Posted by Joe Windsor on September 02, 2006 at 14:19:14 from 84.12.25.230 user Joe.
Imagine this small village in Hertfordshire during WW2 (10 pubs - OK - keep up at the back there) One of them has a thatched roof, benches around the walls beneath which country people (mostly poachers from whom we bought non-ration meat) kept their dogs. Tiled floor.
Wooden barrels on stands with taps knocked into their front faces from which the publican's wife poured beer into our tankards. (Glasses? What glasses?)
Celebrating the end of the war a totally smashed serviceman shot off a Verey pistol flare - which fell on the roof and burned the pub down. (Don't worry, they rebuilt it and it's still there today).
That was then. I forget the date but in the 1950's some lunatic came up with Watney's Red Barrel. In a tin box. Powered by gas. Poured by a valve not drawn by a pump. That one beer (which was FOUL) brought a catastrophe on draught beer drinking in Britain. It took years to recover - and it's not there yet.
Let's hear one for CAMRA. Decent ale for decent people. Yazzuh!! Joe