Saturday 8 September 2007

A pint of Mild, please

"What do I have to say?" I ask myself this question often. This is my usual response:







"Where do I want to be?" I do know the answer to that one: the Brassmoulders Arms in 1979. Drinking Tetley's Mild served through an economiser.

I've been all over, drunk all kinds of fancy beer, but a pub crawl around Cross Green or Hunslet; that was something else. There was only one beer involved. For me there was only one beer in those years. A beer as unfashionable as you could get. A cloth cap beer brewed by a big brewery. Drunk in pubs as magnificent as the ale.

"What do you want?" "A pint of mild, please." I still say that. Even when I'm not being asked what I want to drink. Nostalgia? Bad joke? Unfulfilled longing? Who knows. That it still falls so easily from my lips after all these years must mean something.

Today I could have said "a pint of Mild, please" seriously. They had Rutland Panther straight from the barrel at Bruxellensis. But no-one asked me what I wanted. Bloody typical.

7 comments:

The Beer Nut said...

I got to say "Pint of mild, please" for, I think, the first time ever on Friday. Rolls off the tongue, dunnit?

Ron Pattinson said...

It does, deosn't it? And what did you think of the beer itself?

The Beer Nut said...

Without trying to sound clever (for once) I found it quite mild. Bits of coffee and other roasted things, but quite the antithesis of extreme beer. Full report over with the rest of my ramblings.

Anonymous said...

RP: Rutland Panther at Bruxellensis today was my first (commercial) cask mild ever - thought it was pretty fricken good too.

Ron Pattinson said...

Lachlan, Rutland Panther is a good Mild to start with. It was in perfect condition at Bruxellensis, too. It was the best beer I had at the festival by quite a way.

I'll be at Wildeman tomorrow, but won't get there until about 18:00. I couldn't make it to the RateBeer meeting because I had the kids in tow. Luckily, they seemed to like Bruxellensis.

Michael said...

A spell of nostalgia has had me looking for the Brassmoulders Arms. I spent my student years in the late 70s living in the Leek St flats and drinking mild in the Brassie and the Garden Gate, because they had the best pint. Not that I neglected the others....Only hope that it is still there.

Ron Pattinson said...

Wonderful pubs, the Brassmoulders and Garden Gate.