Monday 28 June 2021

Whats On Draught? 1972 style

Boak and Bailey recently did a post on the topic of what you would have been able to buy in an average English pub in 1965 - picked as a representative year by virtue of having a data source for it.

I've sometimes wondered about the similar range available in Dublin in times past - remembering, in my own drinking years, of products appearing with significant promotional hype only to vanish either nearly or entirely (Labatt, Amstel, Bulmers Pear, Roundstone and so on); and knowing of all the lineup changes that have occurred due to brewery mergers, partnership deals and so on - but I'd never seen as concise a list before.

But I've now found one. A trawl of the Oireachtas Library turned up a National Prices Commission report from November 1972 entitled "The Price Of Drink", and it mainly seems to exist to rubbish an LVA request for price increases - pub prices in Dublin often being regulated in times past.

The appendices give wholesale prices, some Dublin specific, as of November 1972 for the standard lineup of what was being offered by the main wholesalers. A bar would frequently have had only a few draught taps at the time (far from the 12-16 that are common these days), but could easily have offered all the bottled products.

Draught beers:

Guinness (available in a baffling array of delivery sizes up to 1900 litres)
Guinness Porter (discontinued in 1973)
Double Diamond (likely brewed at Macardles)
Macardles
Phoenix
Smithwicks Draught (not sure what this is, but it was cheaper than Smithwicks No. 1)
Smithwicks No. 1  (allegedly the Smithwicks we still have today, but recipes will have changed)
Time (rebranded Smithwicks Export)
Harp
Carling Black Label
Crawfords Golden Ale (from Beamish, no idea as to what it was other than what the name suggests)
Bass
Carlsberg
Beamish Cream Stout
Murphys

Bottled beers:

Phoenix
Time
Smithwicks No. 1
Macardles No. 1
Double Diamond
Harp
Skol (fake Scandinavian lager from Scotland)
Harp Extra
Mackesons
Carling Black Label
Bass
Carlsberg Export
Carlsberg Special
Tuborg
Murphys

Irish made/owned spirits:

Midleton Reserve
Jameson Crested Ten
Powers Gold Label
Paddy
Jameson Red Seal
Hewitts

Cork Dry Gin
Commodore Gin (no idea)
Powers Gin (yes, that Powers - produced until the 80s or so)

Huzzar Vodka
Nordoff Vodka  (this still exists as IDLs paintstripper grade supermarket/convenience store brand)
Saratov Vodka (never heard of this)

Kiskadee Rum

There's no prices for imported products other than beer; and Ireland was more than a bit sherry mad at the time, so your average pub would probably have had a few sherries, a few mass market Scotches and some sub-supermarket grade wines on offer also.

1 comment:

  1. I had forgotten all about Skol. Popular amongst under-age drinkers at the time!

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