Tankards

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 04:44 PM

Here is my collection of mugs/tankards/steins..etc. used only for beer.

2 leather, 4 turned wood which I made, and various ceramic/glass commercial things. The leather & wood often travel....

and one which I made, which was my son's Xmas present last year (When he goes to RenFaire, folks try to buy it from him.)(it holds 35oz.)
It is made from a piece of "Southern Prickly Ash" or "Toothache Tree" from the southern US. All the wooden ones have plastic liners of some form of plastic used to make drinking bottles. Never had any problem with taste any more than the brewer's pitch used to coat the leather ones.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 03:13 PM

If Geoff didn't have a tankard where would the Duck live?

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Mr Red
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 03:18 AM

A copper Tankard? I thought police were not allowed to drink on duty.

I'll get my cape...............

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Gurney
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 02:50 AM

I have a few tankards from when I collected them. A couple of interesting ones: A half-pint glass-bottomed with 'Poison' etched into the coloured glass bottom, and a pint, solid, heavy copper one from Zimbabwe. Actually, from Rhodesia. I suspect it is a fighting tankard, as I certainly wouldn't want to be hit with it.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: lady penelope
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 04:18 PM

I reckon the funny taste is 'cos most people don't clean their tankards properly...and in quite a few cases...at all!!!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: My guru always said
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 01:35 PM

Think this Pewter vs Glass taste thing deserves to be checked, not that I dispute anything stated here. I'm going to a major UK Beer Festival (Woking) in November with friends, so I think we'll run some tests.... *grin*

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Rumncoke
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 11:59 AM

I have a haunted tankard - it was presented to one Captain E J Dyer, RAOC as runner up prize in a AOC handicap snooker competition in 1941

Sixty years later it was in a charity shop, and now I find that even if I am only drinking water out of it, the ghosts of all the previous alcoholic beverages contrive to put their fluence on me.

For anything acidic I have a stainless steel tankard, me being the daughter of a union man at Sammy Foxes Steel Works in Sheffield in the 60's, but it has no soul. Water is just water.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Paul Burke
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 11:55 AM

Shuffling this below the line is clearly showing disrespect to an integral part of English folk culture. Is it 'cos I's black?

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Jim Lad
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 11:22 AM

Still like my beer warm.
Tastes like beer that way.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Emma B
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 11:13 AM

One of my unexpected delights in visiting the Montana/Wyoming area earlier this year, apart from the beautiful prarie flowers, was the availability of a wide choice of wonderful beers and microbreweries.

I don't know what your tankards are like unfortunately Ron as I was frequently served my beer out of a glass preserving jar :)

Perhaps one of the 'differences' over here is that it simply doesn't stay long enough in the tankard :)

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 10:44 AM

Dazbo, trust me, I know the true taste of beer, and the style that you refer to as "real" ale.   Contrary to your sterotyped images, we do not drink all beer ice cold.

The pewter, from the tankards I've used, adds a metalic taste that masks the hops and barley and all the notes that are created. If you drink the same beer in a glass, or even plastic or ceramic, you do not have the extra addition.

You might have a product that differs from what passes as a pewter tankard in the U.S., which is what I am trying to find out.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: GUEST,Dazbo at work
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 10:13 AM

Ron O, the pewter makes your beer taste horrible because it is a good transmitter of heat, so the beer warms up quickly and you can taste it. So what you are getting is the true taste of the beer :)

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: doncatterall
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 08:39 AM

Once had a tankard given to me in the Commercial in Uppermill one Rushcart weekend (having disected mine under the wheels of the car!!!).

It was inscribed "Darts and Snooker Champion Diggle Band Club 1970" and gave me years of faithful service.

Put it on top of a fruit machine in the Balfour in Sidmouth many years later and, needless to say, it had disappeared when I went back for it.

Where is it now and can the bloke who took it please replace the half pint of IPA that was in it.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 08:37 AM

Manitas - what are you doing at home? I'm there, you can't be!

LTS

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 08:28 AM

Pewter ain't pewter no more. What we now call pewter is Brittania Metal (Tin & Antimony). It does mean that brews (particularly cider) don't leach lead salts from the oxidised surfaces. Has been law for more than 35 years according to one tankard man. But older tankards - you just don't know.

Leather has the disadvantage that it can take the knocks but it does crack the tar inside.

Pewter has the advantage that you can knock the bottom down and gain volume - though most landlords are savvy to that - not all bar persons though.

I personally used two stainless steel ones because they have less taste on the cider and Antimony is also a toxin - but maybe as an alloy it does not oxidise readily and is not "as" toxic as lead - but I ain't takin no chances. Thankyou.

The other advantage of tankards is that they don't get "cleaned up" when half empty while you are busy being a musician (or singist etc).

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 08:18 AM

Jumpin on board this thread,,,,,

My faithful old georgian Tankard that I supped from for topside of 30 years, was nicked from my car some time back. Although I have been very ill in between and am now teetotal for medical reasons I should very much like to be re-united with it.

It carries the makers touchmark of three saracen swords above each other and has a chased inscription of :-

"IW Kemp
The Crown
Narrow Street
Limehouse

If anybody spots it, please send me a message.

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Will Fly
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 06:34 AM

Would the beer be mulled if you put a sparkler in it?

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: melodeonboy
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 06:33 AM

Sparklers? I didn't know it was already Guy Fawkes' Night! And why would you want to put one in a pint of beer? That's just spoiling the fun for the kids!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 06:06 AM

I always thought it unhygenic to immerse the sparkler in the glass anyway, do you ever see anyone wipe it before or after?

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: danensis
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 06:03 AM

Interestingly pubs are no longer supposed to refill used glasses where the sparkler is immersed in the drink (or where the landlord chucks the slops back in the 'mild' barrel!). So do they draw a pint in a glass, and then pour it into the tankard?

John

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:08 AM

For another thread on this most perplexing subject:

Folkore: Pewtar Tankards

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:04 AM

No problem there, it's common in England to purchase a glass of beer so you know you're getting a standard measure and decant it into your own tankard. Some nice bar staff even offer to wash your pot for you.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Jim Lad
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:00 AM

Having ones own glass or tankard hanging above the gantry was basically abolished when it became evident to health authorities that bar staff were not cleaning them properly between pours.
The dirty tankard would often touch the tap.
Like double dipping you might say.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 04:44 AM

I'm not to sure that we could get away with tankards in Aussie pubs - The licensing bods want each drink served in a clean glass, and pubs have to have glass washing machines.

I have used mine however in medieval recreations for personal supplies. My favourite however, was a turned wooden one - they sometimes were sold as 'wooden mortars', but this one was intended as a drinking vessel.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Micca
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 04:37 AM

Liz, Swyre had the SAME stuff, from the same "source" ( I suspect, a local Farm) in the evening which helped the whole day sink into Oblivion in a haze of Raucous singing of Bawdy songs and general mayhem. Now I am not sure even Stainless steel would have stood up to that, It was about the strength AFAIR of that "Sloe Cider" you had at Winterbourne!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 04:30 AM

I'm pretty sure that was Swyre. They'm funny there too... too close to the border.

LTS

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Micca
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 04:27 AM

Oh Yeah Liz? I agree with the High standard of beer in Dorset, Palmers, Eldridge Pope, Badger ales!! oh yes!! but Dorset has its Dark side too. I remember a certain Pub in Charmouth that had a certain (alleged) Cider that was called on their "advertising material" ( a piece of a cornflakes packet thumbtacked to the bar surround) that proclaimed "Agaracultural wine 1/4d a pint" and it was Greeny-yellow and opaque and was as gentle as a mothers kiss, if your Mother happended to be a 30 ton locomotive travelling at 60mph, it devastated the Fossil hunters I was with one Lunch time!!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 03:40 AM

Drink enough of that Devon cider and everyone gets bodily imbalances!

Stick to the good stuff. Not for nothing did Dorset have 5 breweries!

LTS

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Paul Burke
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 03:22 AM

Devon Colic was attrributed more to lead-lined cider presses and pipes. This makes more sense- in a tankard, the lead is in contact with the liquid for a relatively short time (especially if it's my tankard). Here's an article on the disease, its prevalence, symptoms, and discovery of the cause. This case had a wider importance, in that a disease was ascribed directly to a given cause, thus questioning the medical belief of the time that disease was caused by bodily imbalances.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 02:47 AM

All you had to do was ask me... after all, I'm FROM Dorset - as if I'd let you forget.

My granfer always said they'm funny in Deb'n. Guess we know the reason.

Somerset also had its problems and even now, 'Zummerzet volk be daft, you' if you ask the people in north Dorset.

My granfer's cider press was wood and cast iron... but the only metal that touched the cheese was the stainless steel milking bucket.

LTS

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: lady penelope
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 04:55 PM

I have a set of goblets made from pewter (Neither high in lead or cadmium!!!) each goblet takes over half a pint. It can be dangerous drinking wine out of them (volume wise...), but it does keep the wine nice & cool!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 11:56 AM

DOrset Dropsy! I've been mislead all these years - it was Devon Colic!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Micca
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 11:49 AM

" drank Champagne from her shoe
it was more than a sup
It took near 2 bottles
to fill the thing up
a simple experience
not to be missed
but it wasn't surprising
I ended up pissed"

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Emma B
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 11:38 AM

these
ooops!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Emma B
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 11:37 AM

silly me I was thinking it was one of

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Micca
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 11:33 AM

Splott Man it would depend on the acidity of the wine, ie "Cheap generic red Vin (extremely)Ordinaire might be a bit rich in the acids and taste a bit worse than a good burgundy, also even a GOOD young Chianti might be a bit crappy from one, I personally prefer Glass for wine so I can view the colour before that first heavenly sniff and then taste(oops! sorry I was Waxing lyrical there) but I personally would hesitate to drink my good Rioja out of it, if you need a "metal" wine drinking vessel it is often easy to pick up a half pint Silver tankard from markets or antique fairs fairly cheap and they are usually supposed to be OK, after all it is a Traditional vessel for drinking Champagne!!!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 11:30 AM

Yes, but it's probably minimal in modern pewter. In 17th or 18th century France it was noted to cause some rather nasty symptom which were reprised in the 'Dorset Dropsy' of later times. 'Dorset Dropsy' was found noted to occur in cider drinkers but couldn't, initially, be linked to lead poisoning as cider, in England, was being drunk from earthenware vessels. Eventually they found that lead solder was being used to repair the oaken boards that the fruit was chopped up on!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Splott Man
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 11:17 AM

Are there any chemical leaching problems regards drinking red wine from a pewter goblet?

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 10:06 AM

I don't know if the tankards you have over in the UK are manufactured differently, but every tankard I've tried in the U.S. that is made of metal just makes the beer taste awful. The metalic taste is something I just can't shake. I know that often the kegs are metal, but they are coated to protect the beer from exposure.

I can see where ceramic mugs would be a problem, but a good size plastic one could surely serve the purpose and retain the taste of the beer.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: le cheffie
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 09:59 AM

I have a collection of pewter tankards for different occasions. One for Morris, one for festivals and a really battered on for re enactment. I'm still after a nice ceramic one or a leather one to use for re enacting.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: GUEST,Essex Girl
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 09:30 AM

I've got a whole set of Pewter Tankards, from the quart pot (which was Dave Bryants)and the pint pot which I use all the time down to the tiny gill pot. Beer does taste much better out of pewter than plastic!!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 09:20 AM

I have two leather ones, plus several wooden ones I make myself. The nice thing is that indoors, they serve as combo coasters/mugs. (funny, I had never called them 'tankards', though I suppose there's little difference.) I do have several 'beer steins' with lids, though I seldom use them, as they are ceramic and leave wet spots.

I'll take a picture of my collection.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Jane of 'ull
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 08:41 AM

Emma B, you're a fountain of knowledge! I love those goblets! I drink wine often, too, so I'm tempted.. just hope my bank balance doesnt get so drained I can't afford to buy the liquor to go in them!

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: LesB
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 08:40 AM

They are particulaly popular with Morris dancers due to the constant moving from dance spot to pub to dance spot etc, & also finding 'which one is mine'.
Cheers
Les

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: My guru always said
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 08:20 AM

Mine's an old battered Pewtwer one of my Dad's that was left behind the bar at his Cricket Club. I remembered it a couple of years after his death & they were glad to be able to pass it on to me!

Good advice about getting your tankard engraved, mine has my name & phone number on the base.

Another good reason for tankards which I don't think has been mentioned, is that no-one accidently drinks your pint *grin*

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Leadfingers
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 08:05 AM

As I have a 'Free Beer' deal at one of the sessions I help out at , I have a Cow Horn (Wooden base) that holds about two pints ! Only time I drink 'Cooler' beer , as the horn keeps the beer cool better than Pewter does . Have to be careful NOT to drop it as a hair line crack can leave you thirsty , with a VERY wet table .

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Micca
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 08:01 AM

Sapper, the "lead-free" modern pewter in many cases substitutes Cadmium and its alloys to replace the lead used in old pewter which in certain conditions of acidity will leach into your drink and give that touch of "metallic" taste

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Will Fly
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 07:04 AM

Dalvey stuff is very good. I have several Dalvey pieces and they're excellent quality.

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: Emma B
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 07:00 AM

and if your tipple is something a little shorter still.....

Subject: RE: Tankards
From: GUEST,Rich A
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 06:53 AM

My tankard is from A E Williams, world renowned for its pewter. Very well made and has survived being dropped many time on Morris tours etc.

AE Williams

They're quite pricey but worth it.

Rich