ALLSOPPS WORK WONDERS
Jamie Allsopp’s revival of his family business continues. The latest venture sees the reintroduction of the Double Diamond brand, last on general sale some 30 years ago. Older readers will, I’m sure, recall that DD ‘worked wonders’ and was the beer that you were only here for. Let’s not mention K9P… The original DD was, of course, a keg beer but the new version is a cask 3.8% ABV pale ale. I have a recollection that DD has made a brief appearance on handpump before; possibly at a Great British Beer Festival? Anyone remember? In the last edition I commended Roger Protz’s obituary for Geoff Mumford, which mentions the link between Double Diamond and the much missed Ind Coope Draught Burton Ale (4.8% ABV). As reported previously, Allsopp’s have now opened their first tied house. This is the Blue Stoops, 127-129 Kensington Church Street, which opened on 9 October. It will be an outlet for DD.
PRIZE OLD ALE RETURNS
Asahi have released the latest iteration of Prize Old Ale under the Dark Star Brewing label. First brewed in 1923 by Gales of Horndean, Hampshire, this 9% ABV dark ale is a rare survivor of its style. As is traditional, the beer is a mix of matured ‘stock’ ale and new beer, brewed with Maris Otter malt and Fuggles and Golding hops. The original Gale’s yeast was used. It was released on 1 November and was available in cask form from six selected London pubs and also in 500ml bottles that are available on-line.
Meanwhile, Asahi are the latest to reduce a product’s ABV to 3.4%. This time it’s Grolsch Premium Pilsner which was relaunched in the UK in 2020 at 4.0%, having originally been 5.0%. It is still 5.0% on the Continent. One report said that the change will save Asahi 23p in duty on each 440 ml can. For the year ended 31 December 2023, Asahi UK saw their sales increase by 2.9% to £527 million but they reported a pre-tax loss of £14.1 million. This is despite closing the Dark Star and Meantime breweries and concentrating production at Chiswick.
BANKS’S BREWERY TO CLOSE
The consequences of Carlsberg Britvic (as they will become if the Competition and Markets Authority approves) taking full control of the breweries that once formed the Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company, are already becoming evident. The company has announced that, as part of its ‘network restructuring’ programme, the Park Brewery in Wolverhampton, the original home of Banks’s beers, will close in 2025. Consultation has started with trade unions over what is to happen to the site’s 97 staff.
Carlsberg say that they plan to increase investment in their other breweries in Northampton and Burton. Long-term, this includes £6 million to make the former Marston’s Albion brewery into a ‘national centre for craft beer and traditional ale brewing in the UK’. They will also be opening a new logistics depot in the Black Country.
A major consideration in the decision to close the Park Brewery, the company says, was the loss of their contract with Spanish brewery Mahou San Miguel to brew their lager for the UK trade. This will leave the company with excess capacity. The San Miguel contract has been taken up by the Budweiser Brewing Group UK, which is part of the multi-national AB InBev. At the same time, Wetherspoon’s have ceased to stock San Miguel although whether this is because of the change of brewer isn’t known.
It was encouraging to note on social media that, in covering this story, a number of local newspapers drew their readers’ attention to other local breweries such as Bathams, Black Country Ales and Holdens, whose products were also available in the area.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
The renowned head brewery and joint managing director of Harvey’s Brewery in Lewes, Sussex, Miles Jenner, was the recipient of the Roger Ryman Lifetime Achievement Award at the recent Brewers Choice Awards, organised by the Brewers Journal. The award was presented by Mark Tranter, the founder of Burning Sky Brewery, who praised Miles’s ‘passion, dedication and belief in the art of brewing, to which he has dedicated his entire working life’, 45 years of which have been spent at Harvey’s. We add our congratulations accordingly.
SAMUEL SMITHS SUCCESSION?
Although the brewery is in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, Samuel Smith’s have a not insubstantial holding of 36 pubs in London. Some of them, such as the Cittie of York and the Princess Louise, are important parts of our pub heritage. A significant event is approaching. It is reported that in December, when he reaches the age of 80, Humphrey Smith will stand down as chairman. He will be succeeded by his son, Samuel (36), who is currently in overall charge of the company’s London pubs. As I am sure that readers are aware, Humphrey is well known for running his company, and in particular his pubs, his way. Opinion is divided; some approve, others don’t. We can only wait to see if there will be any changes, although I suspect that many customers would not welcome anything too radical. At present Smiths only produce one cask beer, Old Brewery Bitter (4% ABV). Perhaps a second one, something more pale, would go down well?
SHEPS COMMIT
Following a report that they were planning to concentrate on keg beers, which seems to have been a misunderstanding, Shepherd Neame have confirmed their commitment to cask ale. Their chief executive, Jonathan Neame, said, “At present, Shepherd Neame is seeing growth in keg beer and a decline in cask beer and bottled beer, driven by the market, but we remain completely committed to cask ale and see no reason why the category will not recover again. We brew a diverse range of award-winning cask ales and in the past year have won multiple awards for our beers, including two World’s Best honours in the World Beer Awards 2024. We also continue to invest in our popular Cask Club programme which sees new beers incorporating modern styles and flavours released through the year, along with seasonal classics, and is aimed at encouraging new drinkers to enjoy cask ale.”
The World Beer Awards winners were both strong ales: 1698 (6.5% ABV) and Bishops Finger (5.4% ABV). Sheps also picked up two gold medals at the Great British Food Awards. These were for Double Stout (5.2% ABV) and Whitstable Bay Blonde Lager (4.5% ABV).
Sheps’ latest limited-edition beer from its 15 barrel length Small Batch Brewery is Table Beer (2.7% ABV). This light golden ale is inspired by the medieval domestic beers consumed when the water wasn’t to be trusted and is brewed with a combination of three malts (Ale, Crystal and Caramalt) to give a full body despite the low ABV. The hops used are Challenger and Saaz, plus late hopping with US Centennial and dry hopping with Hallertau Tradition. It has a delicate malt and fruit flavour with hints of citrus and a slight spicy, herbal finish. It was available in a select number of pubs (including the one on the cover!) from 11 November, so there might still be some around.
Sheps have also extended their ‘pouring rights’ partnership with Millwall Football Club. They will supply all of the beer, cider, wines, spirits and soft drinks at the Den for the next five years. What was the matchday shop at the corner of the Coldblow Lane and Dockers stands has been converted into the Spitfire Bar where fans can enjoy Sheps beers on matchdays.
THORNBRIDGE AND KERNEL BACK TOGETHER
For their first collaboration beer using their recently installed section of Burton Union, Thornbridge Brewery invited Bermondsey’s Kernel Brewery to repeat a beer which they had originally jointly brewed back in 2011. This was Burton Ale, a warming malty sweet dark beer with balancing bitterness from Golding hops. It seemed appropriate to brew a Burton Ale on the Burton Union. Burton ales were popular, especially in London, up until the 1950s and indeed Fuller’s ESB started out as a Burton ale. The new version will be 5.5% ABV in cask and 7.2% ABV in bottles (500ml). It will be bottled conditioned.
WILD CARD
I’m sad to report that the Wild Card Brewery in Walthamstow, founded in 2012, has closed and brewing has ceased. The brewery site was repossessed by the landlords, Waltham Forest Council, following a failure to come to an agreement over arrears of rent, some of which date back to the Covid lockdowns. The Ravenswood Barrel Store has also closed but their pub, the Tavern on the Hill in Higham Hill, remains open because it is owned by a separate company. It will however, sadly, not have any Wild Card beers to sell.
THE RETURN OF THOMAS HARDY
Originally brewed by the now defunct Eldridge Pope brewery in Dorset, Thomas Hardy’s Ale, a barley wine, became a collectors’ item with its numbered and dated bottles. I expect that there are still some originals out there! It was intended to be a one-off in 1968 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the author’s death but it proved so popular that regular production started in 1974. It ended in 1999 when production costs became too high and Eldridge Pope closed shortly after. In 2003, an American importer, George Saxon, obtained the rights to it and it was brewed at Hanlon’s brewery until 2008. In 2012 ownership passed to the Vecchiato brothers from Italy who own the Interbrau SPA agency and they released a version in 2015. Now, following an agreement between Interbrau SPA and importers James Clay & Sons, the beer is being brewed again, this time at Hepworth’s brewery in Horsham, under the guidance of Derek Prentice, one of the most experienced brewers in the country. It went on sale in November. The 11.3% ABV beer is available in two different 25cl bottled versions; a standard one, numbered and dated, and ‘The Historical’, which has been aged in French oak. Most of the draught version will be supplied in key-kegs but a quantity has been racked into casks and made available to selected pubs around the country.
BREWERY NUMBERS
The latest report from the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA)’s UK Brewery Tracker shows mixed results. In the period July to September the UK total fell by 27 to 1,721. This compares to a loss of 29 in the quarter before and 38 in the one before that. The south west saw an increase of two and Wales one but the south east (including London) saw a reduction of six.