Behind the Signs

John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England, produces beers including John Smith's, the highest selling bitter in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s.

The majority of John Smith's sales are of the nitrogenated Extra Smooth product, although a cask conditioned variant is available nationally. A stronger variant called Magnet is also available in the North East of England. John Smith's Cask and Magnet are produced under licence by Cameron's in Hartlepool.

This is what I'm drinking this afternoon :

(I'm not lying down - honest. The mobile CR4 app won't let me rotate the image)

I had fish 'n chips and a Guinness yesterday.

(I just donated bike #32 last week)

Sure.We believe you.You are NOT lying down....(right).

At least beer engines like this will survive an EMP!

Pretty advanced for 1852

Real ale and John Smith’s aren’t in the same league when it comes to enjoyable drinking, real ale wins hands down.

Guinness sends my blood pressure sky high. Up until the late 80’s UK hospitals used to stock it for anaemic patients.

A few weeks back my son collapsed at work due to what was diagnosed as anaemia, all he got was injections, no Guinness! He’s still undergoing tests to determine further treatment, I doubt Guinness will be prescribed.

Here's some real ale, being poured by the lovely Sandra at my local:

The brewery (Green King) released a batch of ale (pretty sure it was just their IPA, but without a name) and allowed landlords to name it as they saw fit. As I'm the local who drinks the most real ale (it's a "football pub", and most of the lads drink Fosters (euch!) or similar), he decided it would be fitting to name it after me.

"You've had enough now Clancy,go on home" So he stood up,took one step and fell flat on his face."If I can just make it to the door..." and he belly crawled to the door,pulled himself up,opened the door,took one step,fell flat on his face again."If I can just make it to the lamp post"...and he belly crawled to the lamp post.Going from post to post,he finally made it home. "If I can just make it up the steps"..he finally made it inside and collapsed on the floor,passed out. The next morning, his wife woke him."You've been down at O'Rielly's bar again,haven't you?" "How did ya know ,Darlin?" "You left your wheel chair down there last night."

Bit of serendipity: I went for a meal with a bunch of friends last night; one guy hadn't turned up so I agreed to wait outside whilst the others went in to get the drinks:

"What do you want?"

"Any thing real....... you know, real ale."

He came back with a pint of bloody John Smiths. When I pointed out that it didn't really qualify he said it was all they had, so, when we got inside I pointed out all the hand pumps on the bar. I don't think he understood what I was talking about even then.

Still I did drink the hideous stuff and I suppose I have to confess that it was better than the carbonated "beers" you normally get from gas driven taps.

Tend to agree - John Smith's is among the best of a bad bunch.