British Comedy Guide

Those were the days

Back in early 1971, I persuaded the my local landlord to let me have this price list that was about to be removed, because of Decimal Day. Incredible - pint of Keg 12½p!! AND that those prices had held for 2 years from this 1969 price list. Mind you, what the prices were after 15th February, is another story..............

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What on earth is or was Tolly?!

A beer from Tolly Cobbold - a fairly ubiquitous London brewery, I think.
It was vile - as was every other beer on that list.
Wouldn't give you 1/6 for it now.

Tell us Grandad, what was Decimal Day like? Not the whole story though, just get straight to the point.

When I first drank beer, it was 10p a pint. You could get rat arsed for less than a quid.
My wage - paid in real money every Friday was at that time £18. (apprentice wage)
I gave my mother £5 for my keep and paid £5 per week for my new Yamaha 125cc motorbike.

A packet of crisps went from 6d to 4p.
Everyone thought they were getting a bargain.
I was 10 - and I'm pretty sure I got stiffed on my pocket money.

Quote: Aaron @ 26th June 2021, 12:35 PM

What on earth is or was Tolly?!

Briefly, the Tollemache family started up a brewery in Suffolk at around the same time as the Ipswich family of Cobbold and around the mid 1950s Tolly bought out Cobbold. Cobnut and Cardinal were originally Cobbold brands.

Quote: Lazzard @ 26th June 2021, 12:39 PM

A beer from Tolly Cobbold - a fairly ubiquitous London brewery, I think.
It was vile - as was every other beer on that list.
Wouldn't give you 1/6 for it now.

Wrong on every count and clearly your ignorance of the Tolly-Cobbold name and beers shows you know nothing about it or them. Their beers were much sought after by locals and visitors alike, for example, went down well with oft frequenters of Tolly-Cobbold pubs, such as the many thousands of American servicemen stationed across East Anglia.

The Tolly Royal Special Barley Wine, which was actually a beer, was very potent and would knock your socks off.

Quote: Lee @ 26th June 2021, 1:49 PM

Tell us Grandad, what was Decimal Day like? Not the whole story though, just get straight to the point.

On the 15th February 1971 the UK went over to decimal currency (my birthday as it happens and the day I officially started a very successful photographic retail/service business), BUT imo, they wrongly based the new currency on the £1 instead of what most people in the finance industry and banks said it should be based on what was then the 10/- (shillings), which was half a £1. ALSO, logically the 10/- was already a sort of decimal.

So, overnight, for example, a 10p (old 2/-) and say 20p (old 4/-) caused a lot of confusion and price increase scams because people thought the 10p was the same as 1/-, the 20p same as 2/-, as retailers and others slipped in price increases and/or rounded up prices.

If it had been based on the 10/-, then 10p would have the equivalent of 1/-, 20p = 2/- etc. etc. and people could understand the new coinage better and not get ripped off.

A good example from Lazzard :

Quote: Lazzard @ 26th June 2021, 2:06 PM

A packet of crisps went from 6d to 4p.
Everyone thought they were getting a bargain.

Exactly the point I was trying to make. The crisps actually went UP in price from 6d (6 pence = 2½p) to 4p. Nearly twice the price!!!

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 26th June 2021, 3:09 PM

Wrong on every count and clearly your ignorance of the Tolly-Cobbold name and beers shows you know nothing about it or them. Their beers were much sought after by locals and visitors alike, for example, went down well with oft frequenters of Tolly-Cobbold pubs, such as the many thousands of American servicemen stationed across East Anglia.

Why are you so rude?
You don't seem to have any filters at all.
FYI I have tried Tolly Cobbold beers - a few places still served them, mainly in bottles, and we generally avoided them.
Most beers were pretty nasty in the 60's and 70's - the fact that Americans sought them out is all the proof you need.
And this interesting snippet from Wikipedia -:
"For a short time in the 1960s, Tolly Cobbold produced an infamous lager known as Husky Brew, which John Cobbold himself compared to a dog's urine"
I wasn't having pop at you - just pointing out how in my opinion (do I really have to put that next to every post so as not to set you off?) beers in those days were all fairly rank - T&C included
Beer is much better now - if a tad more expensive..

Quote: Lazzard @ 26th June 2021, 3:53 PM

Why are you so rude?
You don't seem to have any filters at all.
.

Kettle/Pot. The odd thing is, I was thinking "Why, do you (not me, before you reverse that.:P) have to be so obnoxious and controversial", but held back.

I genuinely thought, after my PM to you, that we had a new understanding, but almost immediately you have another go at me on two counts when I post something innocuous and maybe of interest to some people, and turn something totally innocent into a barb.

I was answering Aaron's question in a vaguely humorous - but in my opinion (there it is again) truthful - way.
Nothing to do with you.
On the other thread I'm not sure what you were trying to do.
And we don't have a new understanding - I simply accepted your apology for your previous behaviour.

A good few years back, I worked at a big Yorkshire brewery installing beer centrifuge systems.
Beer in those days was left to settle in vats for 21 days before casking and bottling.
The centrifuges were big spin dryers that cleared the beer in hours.
I was speaking to the owner as to why he had installed them. I thought it was to get more beer out of the door.
He said we get hundreds of letters each week from customers saying our beer gives them the shits.
The landlords of the pubs are told to leave them for at least a week but they don't always.
So we are sending them already clear beer.
That must have been an interesting board meeting.

Quote: Lazzard @ 26th June 2021, 4:09 PM

I was answering Aaron's question in a vaguely humorous - but in my opinion (there it is again) truthful - way.
Nothing to do with you.
On the other thread I'm not sure what you were trying to do.
And we don't have a new understanding - I simply accepted your apology for your previous behaviour.

That doesn't answer why you feel the need to be so confrontational.

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 26th June 2021, 4:12 PM

A good few years back, I worked at a big Yorkshire brewery installing beer centrifuge systems.
Beer in those days was left to settle in vats for 21 days before casking and bottling.
The centrifuges were big spin dryers that cleared the beer in hours.
I was speaking to the owner as to why he had installed them. I thought it was to get more beer out of the door.
He said we get hundreds of letters each week from customers saying our beer gives them the shits.
The landlords of the pubs are told to leave them for at least a week but they don't always.
So we are sending them already clear beer.
That must have been an interesting board meeting.

Used to do advertising work for Bass Breweries.
The brewers were dead proud of the Bass - but happily told us what they thought of the other stuff brewed their (Fosters et al)
Told us the only difference between draught Bud and draught Fosters was just a couple of buttons on computer.

A lot of those generic pub beers were before my time, barely heard of Tolly. It must have been strong because it's already started a dustup. Have very distant memories of Ind Coope, Courage and Watneys dominating what we drank with Charrington Bass, Youngs and few others depending on where you lived.

I don't think until the real ale explosion of the late 80s people complained of long life keg bitters, apart from the CAMRA snobs I remember most people being happy to drink what beers we had. I remember Courage Directors being a big favourite of others but not me, and Gales HSB which knocked your head off but tasted nice.

Quote: Lazzard @ 26th June 2021, 5:54 PM

Used to do advertising work for Bass Breweries.

Bass is one of my regular bottle buys.

Glad to see it still going, Youngs has gone, Gales has gone to Fullers who I believe are doing a Gales HSB with some of the Gales yeast. Yet to try it.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 26th June 2021, 3:09 PM

Wrong on every count and clearly your ignorance of the Tolly-Cobbold name and beers shows you know nothing about it or them.

Jesus Herc, this is really nasty and uncalled for. It comes across as utterly vicious and does you no credit at all. I strongly suggest you re-read yourself before posting in future.

Quote: Lazzard @ 26th June 2021, 2:06 PM

I was 10 - and I'm pretty sure I got stiffed on my pocket money.

Laughing out loud

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