It’s some years since I used to blog for business and I’ve been intending to start something more personal, but hadn’t quite got around to it. Until now. This will be a series of random jottings, with no intention to build up a significant readership. They’re notes for my own benefit as much as anything else.

Beer and pubs will be one of the regular themes and that’s where I intend to start. I was recently in the Highbury Vaults in Bristol, a Young’s pub. Not being too inclined towards the selection of hazy pales on offer, I had a pint of Young’s London Original.

Now, I’m not the first to note that this beer isn’t Young’s (they are no longer a brewer), it doesn’t come from London, and it isn’t particularly original. As with most subjects relating to beer, Boak and Bailey were here earlier: The secret language of Young’s is being lost.

The beer in question was formerly named Young’s Bitter, but more usually known as “Ordinary”. It’s a beer with which I am quite familiar as I spent around 16 years living less than five minutes’ walk from one of Young’s more well-known pubs (The Windmill, Clapham Common). I drank enough “Ordinary” there to know its taste, although my more usual drink was “Special”, Young’s take on a best bitter.

For many years, I also commuted past the Ram Brewery in Wandsworth, sometimes winding down the car window to take in the full aroma of the mash. Not infrequently I was delayed by following the horse-drawn dray up West Hill.

After I moved away from London, so Young’s also left Wandsworth. The Ram Brewery was closed and brewing transferred to the Eagle Brewery in Bedford, at first in a joint venture with Charles Wells, but subsequently without the involvement of Young’s.

In more recent years the beer brands have become part of the conglomerate known as some combination of the names Wolverhampton and Dudley, Marstons, Carlsberg and Britvic. Where the beer is brewed now is a bit of a mystery – the pump clip doesn’t give any clue. After Bedford, the Young’s beers moved to Wychwood Brewery in Oxfordshire, until that was closed by Carlsberg Marstons and are now believed to be produced in Wolverhampton at the former Banks’s brewery. However, that is also due to close in Autumn 2025, so Young’s beers will be on the move again – probably to Burton-on-Trent, but anything is feasible.

So back to the beer. It is still a pleasant pint if, to my mind, unexceptional. (Although it did win six silver/bronze awards in the Session Bitter category of Champion Beer of Britain between 1983 and 1991.) I’m not going to try to do a taste comparison with the beer I remember from 30-40 years ago as I am always suspicious of people who try to achieve that feat. (The verdict is almost always, “It’s not as good as it used to be!”) As I remember, “Ordinary” was always a pleasant pint, if unexceptional. Which is why I usually drank Special…