Are we nearing the end of British Beer ?

[IPA]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... -heritage/

[nallum]

What are they going to replace all these English ales with, Danish pilsner and Somersby ’cider’? It’s tragic really. It’s not competition, it’s a blatant monopoly erasing local culture. Extraordinary profits and shareholder ‘value’ at any cost to the product, service, consumer choice and heritage. How do they get away with it? Hopefully, enough small local craft breweries are getting bored of American IPAs and have learnt enough about brewing to reinvent some genuine English ales.

I spent some time in the New Forest late this ‘summer’. None of the pubs I was in were serving Ringwood ales. I had no idea Carlsberg-Marston had closed down the brewery in Ringwood. Some BS about it needing upgrading to be profitable then putting it up for sale way over value to ward off any local competition. Luckily there were decent replacements being served from Otter Brewery.

https://otterbrewery.com/

[PeeBee]

Hmm, hardly Carlsberg's fault. They're well known for producing cr&p beers, so they're only acting as could be expected. The fault lies with the tangled web of reasons why Carlsberg came to own these beers. Ultimately, that means the majority of "beer" drinkers these days.


Yeah, Ringwoods have gone. Along with Marstons! Once a darling of "independent" breweries, they happily hopped on the "Big Six" gravy-train before embarking on an accelerated ride of "evolution" that the original "Big Six" had already "beaten the track" to. Marston no-longer brew beer, that's all been handed over to Carlsberg, and are just a property management company now. Marston’s ditches brewing and switches to ‘pure play hospitality’ - CityAM

Ditching Bombardier is a bit sad (though I never much drank it me-self); they did something unusual with the way it was made. Forget what it was now (something about mashing temperatures?). All-the-same, the advertising piccie the Telegraph show is a bit rich … I guess they could get away with it by making no attempt to hide it was on a filmset or something like: Beer like "Bombardier" could not have existed in a 19th C. situation, as things like that hadn't come about. And these days, things like that have little attraction to American style "craft-beer" guzzling souls. So, it had to go.

[charlie]

It's what capitalists do.
They buy up good beers for the quality and heritage and replace them with cheap crap.

We've just lost Hawkshead, they sacked all of the brewers during lockdown (now brewing great beer at the Lakes Beer Co. in Kendal) and now they've closed the brewery because it was uneconomic and moved production to a modern brewery in Flookburgh, at least it's still reasonably local.

Consolidation in brewing seems to be accelerating and megaswill is all that will soon be left.
All the local pubs are closing only leaving big PubCo drinking barns with less and less outlets for smaller breweries and quality beer every day.
I can still shed a tear of loss for the Boddingtons that I used to drink in the 80's.

And don't get me started on Jennings.

[Jim]

I've heard that if you fill a room with spiders, eventually you'll end up with one enormous fat spider.

Capitalism works in a similar way. Then the spider buys it's way into the most powerful government on the planet.

[IPA]

It's what capitalists do.
They buy up good beers for the quality and heritage and replace them with cheap crap.

We've just lost Hawkshead, they sacked all of the brewers during lockdown (now brewing great beer at the Lakes Beer Co. in Kendal) and now they've closed the brewery because it was uneconomic and moved production to a modern brewery in Flookburgh, at least it's still reasonably local.

Consolidation in brewing seems to be accelerating and megaswill is all that will soon be left.
All the local pubs are closing only leaving big PubCo drinking barns with less and less outlets for smaller breweries and quality beer every day.
I can still shed a tear of loss for the Boddingtons that I used to drink in the 80's.

And don't get me started on Jennings.

One of the most memorable beers that I have ever drunk was Jennings's Cumberland Ale. And that was about fifty five years ago. The name of the pub escapes me at the moment, but it was on the road between Minlethorpe and Egremont
Could have been maybe The Golden Lion at Calderbridge

[bitter_dave]

Sad state of affairs. The model of regional brewers serving a local market with distinctive beers is still possible, as Harvey's shows. It's just that it does not suit shareholder capitalism. It should be possible for people in West Midlands to buy a pint of Banks Mild on cask if that's what they want!

If you looked up the beers in Wheeler's Brewing British real ales book I'm sure you'd find the majority are gone (or at least brewed by some corporation that has ruined them), including Gales Best Bitter which I still miss!

[JonB]

To inject a shot of positivity into this thread, proper traditional cask from small/medium independent brewers is readily available in a number of Sheffield pubs.


Sheffield Tap:
Has 10 hand pulle beers of varying types (bitters, pales, IPAs, stouts, etc.), some traditional some more "crafty." I think the biggest names I've seen would be Thornbridge and Brew York. I don't think I've ever seen a "big 5/6 Pubco" beer in here. They also have a small brewery on the premises, so a couple of the handpulls will be dedicated to their own beer. This tends to be traditional styles (bitter, Irish stout, etc.) though their Albion English Pale made with Jester and Harlequin hops is a very nice pint...

Fat Cat/Kelham Island Tavern
I'd say about 6 and 8 of the above respectively on cask at any one time each, mostly traditional styles. KIT has a policy of always having a Mild on (though given how few are made the quality does seem to vary a lot...). You'll probably get the odd US-style IPA/pale etc.

Rutland Arms/Harlequin:
They are owned by the same couple, and serve almost exclusively independent breweries, and at least a couple of traditional styles on all the time. Some wacky stuff like Tartarus dark ales (which are amazing on cask if you like an adjunct-heavy porter/stout).

Gardener's Rest:
This is a proper "Beardy-Weirdy CAMRA" type pub and serves almost exclusively traditional styles from local independent/regional breweries (again biggest name I recall seeing in there is Thornbridge). Highly recommend the Pork Pies as well...

There must be loads more within the city I've missed but I don't get to go out as often as I used to...

Sheffield has about 50-60 breweries of various sizes operating within the City area, it used to be a lot more but a number never recovered from COVID and the subsequent Cost of Greed crisis.

[Cobnut]

That is reassuring, but I see the same reflected in most towns/cities. Here in Ipswich we have one brewpub _ the Briarbank - who produce a regular set of ales (& some cask stuff) and also offer beers from other local breweries. We also have a few pubs which sell a good selection of mostly local breweries ales. There is a ‘spoons which I almost refuse to patronise (Tim whatever his name being a prize tw*t IMHO, so not keen to further line his pockets - that and the fact that frequently take beers in there seem a bit meh) and some other pubs which sell big 6 “beers” and loads and macro lager. I rarely go into these either.

Norwich - wrong side of the Waveney - has a good selection of pubs; dare I say it more than Ipswich has, but also has a Brewdog pub and its’ own selection of ‘spoons, etc. to avoid.

I remain optimistic that we will continue to be ble to enjoy good quality ales from local producers who are committed to keeping them alive, but also offering some more so-called modern styles. And I’ll continue making a similarly diverse selection for my own enjoyment and that of friends and family.

[bitter_dave]

We have local breweries set up in the last 20 years in the wider Newcastle area selling cask ales. But they tend to sell hoppy pale ales, when a long-established regional family brewer would probably make sure they had a bitter available. You do see a traditional brown bitter now bad again, but it is the exception rather than the rule. But I guess that's just reflects changing tastes - you see Adnams Ghost Ship in pubs and supermarkets, but not Adnams Southwold. Thank got for homebrew!