The Cardiff brewery Brains has announced that it will lease its pub estate to Marstons:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55421848
It is good news in the sense that the move will save both jobs and pubs and CAMRA has welcomed it on that basis.
Of course the lockdowns of 2020 have had a significant impact on all brewers and pubs and the Government has been far too slow in recognising the support needed for a significant section of the economy.
In the case of Brains the Welsh Government has seemed torn between recognising the important community role pubs play and listening to well placed temperance campaigners who urge the closure of pubs to reduce COVID infections with no significant evidence that this would happen.
There is though a wider back story here.
Brains had put 30 or so of its pubs up for sale before the March lockdown and has moved its brewery from central Cardiff to a site nearer Cardiff Bay.
As someone who lives partly in central Cardiff I can think of several Brains pubs within 10 minutes walk of the house that have been closed and changed to housing in the last year or two.
Brains can brew great beers and it has a loyal following who rightly identify beers like SA with all things Welsh (perhaps particularly rugby!). Unfortunately in 2020 the beers dont have such a good reputation amongst those who can now drink interesting brews from Tiny Rebel in Newport (almost big enough to be a new Regional brewer now) and Cardiff micro-breweries like Crafty Devil.
Perhaps Brains best and stand out beer, Dark, is produced only in small amounts and doesnt seem to find much of a market amongst drinkers. It deserves to be much more widely known and appreciated and one can only ponder whether if Brains was based in London it might well be..
The move is at one level a reconfiguration of the Beerage since both Marstons and Brains are traditional supporters of the Tory Party (the support doesnt seem to have been returned recently) and it means that the brewery should stay open.
Let’s hope so
Update
I was perhaps too optimistic here and ‘rumours’ on Brains getting out of brewing have been current certainly in the Cardiff scene for a good while longer than the last year.
The BBC is now reporting that Brains are consulting on the closure of their new brewery (only opened in 2019) with significant job losses and getting the beer contracted brewed. The BBC is speculating on a deal with Marstons after they leased the pubs. The word ‘inevitable’ is used (& over used in a number of contexts currently). I think not. In reality it appears the pubs and beer were not perhaps the key things driving those who own Brains. Given how British capitalism is currently configured perhaps not a surprise
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