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Mitchell's & Butler's Ltd.

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Pedrocut said:
Your mention of Guinness and Liffey water reminds me of a trip to London, donkey's years ago, to Park Royal Dogs and Park Royal Brewery. The question was asked about the difference in taste of the Guinness in London and Dublin, and the old saying "it doesn't travel well."

The answer given was something like this...Even in Dublin the mineral content of the water is constantly measured. The water used at Park Royal, although from a different source, would be adjusted to be almost identical. The difference in taste would be undetectable.....never had a winner at the dogs!
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I just looked at this thread and particularly this post...…….I used to manage the largest keg maker in the US. We dealt with all the North American and Canadian breweries including InBev and SA brewery. Astonian & Pedrocut are absolutely on point. beer is a global thing...….Micromatic and European company makes most of the valves used in kegs globally, like 90 plus %. They also make about the same % of taps/crowns and lines.
Personally I knew Dick Yuengling quite well who owned the oldest brewery in the US 1829, I know not very old compared to Europe.
The beer business has SO many old tales and that is far far from reality!
 
Well, if you are going to bring the USA into this then Milwaukee just has to be mentioned, the proclaimed capitol of beer in the USA, much as Burton-on-Trent was here. Miller (known here), Pabst, Schlitz and smaller breweries were mostly set up by German immigrants. Access to wheat from the prairies and water from Lake Michigan made it the ideal place. The bigger city of Chicago, situated at the end of Lake Michigan was another good area for sales. The larger breweries have mainly gone, as far as I know, but craft beers are prolific there. The city's baseball team is called The Brewers and there was, in the past a railway line known as The Beer Line which served many breweries.
Old Brit will chip in, I guess, with Coors at Golden, Colorado.
When passing through Burton-on-Trent a few years ago I noticed the name Coors on silos there.
 
Radiorails said:
Well, if you are going to bring the USA into this then Milwaukee just has to be mentioned, the proclaimed capitol of beer in the USA, much as Burton-on-Trent was here. Miller (known here), Pabst, Schlitz and smaller breweries were mostly set up by German immigrants. Access to wheat from the prairies and water from Lake Michigan made it the ideal place. The bigger city of Chicago, situated at the end of Lake Michigan was another good area for sales. The larger breweries have mainly gone, as far as I know, but craft beers are prolific there. The city's baseball team is called The Brewers and there was, in the past a railway line known as The Beer Line which served many breweries.
Old Brit will chip in, I guess, with Coors at Golden, Colorado.
When passing through Burton-on-Trent a few years ago I noticed the name Coors on silos there.
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Great point...………. Miller is owned by South African breweries a UK company. Miller and Coors are European owned. Pabst & Schlitz all good beers are long gone. The Pabst brewery in Florida is now run by Yuengling Brewery. My point is that BEER is a global business and it is all scientifically run!
 
Could members please read the title of this thread, and remember that this is the BIRMINGHAM history forum
 
The present day M&B seems quite different to the one when it was based in Birmingham. At least the name still exists whereas other Birmingham brewery names seem to have gone.

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www.mbplc.com www.mbplc.com
 
Smudger said:
I always drank in M&B pubs, don`t really know why. My favourite tipple was a brown & mild, (half of mild, half of bottle brown ) Sometimes i would ask for a black & tan & for the life of me i can`t remember what went into that?
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What was M&B's brown called? I can remember Nutbrown and Bruin but they were Ansells. Wasn't a Black and Tan stout (Guinness or Mackeson) and mild?
 
Smudger said:
I always drank in M&B pubs, don`t really know why. My favourite tipple was a brown & mild, (half of mild, half of bottle brown ) Sometimes i would ask for a black & tan & for the life of me i can`t remember what went into that?
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Black and Tan is a beer cocktail made by layering a pale beer and a dark beer .

Preparation
A Black and Tan is prepared by filling a glass halfway with pale ale, then adding stout to fill the glass completely. An upside-down tablespoon may be placed over the glass to avoid splashing and mixing the layers. A specially designed black-and-tan spoon is bent in the middle so that it can balance on the edge of the pint-glass for easier pouring.[1] Alternatively, the stout may be poured first so that the drinks are thoroughly mixed together.
The "layering" of Guinness on top of the pale ale or lager is possible because of the lower relative density of the Guinness.[1] The opposite scenario (where the layer on top is heavier than bottom) would produce a buoyancy instability resulting in the two beers mixing
so now you know.
 
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Smudger said:
I always drank in M&B pubs, don`t really know why. My favourite tipple was a brown & mild, (half of mild, half of bottle brown ) Sometimes i would ask for a black & tan & for the life of me i can`t remember what went into that?
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Brown and mild was my choice also, you always got a little more than a half when the mild was pulled, can not remember what the bottled beer was.
 
Hi

Anyone remember M & B Family Ale. I rather liked that.
And I also used to drink Brown and Mild as a youth, - always
had a preference for M & B's ales.

Kind regards
Dave
 
My local M&B pub was The Brookvale in Slade road. Always looked forward to the weekends when the gaffer had hired a Scottish pipe band which was usually followed by a punch up round the back. " Don`t hit me in the face, anywhere but there" There was always a good crowd at these punch ups baying for blood. There was one particular guy who was quiet but hard as nails & other hard men used to seek him out & try to steal his reputation, a bit like the gunslingers of the American west.
 
Morturn said:
I think a black & tan was gunness and mild (or bitter?) Quite popular with Irish folks.
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Black and Tan - Wikipedia

Why You Shouldn't Order A Black And Tan At An Irish Bar
Ordering a Black and Tan in Ireland is a huge no-no because the term is considered offensive in that part of the world. The name was first used in the American magazine Puck in 1881 as a reference to the drink's color
 
mw0njm. said:
Black and Tan - Wikipedia

Why You Shouldn't Order A Black And Tan At An Irish Bar
Ordering a Black and Tan in Ireland is a huge no-no because the term is considered offensive in that part of the world. The name was first used in the American magazine Puck in 1881 as a reference to the drink's color
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“The Black and Tans, officially the Royal Irish Constabulary Special Reserve, was a force of temporary constables recruited to assist the Royal Irish Constabulary during the Irish War of Independence. The force was the brainchild of Winston Churchill, then British Secretary of State for War.”
 
I am just curious most beers we get in the USA seem to be around 5-6% alc content. What was beer Alc content% in England in the 19401950s ? I told once that English beer was much weaker, so people drank more and did not get so drunk and the beer companies made it that way on purpose to sell more??
 
My dad use to drink mild and I told him it was partly made up of slops from the drip trays and leftovers from the drinks that customers left in their glasses he said he did not care it tasted nice anyway and a few germs dont harm you anyway .He must of been right he lived till he was 87 . The practice has been banned now but to think of the leftover beer that customers left in their drinks ie ash from fags ,spit,and anything that falls into a pint being recycled I shudder to think ! BUT THAT IS WHY IT PROBABLY TASTED SO GOOD!!
 
Sugar said:
My dad use to drink mild and I told him it was partly made up of slops from the drip trays and leftovers from the drinks that customers left in their glasses he said he did not care it tasted nice anyway and a few germs dont harm you anyway .He must of been right he lived till he was 87 . The practice has been banned now but to think of the leftover beer that customers left in their drinks ie ash from fags ,spit,and anything that falls into a pint being recycled I shudder to think ! BUT THAT IS WHY IT PROBABLY TASTED SO GOOD!!
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we own`d a pub.and all the slops went down the drain.. left overs too. even the casks of draft bitter worth a few quid,if shook up and was no good. that went down the drain . we sold loads of light mild and dark mild. .. only knew one pub in nechells that put slops back in the barrel,that was the woodman. when were were kids we used to look through the knot holes in the celler.and shout at the landlord.:laughing::laughing:
 
mw0njm. said:
we own`d a pub.and all the slops went down the drain.. left overs too. even the casks of draft bitter worth a few quid,if shook up and was no good. that went down the drain . we sold loads of light mild and dark mild. .. only knew one pub in nechells that put slops back in the barrel,that was the woodman. when were were kids we used to look through the knot holes in the celler.and shout at the landlord.:laughing::laughing:
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A lot of people used to say that about mild, mainly bitter drinkers. While a few landlords may well have doctored the beer, I believe the first few pints after the dinner time session had laid in the pipes and should have been drawn off. Then of course the end of the barrel would be the same. Many landlords drank their own beer and If you were first in the pub for the evening session they would draw some off taste it to see if it was ok.
 
mw0njm. said:
we own`d a pub.and all the slops went down the drain.. left overs too. even the casks of draft bitter worth a few quid,if shook up and was no good. that went down the drain . we sold loads of light mild and dark mild. .. only knew one pub in nechells that put slops back in the barrel,that was the woodman. when were were kids we used to look through the knot holes in the celler.and shout at the landlord.:laughing::laughing:
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You must of been one of the honest landlords .my brother worked in the lamplighter in summer lane in the 70s and he was told only to keep the leftover drinks only if they looked ok and pour them into a bucket to keep for the mild.
 
Sugar said:
You must of been one of the honest landlords .my brother worked in the lamplighter in summer lane in the 70s and he was told only to keep the leftover drinks only if they looked ok and pour them into a bucket to keep for the mild.
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yuk. if i would not drink it, i would not expect other to.
 
Pedrocut said:
Return of slops from the Guardian archives and a reference to Birmingham...

www.theguardian.com

Pub landlords pour beer slops back into barrels: From the archive, 12 February 1963

Originally published in the Guardian on 12 February 1963: Drip tray contents don't always go down the drain, as some customers seem to think
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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that is bad . we were proud of our celler.the draft bitter that was shook up.and disturbed the sediment.we could not sell ...some went to my dad he did not mind bits he drunk it.
 
Sugar said:
You must of been one of the honest landlords .my brother worked in the lamplighter in summer lane in the 70s and he was told only to keep the leftover drinks only if they looked ok and pour them into a bucket to keep for the mild.
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One of the questions that was asked was, “How many pubs are there in Summer Lane?”

Not sure if the answer was none or one, as all the others had their front doors on the side streets. Can anyone confirm this?
 
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