Speckled Hen

In article , Davey writes

I can remember when Speckled Hen wasn't bl**dy made in East Anglia.

In message , Darkside writes

Likewise; and I also remember when the draught mild (and bottled brown ale) brewed by the current brewers of SH was far better than it is now.

GK operate too big a pub estate to have anything other than average beer keeping in their pubs IMO, kept properly GKs beers (and its adopted ones) arent as bad as you think, but finding somewhere outside of their hometown that does it is next to impossible

In message , awavey writes

It wasn't down to poor cellar skills; it was a change in recipe. Both the draught mild and the bottled brown ale lost a lot of their flavour.

In article , Andrew Marshall writes

'twas ever so, I grew up on hand pumped Stones, wonderful beer which cost me many pairs of trousers due to the knees being ripped.

It then went to bright beer which was passable, then they closed the Cannon Brewery and Coors took over the brewing, needless to say it turned into undrinkable crap, my local club stopped serving because they couldn't get hold of it anymore.

Mike

In message , awavey wrote

In the past 10 years I've only had a few good pints of GK but I find in most of their outlets it is unpleasant. I think there must be something seriously wrong with they way they train the publicans in their tied houses and/or in their distribution network.

The year the GK won an award at the Great British Beer festival the announcement was met with a large percentage of the attendees booing.

In article , Alan writes

You might think you'd get a perfect pint from the brewer's own stand, but you'd be wrong. They don't know how to look after beer that isn't in a cellar, and Olympia was particularly trying because of the heat. CAMRA's GBBF-hardened cellar people get much better results.

BTW I've just given a dim pint of "Stones" a low NBSS score.

In article , Darkside writes

Can you still get Stones?, my club had a lot of difficulty obtaining it, in the end there were just 3 of use drinking it so they gave up trying, the quality they did get was variable to say the least.

I must admit the Sovereign is OK once I got used to it and at £1.76 now against £2.16, before the last round of increases, it's better on my wallet.

Mike

In article , Michael Swift writes

I gather it's brewed by Molson Coors at Burton. It was a rugby-themed beer called "Nice Try" so you'd expect bland.