lived due to it being awful.

 

When I started boozing 1964 there was nowhere in Elsecar that sold Barnsley Bitter so I was brought up on John Smiths at the Clothiers Arms. In 1966 I went on a course with my job for 2 weeks to Peterborough. The first night a few of us went to a pub local to where we were staying and Barnsley Bitter was the main brew.

 

Went on the Norfolk Broads mid Seventies and there was an old pub in the middle of nowhere with Barnsley Bitter wrote on the roof just like the old Brewery stand used to .
Can’t fit life of me remember what beer they were selling at the time but I’ll bet it wasn’t as good as the ol BB

 

My Dad told me BB was the best pint he ever supped - said it was the only one of the many different brews he tried where he could wake up with a clear head the next morning, when they stopped brewing it he transferred onto Stones at his local, The Periwinkle in Wombwell -

 

Timothy Taylors anybody?

 

John Smith's? No thanks, there are a multitude of better options including their token real ale - brewed under license by Cameron's in Hartlepool.....

 

For the record, My favourite beer is Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild, brewed in Sedgley in The Black Country.

 

I spent most of my school hols in a little village 10 miles north of Peterboro called Langtoft .When I was old enough to go drinking!!!! we used to go to the next village, even smaller than Langtoft, called Baston, to a pub that sold Barnsley bitter, basically it was a front room with a serving hatch and the beer was pulled direct from the barrel via a hand pump, tasted ***** lol. There was at least 3 other pubs to my knowledge in a 5 mile radius that also sold it.

 

I knew a pub like that in Fen Ditton, just outside Cambridge. It was a terraced house and you walked into the front room from the street and the landlady stood at a counter in the doorway into the kitchen. I think it was Greene king (which was decent back in the early 80s) and she had 2 casks on the draining board which she poured by gravity. Lovely place, sadly no longer a pub the last time I went there in the 90s.

 

Shît. It will taste like shît.

 

Shocking beer. Always amazes me when at a bar with loads of hand pulled ales to choose from and someone rocks up and orders a pint of Smooth.
Each to their own I suppose but not for me....

 

When I started at Houghton Main pit between the Baths/ canteen area and the managers offices used to be a Grocery/off licence run by the then Time keeper which served about 30/40 terraced houses across the road just outside of the pit yard .
You could go in the shop before your night shift and pay for a pint of John Smiths and was told it was BB before that.
Then when you finished your night shift next morning there be a pint of JS freshly pulled in the shop waiting for you.
Don’t know the ins and outs but I think as long as you’d paid for it in the off licence hours it was permissible to drink at 5:30 am .
Never bothered for the night shift one but had one or two in the shop when afternoon shift finished while waiting for the Paddy.

 

Did your dad work at Houghton Main?

 

In the middle of the old Templeborough rolling mills was the Temple pub, open 24 hours. The steelworkers got two free pints a shift which made us working there jealous because working in construction you’re not allowed to drink whilst at work.