So, Farewell then Beavertown as Heineken takes complete control
Big Beer in the shape of Heineken has taken complete control of Beavertown brewery:
Of course old Marxists with beards like myself who understand that capitalism tends to monopoly expected nothing less. However as a beer drinker living in Tottenham I cant help feeling a good deal of regret about this.
Beavertown’s beers- which you can find in supermarkets-remains perfectly drinkable. However back in the day, less than ten years ago, they were at the cutting edge of craft beer producing some exceptional beers. That is gone.
My memories of Beavertown go back to the opening of their former pub Dukes Brew and Que in Haggerston. At that point Neck Oil was available in cask and brewed much closer to the Bathams recipe beloved of Logan Plant than it is now.
I last saw Logan just under a year ago at the opening of the Beavertown pub the Corner Pin right by Spurs stadium. He was enthusing about the then new Bones lager that was launching and discussing the cask beers produced by Black Country brewers like Holdens.
His original plan was to get good beer much more widely available and to do so independently of Big Beer. As above Beavertown still produce decent beers but in a deal that looks similar to Camden’s sell out to ABI Logan will now remain only as an advisor. The deal also looks similar to Heineken’s buy out of Lagunitas where they initially took a part stake and then complete control.
We can only wish Logan Plant well in whatever he does next and recall the efforts of many Beavertown employees in the past to produce some great beer.
Beavertown may well remain a decent brand if Camden is anything to go by. The impetus for Big Beer is to cut costs and find efficiencies and produce in the process blander beer. Countervailing to that however is that there is little point in Big Beer being involved with ‘craft’ if the product is as underwhelming as much of the rest of their range.
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