McEwan's Export - an underrated beer.

In the red cans...

I know it's for Jocks but there is a reason it's so popular up there !

Caramel and malt flavours, very drinkable at 4.5% and very well priced. Should suit the Teesside palate. Better than most of these trendy craft ales. £3.99 for 4 cans at Aldi.

Give it a try beer lovers (y)
I have to agree with you here Nobby 🐼 👍🏻 My dad used to always drink it and i had a long spell drinking it too but haven’t had any for years - time for a trip down nostalgia way i think ✔️


🐔
 
I used to drink 80 bob it cost £1.20/pint in the late 1980s now it would be 80 bob (£4)

McEwans Export was always a safe pint/can - it kept well - probably developed for British service men abroad in places like India

Newcastle Exhibition was sound also, as well as Camerons Strongarm, Vaux Samson, Whitbread's Castle Eden beers and if over in Cumbria, Jennings did some fine ales.

North East beers tended to be quite dark, malty and a bit sweet - which is still how I like my beers.

Beers I was not keen on in the 1980s were John Smith ("its fowl") Sam Smith (can be a bit vinegary) Newcastle Brown Ale (I find a bit sickly)

Is it true Camerons Strongarm and Tetley's Imperial were brewed for the Teesside market?

Its a pity that the beer markets is now dominated by mega Corporations or tiny craft producers - with most of the solid regional breweries gone
 
I quite often get cans of export. I like the taste but it is quite gassy so it's best poured into a pint pot to let a bit of the fizz out

another half decent can a bit similar to export is ruddles county
 
When did the 'petrol tanker' delivered beer fall into disuse on Teesside? And what happened to 'Fed' which I believe was sold in the Houses of Parliament?
 
Beer from a can? The only place for that is poured staight down the toilet.

McEwan's 80 bob made and served properly was very good though.

One of my all time favourite brews was another S&N brew - Younger's No.3. Absolute nectar. Long gone now though - unless a micro brewey has managed to get the recipe and rights?
 
Export IS 80 Shilling.
I worked for S&N in Scotland and NE in the early 80's.

The 80/70/60 shilling name is down to historical duty paid based on the strength of the beer.
McEwans Export is effectively just 80 Shilling Cask (Heavy) processed to within an inch of its life for keg and more so for cans.
It is a fact that Teesside palate favours a stronger beer than many other places in Britain and certainly versus the rest of the NE. One of the reasons Newcastle Brown Ale was so popular in pubs in bottles.
Teesside was a strange place in that it was one of the few places with such a diverse brewing choice.
Bass had Bass and (Sheffield's Stones), but were biggest through their estate and because Carling was their lager.
Courage had John Smiths.
Allied had Tetley Imperial
Whitbread had Trophy
Vaux had Samson
Camerons had Strongarm
Watney Mann

Now Heineken peddle s**t John Smiths, while great names like Tetley, Bass and McEwans have been all but lost as international brewers have hoovered everything up and spit it out.
Which is why we are so blessed to still have Black Sheep and Timothy Taylors up and running.

I used to work for Richardsons in Middlesbrough who used to deliver beers wines and spirits, and were contracted to deliver to Camerons pubs do they could concentrate on tanks and kegs.
Was regularly at S&N in Eaglescliffe as well as Camerons (Brenda Rd). Proper busy job as an offsidesman... I remember when John Smiths went on strike in the mid 80s, we sold Drybroughs as a replacement... It never went down well but I thought it was OK.

"Now Heineken peddle s**t John Smiths, while great names like Tetley, Bass and McEwans have been all but lost as international brewers have hoovered everything up and spit it out."

Isn't that what S&N used to do? 😁
I remember that at one time they had taken over something like 19 breweries and replaced all those fine legacy beers with McEwans lager, Exhibition and Tartan etc

Interesting Fed was mentioned .. We didn't do much Fed, save for LCL Pils which was a bit popular. Also known as Lose Control Lager 😁
 
The British Legion in Woodbridge in Suffolk used to sell Export on tap, instantly went to the top of my list of ale houses. And I was told years ago that there was a pub in Endinburgh that sold nothing but Export and that all you had do do was tell the barman how many.

The pub in Edinburgh is The Diggers (Athletic Arms), they have a plaque on the wall telling the story, it was McEwans 80 shilling they were famous for. The story is if you asked for lager you were told to go to the pub down the road.
It is also the pub where the attempt to start a Scottish Boro Supporters Club didn’t really get going.
It is one of my go to pubs in Edinburgh.
 
The pub in Edinburgh is The Diggers (Athletic Arms), they have a plaque on the wall telling the story, it was McEwans 80 shilling they were famous for. The story is if you asked for lager you were told to go to the pub down the road.
It is also the pub where the attempt to start a Scottish Boro Supporters Club didn’t really get going.
It is one of my go to pubs in Edinburgh.

Was in there before the Stones concert at Murrayfield a couple of years back. Great pub.
 
Fed brewery was bought by S&N in 2004 and was closed in 2010 by lovely Heineken.

It used to brew for a lot of working mens clubs in the NE - hence some NE Labour MPs got it into the H of Cs

The idea was it was cheap and reasonable quality aimed at working class drinkers. The brewery did not exist to maximise profits, unlike some of their competitors.
 
I remember when Theakstons had cult status. It was unusually strong for the time and there was only a handfull of pubs that sold it; all of them off the beaten track. The Middle House, Marske, being conveniently local.
 
Me and my friends "discovered" Standard by accident. Went in the Vic in Saltburn, when they had Theakstons on, and asked for a pint of Shandy. The barmaid misheard me and proceeded to pull half of Best Bitter then OP. I asked her what she was doing and got told I was getting what I'd asked for - a pint of Standard :)

It became our regular drink after that. Very nice.
 
In the red cans...

I know it's for Jocks but there is a reason it's so popular up there !

Caramel and malt flavours, very drinkable at 4.5% and very well priced. Should suit the Teesside palate. Better than most of these trendy craft ales. £3.99 for 4 cans at Aldi.

Give it a try beer lovers (y)
 
Export IS 80 Shilling.
I worked for S&N in Scotland and NE in the early 80's.

The 80/70/60 shilling name is down to historical duty paid based on the strength of the beer.
McEwans Export is effectively just 80 Shilling Cask (Heavy) processed to within an inch of its life for keg and more so for cans.
It is a fact that Teesside palate favours a stronger beer than many other places in Britain and certainly versus the rest of the NE. One of the reasons Newcastle Brown Ale was so popular in pubs in bottles.
Teesside was a strange place in that it was one of the few places with such a diverse brewing choice.
Bass had Bass and (Sheffield's Stones), but were biggest through their estate and because Carling was their lager.
Courage had John Smiths.
Allied had Tetley Imperial
Whitbread had Trophy
Vaux had Samson
Camerons had Strongarm
Watney Mann Truman the sixth national brewer at the time didn't feature up here.
The Masham breweries didn't really feature as they had no estate and were shut out, until S&N murdered Theakstons.
S&N had Newcastle Exhibition and Tartan, both simply useless for Teesside, so introduced 80 Shilling (80 Bob) in a "bright beer" format especially brewed for Teesside area. It went extremely well being much stronger than its S&N draught predecessors, roughly same in strength as Imperial.
S&N effectively sold 80 Bob in Teesside, Exhibition in County Durham and Best Scotch in Tyneside/Northumberland.
The 80 Bob Bright beer in Teesside was quite close to Export but not as gassy. It was different to a pint of Heavy in Scotland too albeit from the same stable.

Now Heineken peddle s**t John Smiths, while great names like Tetley, Bass and McEwans have been all but lost as international brewers have hoovered everything up and spit it out.
Which is why we are so blessed to still have Black Sheep and Timothy Taylors up and running.
Some of my favourite brews mentioned there. Tetleys when living Sheffield/Leeds in 90s, Export on the train home and then 80/-/Strongarm and Magnet back home. All difficult to find now in the world of craft beer, fancy continental lager and 'real' ale!
 
Lived in Shetland in the early 70's and then In Aberdeen for over 30 years , the red tinnie was part of my staple diet, that along with Tennants lager in those fantastic tins with the woman on the side.......,memories....
 
Perhaps no coincidence that the landlord and landlady of the middle house later moved to take on the Vic in Saltburn?
 
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