Scottish & Newcastle
UK 3.8-4% ABV

In the world of ale drinking, frivolity is very much frowned upon. I know that, you know that and John Smith’s know that, which is why they like to bill John Smith’s as a ‘no nonsense’ beer. Even the name is a straight-up, honest-to-goodness, kind; one that is as English as a wet bank holiday and one that they hope we can do business with. However, despite its impressively non-frivolous merits, it’s not a name that was chosen by a committee of market-testers, but is, in actual fact, the name of a real bloke. John Smith was born in Tadcaster, a market town in North Yorkshire. He began brewing his ale in 1847, and it swiftly won a hearty thumbs-up from the town’s thirsty mill workers and factory hands. The company have maintained their down-to-earth image with a series of popular adverts, the most famous of which in recent times starred (tee-total) comedian Peter Kay. The classic ads saw Kay ‘perfect bombing’ his way to diving glory, spectacularly ruining a game of keepy-uppy (‘Ave it!’), terrifying a young girl with tales of wardrobe monsters and burglars, and packing his 55-year-old mother off to an old people’s home ‘because I wanna put a snooker table in your bedroom and the kids are frightened of your moustache.’ As it goes, John Smith’s Extra Smooth is fairly innocuous, with the unadventurous taste, nevertheless, helping it to sell a million pints each day in the UK alone. RM