The real shame is that Stones and Wards are really no longer being brewed. At least, no longer being brewed where they originated, and that's pretty much the same thing. It doesn't really affect a generic lager like Carlsberg or Carling, but the water a proper beer, especially a cask-conditioned "real" ale is made from makes a hell of a difference. For example, beer made in the Burton upon Trent area have a unique taste due to the heavy sulphur content of the surrounding ground, where the water comes from. All the old breweries had their own water supply, many being built on top of their own well. The old Samuel Allsopp brewery in Burton had a huge well with a rowing boat at the bottom for checking the well walls.
When Stones was still being brewed at the Cannon Brewery in Sheffield they started buggering about with the A.B.V. of it, as it gets taxed differently if it's under 4%. Stones was originally just over that mark, and changing it changed the taste. Brewing it in Burton now it's owned by Coors doesn't help, as the Burton water is nothing like the Sheffield water.
Wards is now brewed in Stockport, and while I was never really a fan, it tastes nothing like the original. Ask the old buggers, especially Silverfox, about Wards. It gave you the ability to shit through the eye of a needle at 100 yards, or something like that.
So neither for me. Our pre-match pub of choice, the Golden Lion, doesn't have any proper beer on. It's got Tetley's or Worthington's both of which are those "creamflow" keg offerings, and use a CO2/nitrogen mix to dispense them, which may go some way to explaining the headaches after not many, or there's the even worse keg "Stones", which is terrible. I have to make do with the Carling, which at least has no pretensions towards being proper beer - it's quite happy being a session lager.
Stones that is.
