Roger Protz has written in What’s Brewing about Carlsberg’s plans to shut the Marston’s brewery in Burton (link below).
Beyond Bass and Pedigree he highlights some of the other well known cask beers that are under threat:
The new edition of the Good Beer Guide lists 22 beers currently produced at Marston’s. What will happen to them? Carlsberg says it will continue to brew Hobgoblin, McEwan’s and Brooklyn – but where? And what will happen to the remaining 19?
Marston’s brews Draught Bass and AB InBev will be keenly aware that the historic ale will lose all credibility if it moves from its ancestral home in Burton.
Young’s in London, which ceased brewing in 2006, has an estate of 288 pubs and will be desperate to supply them with Bitter and Special. Tetley pubs in the north will be equally concerned by any lack of Bitter.
The Ringwood pubs in the south of England will be in urgent need of Razorback and Fortyniner. They won’t get Old Thumper, another former Champion Beer of Britain, as Carlsberg sent that toppling into the tomb some time ago.
The Brakspear pub company, shorn of its brewery, will want Oxford Gold and Special while – and here’s the grim irony — Marston’s, once a revered name in British brewing and now reduced to the status of a pub company, will need Pedigree for its bars.
And like Draught Bass it must surely be brewed in Burton.
Demise of a legend – What’s Brewing
Gone for a Burton, my view at Culture Matters
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