My first love – ah, I remember it as if it was yesterday. 1971, I was 17 years old and still learning the ways of the world. I marched into the Warwick Hotel and asked for a pint of Double Diamond. The TV adverts assured me that “it works wonders” and If I drank enough of them I would end up with a girl on each arm. What 17 year old could resist that?

“Sorry we’ve run out”… disappointed I glanced down the bar, and it was at this moment that my eyes caught sight of the love of my life. “I’ll have a pint of what the old men drink then, Ansells Bitter please”. What a revelation! This beer had taste, was smooth and not full of gas. Being a naive 17 year old I hadn’t realised that Double Diamond, Whitbread Trophy, Watneys Red Barrel and all the other TV advertised beers were Keg Bitters – dead chemical beer. Ansells Bitter was the real thing.

That was my moment of epiphany, I have been drinking and enjoying real ale ever since.  Unfortunately the fortunes of Ansells Bitter has declined since those days, moving from Aston Brewery, it now exists in name only. Luckily my local ‘The Hope and Anchor’ has found a suitable replacement with a Devon beer called Tinners. I now only have a platonic relationship with my first love, but my love affair with real ale continues ever stronger.

John McNally