The news from Roger Protz yesterday that AB InBev are considering the future of Boddingtons Bitter created something of a Proustian rush, although I don't do cakes. I started my drinking career in Doncaster and Middlesbrough, neither of which were ripe territory for Boddingtons (and I will have to write about 80s beers in Teesside one day), but when Whitbread bought the brewery in 1989 they saw Boddies as a strong product for expansion and within a year or so it started to turn up on hand pull on bars in their tied estate, including my local. It became remarkably popular, especially as the alternative was Trophy, cask Trophy, but Trophy nonetheless. After years of the caramel hues of John and Samuel Smiths' and Tetley's and Newcastle Brown, the straw colour of Boddingtons was a revelation, and its sharp, almost astringent taste set it well apart from anything else available in the area. Combined with a laddish marketing campaign and the ascendance of Manchester as a font of hip, Boddies got big. It was the most popular canned beer in the mid 90s with the application of the Draughtflow widget - it needed a sparkler to get its definitive creamy head anyway - and at its peak was shifting 850,000 barrels a year.

Now, I wouldn't consider myself a purist. I drank lager for years when there were few alternatives to be had in most pubs, but it did become clear that Boddingtons as it was died when someone decided that it was going to be Whitbread's flagship bitter brand. It's probably (barely) living proof that there's a point where a beer can only decline in quality. I don't think I've seen it on cask certainly since the AB Inbev takeover in 2000: in Leeds it's more likely to be on chilled risers in venues, nightclubs and student pubs with all the taste taken out. I knew that Strangeways brewery closed in 2004, which in the scheme of things is much the same as just what's happened with Tetley's in Leeds, but now the brewing contract with Hydes has ended, Hydes is moving to new premises near Salford's sparkling Media City and Boddingtons, production now back at 50,000 barrels a year, may be no more.

The news has decided for me what my first brew is going to be though. The recipe for Boddingtons bitter is in 'Brew Your Own British Real Ale' so I'm going to give it a go with malt extract. If that works, I'll try it with grain. And then I'll start making variations. It may be fond memory (and the last time I actually drank cask Boddingtons is probably 20 years ago) but it's a pretty good baseline even for modern ales.