The problem with picking a “best of“ is that immediately afterward you come across one you missed. This from Tandleman really should have been in my Top 10;
Like Matthew’s pint in the Hop Inn, I reckon that’s a thing of beauty, particularly as the colours settle in the glass. Pints only, note.
The Tand, among others, has been a bit of an advocate for the Bass this year, which is another reason to celebrate 2016. Tand’s pint was from the Unicorn, one of very few outlets in Manchester for an iconic beer. I didn’t take to the pint I had in there, but need to give it another chance. Perhaps this week.
You’ll be aware of my predilection for Draught Bass, a beer I’d only pass over for something obviously selling quicker in a Beer Guide pub. Skimming my posts, I doubt I’ve reached ten pints of Bass this year, which says a lots about Beer Guide licensees as well as neglect of the brand in recent years.
I’ve had some average pints of Bass, and some classics in free houses in the Mumbles and Bedford that spring to mind.
The keg Bass that Mrs RM just bought me on the Calais-Dover ferry (she gets a nearly free pasty in that bargain) wasn’t in that company, but was much better than you’d imagine, lacking excess carbonation but retaining some flavour.
The bloke next to me got his in the proper glass (top), but I dare say I’ll recover from that disappointment.
retiredmartin 
I think any keg Bass you find in GB is actually the Irish version, which is very popular in Northern Ireland. It has a faint echo of the proper Burton brew, but no more. I could be wrong and it’s the US export version, of course.
There was no Bass at all when I visited the Unicorn. It came across to me as a potentially great pub that has been allowed to become scruffy and shabby and really needs some TLC and attention to detail.
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I’d be interested to know. I’m sure I saw Bass on the trip back from Poland yesterday but that could have been in any 0f 5 countries!
Agree on the Unicorn, must revisit.
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Greatly amused by the irony of a pint of Bass on a beermat with the atrocious new Pedigree branding.
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Good spot ! Tand’s pint there was in the Unicorn is an Enterprise Inn, interestingly.
Good to hear from you by the way, an new walks planned Ian ?
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Moved up to the Peak District in September and so we’re now walking out of the door when I’m not decorating.
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Bass was a rare find in Nottingham and the Erewash Valley in the 80s due to the dominance of Shipstones,Home Ales and Kimberly and the pubs that were Bass houses rarely did real ales,hence most people in these areas did not like it and like my self and brother were Shippos or Home Ales and Kimberley drinkers.
Go west of the Erewash Valley and you hit the badlands going towards scum where Bass dominated,scum was full of them along with Ind Coope,most scum people said Shippos makes you shit,that was the animosity between
the two areas over what beer you drank.
Fast forward to 2016 and Bass is now brewed in Bedford by Charles Wells.
My brother who lives in scum told me and the wife a funny thing yesterday while in our local Spoons,he was on a pub crawl round scum with mates and noticed draught Bass on the bar with a clip on it saying Locale.
Does it still taste the same as it is now brewed with different water.
Bass tied houses in the Erewash Valley 1982
Long Eaton 2
Sandiacre 1
Stapleford 1
Ilkeston 1
Heanor & Langley Mill 0
Eastwood 0
Kimberley 0
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Do you visit your brother in Scum Alan or insist he comes to you ?
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He always comes over to me to do pubs in the area and always likes it,i have offered to visit him but he says it is not worth going to scum for a drink.
My brother has lived in the city for over 20 years due to him working at Rolls Royce,but says one day he will move back to his proper home area closer to Nottingham.
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Seriously, I did enjoy your comment. It is really odd that Nottm is Bass-free and “the other place” is full of it.
I know Banks/Marston own Bass now but I think it is still brewed in Burton, so it’s as much a Locale as the homebrew !
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Marston’s brew it, but I think AB InBev still own the brand.
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Would it not have been Ansells beer in “that place”, even of the pubs were mostly badged Ind Coope? Because of Ansells’reputation in the 80s, Allied pubs were run by “Ind Coope East Midlands”, based in Leicester, but from memory the pouring ales were Ansells, not least because there was no keg Ind Coope option following the unlamented demise of Ind Coope Special Bitter in, I think,the late 70s.
In the free trade we made some abortive efforts to sell John Bull, the “legendary” keg bitter brewed in Romford, but astonishingly we met with relatively little success.
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I vaguely remember John Bull, the most unappealingly styled beer ever. But then, Double Diamond signage is viewed nostalgically now.
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In those says Shipstone’s was often referred to as “straight-though Shippo’s”!
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Dick and Dave told me the bottled Bass they get in the USA is disappointingly watery. I’m not sure how that compares with what we have here, although the bottled version (which I haven’t actually seen for some time) is a poor shadow of the cask. I think the bottled and canned versions are brewed at Samlesbury.
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I rarely drink bottles, the one bottle of Bass I had was very watery. In contrast the keg version on the ferry last week was quite substantial.
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