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Still struggling with 2d. WATNEY? TAWNEY? thanks for any hints and for your patience.

It seems to be an anagram (shit-faced) of “youth wasnt one”, as a cheap diva, so your first suggestion is correct, followed by the usual surname. Hence the earlier hint about Red Barrel, possibly the worst imitation of bitter ever sold in pubs in the 70s and 80s

Thanks for helping to parse this. There's some obscure knowledge for sure!

quisling, that very Watney's Red Barrel was imported in large volume to the USA in those very '70s and '80s (and probably sold reasonably well).
You might be surprised by that (some other UK residents have been). However, before the relatively recent "craft beer" craze, urinous beer was more the rule than the exception Stateside.

I’m not surprised, geeker. My dates were slightly out, sorry. It was apparently the biggest selling keg beer in the world in 1966. But the export version was a bit stronger. 5.2%, I think. Original Red Barrel just 3.8%. The brewers were convinced cask ales would be extinct by 1980, but drinkers and CAMRA (the campaign for real ale) held back the tide of progress. Watneys had nailed their colours to the keg mast and soon sold out.

I spend 6 months in Northern California in the early 80s and recall how dire things were then. Samuel Adams was about as good as it got, as I recall. I flew across on BA with a 40 pint Rotokeg from London to San Francisco on my lap so my brother, who was at Stanford, could brew his own. Happy days!

I was a beer drinker but went off alcohol in 1998. Always thought Samuel Adams was majorly over-rated (I got the impression F. X. Matt of New York State brewed it for them on contract). IIRC Anchor Steam, which I think no longer exists, was the trendy West Coast beer of choice in the early '80s (for what that's worth).

Anchor Steam rings a bell! Your memory is excellent (probably because you went off alcohol in 1998). Thanks for reminding me

Watney’s Red Barrel was the stuff of legend. I’m sure you’ll remember the Monty Python sketch:

http://montypython.50webs.com/scripts/Series_3/45.htm

Brilliant😁

As the one who brought up the bloody Red Barrel, I’m delighted some good came of it!