I worked for Courage when Directors Bitter was still being brewed on the home ground. These days it is brewed by Marstons at the Bedford Brewery previously operated by Charles Wells. Thanks to the wizardry of modern science, clever chemistry, and the right ingredients, a pint of Directors, as served today, tastes exactly the same as it did in the old days. Using a small proportion of my Courage pension, I was able to enjoy an excellent pint of Directors at the Peacock Inn at Tysoe in Warwickshire on Wednesday evening.
A little story about my early years at Courage: We had a management dining room on the first floor of Seven Bridges House (near the River Kennet in Reading's Bridge Street) - the directors had their dining room on the floor above. Although the directors always enjoyed wine with their lunch, those of us in the dining room below only had draught beer. However, a tradition had been established where if one of us happened to be celebrating a birthday during the preceding week, the directors would send down a case (or more) of wine to be consumed with our lunch on Friday. By the time I joined the "manager's mess" there were only about a dozen of us but somehow, we managed to have a birthday every week!