‘Drink cask ale now while it is still around’
In his weekly The Bar Man column, Jeff Hoyle puts out a stark warning to beer lovers…
Well, that didn’t take long. On October 7, Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC) announced that they were closing the Banks brewery in Wolverhampton with the loss of almost 100 jobs.
This was blamed on the decision of Mahou San Miguel not to renew its contract, CEO Paul Davis saying: “The hard reality is that, because of the current climate for ale and Mahou San Miguel’s decision not to renew its exclusive production and distribution agreement with CMBC from the start of next year, we will have significant excess capacity across our brewery network which we have to address’’.
Not a big worry for us cask ale fans as, in their words, “CMBC will be investing more than £6m in significant new projects at its brewery in Burton, including the refurbishment of its cask ale line to brew traditional British ales, as well developing the brewery’s capabilities for brewing innovative, contemporary craft ales”.
Less than two months later comes the news that eleven of their beers, including eight cask brands, have been axed from pubs. The list provided to CAMRA from CMBC confirms that beers that will no longer be available are Banks’s Mild, Banks’s Sunbeam, Bombardier (keg), Eagle IPA, Jennings Cumberland Ale, Mansfield Dark Smooth (keg), Mansfield Original Bitter (keg), Marston’s Old Empire, Marston’s 61 Deep, Ringwood Boondoggle and Ringwood Old Thumper.
There are some all-time classics in there. Back in the 70s and 80s I was a regular visitor to Wolverhampton and Banks Mild was everywhere. It was a tasty, low abv drink consumed in great quantities by many workers to rehydrate after a long shift in one of the many heavy industries still operating locally.
Indeed, I remember at least one pub where it was the only ale on sale, such was its popularity. The Jennings Brewery in Cockermouth survived almost 200 years, but CMBC decided that the challenges of Covid meant that the brewery would have to close in November 2022. The usual promises were made to brew the brands elsewhere, but they haven’t lasted very long for Cumberland Ale.
Ringwood Old Thumper was the CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain in 1988, but CMBC said of the Ringwood site that “…it needed an upgrade to be competitive, but expansion and improvements would have been challenging and extremely costly given the limited space and location”. And so, it closed earlier this year, with the usual promises.
Poor old CMBC. They are trying so hard but are being let down by us, the customers. I think that they are still the largest producers of cask ale in the country, but they can’t persuade us to buy enough of it to keep the breweries open and the brands in production.
A glance at their website will reveal the efforts that they have made. The first item I found was a promotion for their limited-edition Christmas jumpers, next came the launch of canned American Session Pale Ale, followed by an analysis of customers at convenience stores and how to persuade them to purchase alcohol.
A detailed search did reveal that cask ale is mentioned on their website, but only in an article aimed at persuading landlords to abandon it for their new keg dispense system. So here we are, the largest cask ale brewer in the country (world?) with award-winning heritage brands putting zero marketing behind their products. Am I wrong to think that there could be another way? In the interests of balance, I can reveal that Ashai, the Japanese owner of Fuller’s, has discontinued Bengal Lancer. Drink cask ale now while it is still around.
bar.man@btinternet.com
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