Tadcaster Brown Ale

I haven't drunk Newcastle Brown Ale for years. This is because it's minging.

So it's probably my fault that S&N are closing the Federation Brewery in Gateshead, due to it allegedly operating at only 60% of capacity, and moving production to Tadcaster.

I'm not terribly bothered where Newcastle DunstonTadcaster Brown is brewed really — if S&N don't care, why should I? But it would be a shame to overlook the end of the long story of the Federation Brewery, which had a fascinating history in its own right before S&N bought it in 2004.

With less than six weeks to go until the takeover of S&N by Heineken is completed with the company formally changing its name to Heineken UK, you inevitably get people blaming Heineken. But this is naive.

S&N didn't need any help from Heineken to close the McEwan's brewery in Edinburgh that had made it one of the biggest brewers in the UK in the first place.

This is just S&N doing what it does best: pissing all over its own heritage.

Comments

  1. Yep. I really don't understand the romanticising of breweries that make crap beer, regardless of how long they've occupied their real estate. The time to be sad was when the beer got shit.

    S&N/Heineken are no different from any other large corporation: heritage is a commodity for the marketing people to use; an asset whose cash value must be worth the cost of maintaining it.

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  2. By that example, 'anonymous' Heineken is the best beer in the world, given that it's usually available even in the remotest little rathole. Doesn't make it good.

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