Youngs Winter Warmer: a great survivor of London drinking #2
I’ve posted about the very welcome seasonal re-appearance of Young’s Winter Warmer and indeed some pubs who have it are tweeting that its on the bar
It’s survival is remarkable in several senses. One because it hardly managed an appearance last year due to lockdowns.
A month long lockdown with pub closures hit London on 5th November 2020. There was a brief period of re-opening in the first part of December (with restrictions) and then the long lockdown which saw pubs shut until after Easter.
Winter Warmer is a cask only beer so if you found some of the 2020 vintage you did well.
Its also survived successive brewery takeovers. Brewing moved from Wandsworth to Bedford when Youngs moved to pubs only, and Charles Wells was then taken over by Marstons whose brewing business is now in the hands of Carlsberg. The beer is still produced at the Eagle brewery in Bedford though.
A more imponderable issue was raised by comments on the original post. Namely does Winter Warmer still taste as it did in the 1970s and 1980s. I’m not really sure how one judges that (beyond checking if the recipe has changed). In the 1970s I was a fan of Theakston’s Old Peculier. I still drink it occasionally but generally it’s a little too sweet for my taste now. The beer may have changed a bit but my taste in beer certainly has
In my youth (70/80’s) Youngs Winter Warmer ONLY happened around Christmas. It was genuinely a cask matured ale & the (small) barrel sat on the back-bar with a cold & damp beer-towel wrapped over it. Gravity pour.
A cask would last a few days and no more. Typically the last glass of an evening to warm you up before trudging home in the snow – fairly certain it was rather strong, so half pints only.
I have no idea what the modern bottled 5% stuff weasel water might be, but it is certainly not the Winter Warmer I remember.