Coventry Pubs

Mr D-Di. Let's face it, any beer tastes good after football. I had a good friend in Canley and it was always a bit of a toss up between The Woodlands, The Newlands or The Half Sovereign. I did drink the bitter in there Mr D-Di, probably many gallons of it but Brew XI or Draught Bass was more to my liking.

I agree the Half Sovereign wasn't that great a pub and not worth going out of your way for. The Trad was fine though, as I recall. It was even better at the Lanch Poly Students' Union though, a beautifully kept pint. Almost too good for students. Draught Bass - now you're talking. The finest beer ever in my opinion. You can still get it but it's not the same now that they no longer use the 'union system' to brew it. The best pint of Bass in Coventry for me was at the Admiral Lord Rodney when the Morrissey family ran it. The Old Dyer's kept a lovely pint too. I preferred Ansells Bitter to Brew XI, and was also partial to a pint of Marston's Pedigree.

Ansells Bitter. A pint to die for. I occasionally had to visit Gulson Rd Hospital and so used to drop in the Hare and Hounds corner of Bramble St, it became a habit. Can't remember the landlord's name but he always wore sandals, no socks. That was in the days of Ansells beer, can't remember when they stopped trading.

Ansells used to have Burton ale which was very popular in my inlaws pub.

Are you sure that wasn't Marston's Burton Ale? That was their 'ordinary' bitter, their 'best' was Pedigree. Ansells was brewed in Birmingham although in its most recent form it may have been produced in Burton. I can't say I recall an Ansells Burton Ale.

"Burton Union Ale" was made by a number of breweries under a number of different names, Draught Bass and Marston's Pedigree being famous examples.

As I understand it, Marston's Pedigree is (or possibly was) the last beer brewed using the Burton Union system. The union at Bass is no longer used and the beer was never the same afterwards. Many years ago from our office we did a tour of Bass at Burton and the whole process was explained by their proud craftsmen.

I recently enjoyed a few pints of draught Bass in a pub a long way from Coventry and Burton, and it tasted OK to me. In fact it was lovely, and just the right temperature, which is of crucial importance. It is getting difficult to get a good draught beer nowadays that is not just an ice-cold lager (nice as that is).

You were fortunate, David. Pubs serving good quality real ales are getting difficult to find now. I think the most important aspect of keeping a pub is cellarmanship, as a poor cellarman will always be exposed by the quality of the beer. It is gratifying, perhaps, that whatever we may think of Wetherspoons pubs as venues, they do at least try to provide well kept ales. Bass is becoming increasingly difficult to find. Draught Bass actually had its own flagship pub in Birmingham a few years ago, where people came from miles around just to sample the iconic beer in vast quantities. It was rather imaginatively called the Bass House and was a favourite haunt of our office when we worked for the WMCC.

Just done some research on Burton Ale it was launched in 1976 and brewed by Ind Coope whose brewery was in Burton-on-Trent at the time which was part of the Allied group, hence why it was sold in Ansells pubs. I remember they also launched a beer called Gold Cross which was a cask conditioned lager although it was a success in my in-laws' pub selling around 2 barrels a week it bombed nationally and was taken out of production after about 18 months.

MickW: Well done on that. If it was around in 1976 there is a good chance I sampled a few pints of it. That may, of course, explain why I have no recollection of it, of course.

Sorry to disappoint you but by far the best pint of Bass to be had in Coventry was in the Boat Inn on Shilton Lane at the top of Potters Green. I started my drinking life on M&B mild but it seemed to go off, then moved on to brown and mild for a while until I discovered Ansells mild. Brew XI was a favourite for a few years but there was always rumours that it would rot your stomach from long term quaffers. As a strange footnote I was born in Burton on trent and my father worked at Ind Coopes however my uncle Jack Harrison started his working life as an hop tosser at Bass and finished his working life there as a taster (it was £30 pounds a week but all he could afford at the time!) from the day he retired till when he passed over the only beer he drank was Watneys Special at the Copper Heath pub in Burton, God knows what the Bass must have done to his tastebuds over the years!

Potters Green Lad, I couldn't agree with you more. Bass is the best pint. I used to live just down the road from the Boat Inn in the 1980s, but then I moved back to Hillfields where I found a pub that sold proper Brew XI but the one thing I miss is the smell of stale Brew XI in the morning

I do remember the Boat serving decent Draught Bass. I got there occasionally in the 70s and I also recall that there were some football pitches behind the pub which one of the Sunday Leagues took over.