Godson's Bridal Ale (1981)

Standard amber colour. Pours clean, with moderate carbonation. A fair degree of mustiness and cardboard - it fades away, but what remains is a rusty and stale cake flavour. Mouthfeel is dry and tannic (bitter like tree bark). Drinkable, with some pleasant soft toffee notes,  but unremarkable. I bought mine as part of a job lot of Royal Wedding beers, but I have seen this either for sale or wanted, for between £10 and £30 - I think that's due to Godson's being a small brewery at the time of the Royal Wedding. Most of the Royal Wedding beers were by the big breweries like Fullers and Watneys - however, Godson's were, as Martyn Cornell puts it, "the first of London’s new generation micro-breweries". 

Godson's were founded in 1977 in Clapton, London. They moved to the Black Horse Brewery, Old Ford, Bow in 1978 - ceasing brewing in 1982 just after they made the Bridal Ale. The company merged with Chudley in 1984 before being taken over by Gibbs Mew in 1986, and ceasing brewing completely in 1987.

Paine & Co 150th Anniversary Special Beer (1981)

Mmmmmm. This is real engine oil - just how you'd imagine a top class aged Courage Russian Imperial Stout should taste like. Deep and malty with vinous crumbly wood character. Some soy sauce - big whiffs on the nose. Huge, intense flavour. Wow! Rich chocolate. Deep, ever so deep it never ends, malt character..... This is sublime stuff. No carbonation - but that is often the way, even with fairly recently brewed imperial stouts, though the condition is not flat. This tastes fresh and alive. There are very, very fine bubbles around the rim, and clinging to the glass under the surface of the beer. This has plenty of alcohol. There's nothing stated on the bottle, but this is more than 8%, and is possibly around 10 or even 11% One of the best vintage beers I've had in a long time. Awesome.

James Paine Brewery 1897

The beer was brewed in 1981 to mark the 150th anniversary of Paine & Co, a St Neots brewery which was in existence before 1792 as two brewing pubs, the Bull Inn and its neighbour, but was bought by James Paine in 1831. The company gently expanded to own several pubs locally. The brewery building was listed in 1951. In 1987 the brewery was taken over by Tolly Cobbold, who closed it shortly afterwards, so the Special Beer to mark 150 years of brewing was made only six years before the brewery closed.

Brewery and Bull Hotel in 1910