St Austell Jubilee Ale 1977

Quite dry. Tannic. Metal and cardboard. Some chocolate malt. Some bloody meat. Over-ripe banana. Grape juice from a rusty can. Not a huge success. It tastes like what it is - an old beer. I don't think there was enough strength in this one to make it last this long.

Tropical Pils (1982)

250ml light brown bottle. 5% abv. Vintage 1982. Toffee. Fudge. Rancid smoked bacon. And a really nice flavour that I can't now remember. OK vintage beer.

Broughton Greenmantle Ale (1998)

Dry and nutty with butterscotch and caramel flavours. Fairly smooth and creamy. A nice beer.

Lees La Perdrix Noire 1989

Smells like glue. Tastes watery, flat, stale.

Nigerian Star Lager (1980)

Musty cheap lager. This isn't good when fresh, and doesn't improve with age. Thin and nasty with cereal notes. On the plus side it's reasonably sweet. But it's a big bottle, much more than a pint, and I can't see myself finishing it..

Skol Limited Edition 1977

Spanking gorgeous! Take an extra strong lager, age it 37 years, and you have a sublime experience.

Smooth toffee malt, just as I like it. Probably around 8% abv. Yes, cardboard notes, along with licorice, smoked bacon, salted cashews, and damp straw. Real beer, not some girly citric flavoured American beer with a bland malt.

Keesmann Bamberger Herren Pils (1989)

500ml bottle. Vintage 1989. Good condition. Fresh  malty taste with some pleasant green hop notes. Easy drinking. Sweet biscuit.

Poker Alice Premium Beer (1994)

This claims to be made by the Premium Beer Co Ltd Regent Street London, though appears to have been a brand owned by Bass, who dropped it in 1995, along with a number of other premium beers. The neck date is 1994. Strength is 5%. Still has some condition. Uses American hops. Totally lacking in character and flavour. Watery texture - quite dry.

The beer is named after Alice Ivers, a British born female gambler who made a name for herself in the American West. She died in 1930.

Holsten Export (1992)

A warm, honey accented and malty beer. Good rounded flavours in which the malt really displays its character. I really liked this.

Courage Cermonial Ale The Royal Wedding 29th July 1981

Deliciously sweet and malty. Some decent beers were made for the 1981 royal wedding.

Zywiec Beer (1995)

500ml brown bottle. 1995. 5.6%. Good body. Pleasant fruit. A decent drink.

Konig Pilsener (1990)

330ml brown bottle. Vintage 1990. 4.9% .Very fragrant. Quite perfumed. Flowery. Decent body. Good condition. I love this. Hops have stood up well, bringing in a robust and surprising fresh tasting hop oil bitterness in the finish. There's also, interestingly, some salt. Lovely beer.

Veltins (1991)

330ml brown bottle. Vintage 1991. I last had this nearly 11 years ago, and the bottle I am having today is 12 years older than that one. Interesting that I complained last time that the fresh bottle tasted stale, and now I’m having a vintage bottle. Dark, almost orange amber. Yugh. This hasn’t improved. That stale taste is still present. This is quite meaty. A ballsy malty flavour - quite savoury, edging into cardboard. Some minor biterness in the finish, building. A little rancid fruit. The flavours are not hugely pleasant. I love vintage beers, but this one doesn’t work at all.

Veltins brewery was founded in 1824,  and this is their only regular beer product - other products are radlers and other beer mixes.

Erdinger Weissbier

500ml brown bottle. Vintage 1990. Dark amber. Soft, watery texture. Iced tea and peach flavour. Quite mild. Hints of sweetness. Pleasant soft carbonation, like fresh spring water. This is a subtle, soft, refreshing and agreeable drink, but does lack character and impact.

Kenya Tusker (1991)

500ml brown botle. Vintage 1991. Clean, dry and refreshing lager. Age hasn't added much character. Easy drinking. Some biscuit notes. Soft. Very little residual biterness. OK.

The beer commemorates the memory of the owner of Kenya Brewery, George Hurst, who died in 1923, the year after he founded the company. It is called Tusker because he was killed by a charging elephant during a hunt.

Mythos (2004)

500ml green bottle. Vintage 2005. This has matured nicely. Good fat juicy malt. Creamy and wheaty. Pale malt flavour - sweet biscuit. Hops have diminished to a faint bitter dust in the finish. All round yummy. Much better than fresh Mythos.

Barre Brau Pilsener (1992)

330ml brown bottle. Vintage 1992. Bready lager with a malty sweetness. Hops have broken down to a little bitter dust in the finish. The malt is attractive with a very pleasing brown bread flavour. 

Brewed by  Ernst Barre of Lübbecke, Germany, who formed in 1842.