I always thought the Export was pretty good. The regular stuff is though.

That sums up my experience. It didn't travel well North of the river, most of the pubs serving a decent pint would also be places you'd get a kicking in (The Whip served good beer but also GBH on tap), etc...etc.... But a good pint was pretty good. At it's best it was as smooth as full fat milk from Jersey cows. The 80's and 90's were pretty dire for beer drinking as I remember. There were a lot of really crap lagers becoming popular (I don't need to list them, we can all name them if we try), and the proliferation of electric pumps and wine bar/wine lodges ruined the existing bitters.
I got a crate of Black Sheep Bitter for Fathers Day today, absolutely superb stuff.

Wonder if there'll be another 'Tetleys Pub Hunt' ?
They were fun....trying to do 20 pubs in a couple of days

sam smiths is just the same now, pleasure to go to work. the retirements in the cellar bar is free ale. long days

That's just a vicious rumour, no truth in it at all.

Sam Smith's nut brown ale is

I'm that bit older than some of you,but going back to the 60s around here there was Tetley's ,John Smith's ,Sam Smith's, Dutton's ,Ramsden's, Hammond's,Bentley's,Hemingway's,and of course there was Tetley's big rival which by the way I was too young to sup,but I know a lot of people younger than me say that I have heard say Melbourne bitter was much better than Tetley's.Tetley's took over Melbourne brewery circa 1960 and did away with the other famous Leeds brew "Melbourne bitter".As far as I'm concerned the only beer that came close to Tetley's in that era was "RAMSDEN'S" and I think Tetley's took over them too, and Ramsdens wonderful mild disappeared too.Times have changed and they will continue to change,and this changing era began with the the Thatcher govt making brewery's sell their pubs and the biggest change of all was all day drinking

I started drinking in pubs about 1996, and I've never had a decent pint of Tetleys. It seems like if you want to mourn something, mourn the demise of it as a decent beer 20 odd years ago.

I feel for lost jobs, but in a market place full of real ales which are increasingly available in pubs and bars again, I won't need to boycott Tetleys. I hadn't bought a pint of it in about a decade anyway.

I think until about 1994 you could still get a good pint of Tetley's in the Gaping Goose or the Miners in Garforth (might be a year out). And they were damn good pints at that time. Like the majority on here have said though, they were few and far between where you could get that, and since just nowhere.

I think at one point but I could be a couple of years out, the Gaping Goose was regarded as the best pint of Tetleys around that side of Leeds.

My local in Horsforth was (and still is, as far as I know) a John Smiths pub, but kept a smashing pint of directors. Not the biggest fan of John Smiths, but they always kept a good pint in there. I'd imagine they still do, although it's hardly local anymore for me!

I never had much need for Tetleys.

The Brown Cow at Whitkirk used to serve a good pint of Tetleys when I used to drink there . Unfortunatley thats over 18 years ago now. When I used to come home on leave from London always remember the Tetleys welcome to Leeds sign at the side of the railway, new I was home then. Mind you the platform was only 100m further on!