Yesterday we stumbled upon a 2006 ‘top ten bottled British ales’ listicle by Pete Brown which we shared on Twitter, and which reminded us of something we found during research on Brew Britannia: a list of 101 bottled reviewed by Michael ‘The Beer Hunter’ Jackson’s for an article in British tabloid the People in 1994.
It appeared in the Sunday edition for 21 August that year and offers an excellent snapshot of what was then readily available in British shops.
It’s from just the moment when Premium Bottled Ales were coming into existence in their almost-a-pint bottles and at around pub strength, shoving aside traditional half-pint brown and light ales.
There are some surprises but, generally, we think, it brings home how far things have come.
Jackson subscribed to the view that it was a waste of time to write bad reviews when you could focus on things you’d enjoyed but in this exercise was essentially forced to give a short note for each beer, some of which were uncharacteristically stinging. Carlsberg Special Brew, for example, he found “sweet and yucky” and Scorpion Dry prompted him to ask: “Where’s the sting? More like cabbage water.”
On the whole, though, he remained quite gentle, even finding diplomatic words to say about some fairly bland lagers such as Rolling Rock with its touch of “new-mown hay”.
The asterisked beers are those he particularly recommended — quite a high bar, evidently.
| Beer | Vol. | ABV | Price |
| Becks | 275ml | 5% | 85p |
| Black Russian | 500ml | 4.8% | £1.69 |
| Black Sheep Ale* | 500ml | 4.4% | £1.25 |
| Budweiser | 330ml | 5% | 95p |
| Carling XD | 330ml | 5.5% | 99p |
| Carlsberg Special Brew | 275ml | 9% | £1.10 |
| Chimay | 330ml | 7% | £1.59 |
| Chimay Premiere* | 750ml | 7% | £3.69 |
| Cooper’s Best Extra Stout | 375ml | 6.8% | £1.25 |
| Cooper’s Sparkling Ale* | 375ml | 5.8% | £1.19 |
| Courage Imperial Russian Stout* | 170ml | 10% | £1.69 |
| Courage Light | 275ml | 3.2% | 65p |
| Courage Strong Pale Ale | 275ml | 4.2% | 65p |
| De Koninck* | 250ml | 5% | 99p |
| Double Maxim | 550ml | 4.2% | £1.05 |
| Duvel | 330ml | 8.5% | £1.49 |
| Eder’s Dunkles Starkbier* | 500ml | 7.5% | £1.39 |
| Eder’s Alt Bier | 500ml | 5% | £1.25 |
| Foster’s Export | 330ml | 5% | 90p |
| Foster’s Ice Beer | 330ml | 5% | £1.20 |
| Franziskaner Weissbier* | 500ml | 5% | £1.29 |
| Grolsch | 450m | 5% | £1.20 |
| Guinness Original | 330ml | 4.3% | £1 |
| Harp Lager | 275ml | 3.6% | 68p |
| Heineken | 330ml | 5% | 99p |
| Holsten Pils | 275ml | 5.5% | £1.09 |
| Hooper’s Ginger Brew (Tennent’s) | 330ml | 4.7% | £1.05 |
| John Smith’s Low Alcohol | 275ml | 1% | 65p |
| Kaliber | 330ml | 0.05% | 50p |
| Kilkenny | 330ml | 5% | £1.15 |
| Kronenbourg 1664 | 330ml | 5% | £1.09 |
| La Trappe Tripel | 330ml | 8% | £1.35 |
| Lamot Pils | 500ml | 5% | 99p |
| Maisel’s Weisse | 500ml | 5.7% | £1.19 |
| Mann’s Brown | 275ml | 2.8% | 85p |
| Marston’s Albion Porter | 500ml | 5.4% | £1.29 |
| Marston’s Owd Roger | 180ml | 7.6% | 75p |
| Marston’s Pedigree* | 568ml | 4.5% | £1.39 |
| Marston’s Stout | 500ml | 4% | £1.29 |
| Marston’s Union Mild | 500ml | 4% | £1.29 |
| Marston’s Indian Export* | 500ml | 5.5% | £1.39 |
| Maxim Light | 275ml | 0.9% | 22p |
| Michelob | 330ml | 5% | £1.09 |
| Miller Genuine Draft | 330ml | 4.7% | £1.19 |
| Moosehead | 355ml | 5% | £1.19 |
| Morland’s Old Speckled Hen | 500ml | 5.2% | £1.45 |
| Mortimer Bière Fort | 250ml | 8% | £1.25 |
| Newcastle Brown | 550ml | 4.7% | £1.40 |
| Newquay Steam Bitter | 450ml | 4% | 89p |
| Old Growler | 500ml | 5.5% | £1.59 |
| Poker Alice (US import) | 330ml | 5% | £1.05 |
| Reindeer Norvic Old Ale* | 330ml | 4.6% | £1.25 |
| Rolling Rock | 330ml | 4.6% | £1.30 |
| Sainsbury’s Bière de Garde | 750ml | 6% | £1.99 |
| Sainsbury’s Bière de Prestige | 650ml | 6.5% | £1.99 |
| Sainsbury’s Blackfriars Porter | 500ml | 5.5% | £1.49 |
| Sainsbury’s Bottle-conditioned Ale | 500ml | 4.5% | £1.29 |
| Sainsbury’s Premium Ale* | 500ml | 4.8% | £1.35 |
| Sainsbury’s Trappist Ale (La Trappe?) | 500ml | 8% | £2.79 |
| San Miguel | 330ml | 5.4% | £1.10 |
| Sapporo | 330ml | 4.7% | 89p |
| Satzenbrau Pils | 275ml | 5.5% | £1.22 |
| Schlitz | 330ml | 4.6% | £1.20 |
| Scorpion Dry | 330ml | 5% | 77p |
| Shepherd Neame Bishop’s Finger* | 500ml | 5.4% | £1.29 |
| Smithwick’s Ale | 250ml | 4% | 60p |
| Sol | 330ml | 5% | 95p |
| Spaten Premium Lager* | 330ml | 5.2% | £1.15 |
| T.A.G. (lager) | 330ml | 5.3% | 99p |
| Tennent’s Gold Bier | 330ml | 5% | 95p |
| Tesco Bavarian Pilsner | 330ml | 4.9% | 75p |
| Tesco Bière d’Alsace | 250ml | 5% | 47p |
| Tesco Organic Beer | 500ml | 5% | £1.35 |
| Tesco Select Ales Porter | 500ml | 5% | £1.29 |
| Tesco Select Ales Stout | 500ml | 4.2% | £1.29 |
| Tesco Spanish Lager | 330ml | 5.5% | 72p |
| Tesco Traditional Premium Ale | 500ml | 4.1% | £1.12 |
| Tesco Vratislav* | 500ml | 6% | 99p |
| Trappiste Konigshoeven (La Trappe) | 330ml | 6.5% | £1.25 |
| Tusker Premium Lager | 355ml | 4.8% | 99p |
| Vieux Bruges Ceries Kriek | 375ml | 5% | £1.25 |
| Vieux Bruges Framboise | 375ml | 5% | 89p |
| Vieux Bruges Gueuze Lambic* | 250ml | 5% | 89p |
| Vieux Bruges Peche | 250ml | 3.5% | 89p |
| Whitbread Forest Brown | 275ml | 2.7% | 65p |
| Whitbread Gold Label | 180ml | 10.9% | 79p |
| Whitbread Pale Ale | 275ml | 3.4% | 65p |
| Whitbread Stock Bitter | 275ml | 5.4% | 69p |
| Whitbread White Label | 275ml | 1% | 59p |
| Worthington White Shield* | 275ml | 5.6% | 89p |
| Young’s Brown Ale | 275ml | 3.1% | 90p |
| Young’s Extra Light | 275ml | 1% | 80p |
| Young’s Light Ale | 275ml | 3.2% | 89p |
| Young’s Old Nick | 275ml | 6.8% | £1.16 |
| Young’s Strong Export* | 275ml | 6.4% | £1.12 |
| Young’s Ram Rod | 275ml | 4.8% | 98p |
| Zeiss
(champagne yeast beer) | 275ml | 8% | £1.10 |
| Zhiguli Beer | 500ml | 4.5% | £1.09 |
| Żywiec | 330ml | 4.3% | £1.10 |
12 replies on “Artyfacts from the Nyneties #6: Beers of ’94”
Does the item reveal who was brewing those beers for Tesco and Sainsbury’s back in 1994, particularly the Porters. Fuller’s didn’t revive its London Porter until 1996, so unlikely to be them. Does “Blackfriars” in the Sainsbury’s name hint at a London (though there are Blackfriars elsewhere) origin – so Young’s? Or Marston’s, supermarket badging variants of theirs, with different ABVs? Timothy Taylor perhaps, who restarted rebrewing a Porter in the Eighties? Anyone recall who else was brewing Porters in the early Nineties?
Interested, given the general perception is that Porter was still almost a ‘dead’ beer style at that time, that both Tesco and Sainsbury’s chose to include examples in their beer ranges.
Have thought hard, but can’t recall seeing, let alone remember sampling, either of them from the supermarket shelves unfortunately.
No, ‘fraid not, and it doesn’t look as if people at the time could work it out either.
Coopers AND Fosters; the best and worst of Oz beer at the time!
Although the Fosters we know is as Australian as me. And I’m not Australian.
There were a few porters around in the early 90s (Young’s and Nethergate off the top of my head) and I’m sure there were far better UK beers widely available in 2006 than those in Pete Brown’s list; he can’t have been looking very hard.
The eye watering thing for me here is the price that were paid then are barely different to the prices in the mults now. No wonder there’s been pressure on cost cutting!
I’d clean forgotten Nethergate Porter – it was the bottled porter at one time, or at least the widely-available bottled porter. Blackfriars is a district & the name of a street in Sudbury, where Nethergate are based, so it may have been their choice of pseudonym. Or it may be a complete coincidence, of course – there were quite a few ‘black’ (Dominican) friaries around the country at one time, so a lot of places have a ‘Blackfriars’ district.
Sounds plausible. Mind you, both the current ASDA’s Whitechapel porter and the Sainsbury London Porter are brewed in the well-known Thameside location of Faversham….
Sheps don’t have a porter in their own lineup at the moment, although they have brewed one sporadically in the past.
Fascinating to see things like Union Mild in there though. It would be hard work to just do a similar comprehensive review of all the beers in just one supermarket these days – anyone fancy it?
I don’t think that was all that comprehensive, to be honest – no Sam Smiths beers, for a start…
Did Sam’s have national distribution in the off-trade back then? I have a vague memory of being excited to see it in Yorkshire, implying it wasn’t readily available outside Yorkshire around that time, although the memory could be playing tricks.
Whitbread Porter was around in the early 90s too, brewed by Castle Eden, iirc.
Sam’s certainly had off-trade outlets in South Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire in the early 1980’s, via Booths supermarkets and Legendary Lancashire Heroes off-licences