Smiles not smiling anymore?

MikeMcG a écrit :

Sad news.

Smiles is the very brewery that , back in 1990, as I was studying at a language school 100 metres upthe street from the brewery, got me definitively hooked on cask ale. The Ship, four doors down the street from the school, had Smiles Bitter and Exhibition on handpump on a regular basis, and I couldn't help but notice their beers were better than the Courage Bitter and Directors poured from the other two handpumps. Which led to further research as to why and how come.

The teacher in charge of "english conversation" being a complete tw*t, who'd just finished his psychologist's training and took great pleasure in causing personalities' clashes between people in his class of eight, a few of us skipped his course after a month or so, and were to be found downing pints at the Ship three afternoons a week. Funny how a complete tw*t can unwittingly lead you to discover one of life's finest pleasures... ;o)

Cheers !

Laurent

Probably a better place to learn conversational English too, so long as you talk to English people not other language students. Lots of foreign would-be English teachers do a year's postgraduate study here in Oxford, and many of them get jobs serving in pubs. It certainly gives them another perspective on the language of Shakespeare :-)

I'm also sad to see Smiles bite the dust - one of the micro pioneers, and some of the beers were very good.

Best regards, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

Very sad news indeed.. more reminiscing..

I lived in Bristol in the early 90's too.. The Highbury Vaults was a very regular haunt (The Ship was another!). A group of us did the Smles Brewery tour about 1991.. fanstasic, a few months later with did the Courage site tour... yes it was big and impressive, but we all knew where our hearts were and where our beers can from.

A few years ago I went back, walked past the brewery.. popped in the vaults.. with iits big Youngs signage.. bit sad/ironic.. since I now live in London, and personally don't find Youngs beers that good/interesting.

Lots of good memories.. and a heck of a lot of Smiles Exhibition was consumed!

It's (soon to be was?) now called Smiles Heritage, due to some other brewery having prior claim on "Exhibition". A deal a previous Smiles co did with Youngs, meant that Youngs took over the Smiles pubs, and the pubs sold both; as is the case I think in the Highbury Vaults, and similarly Smiles Best was (last time I checked) available in Horts (though not the Ropewalk).