I recently paid a first-ever visit to Burton-on-Trent, famous for being one of the spiritual homes of the British brewing industry, just as one of the stalwarts from the town announced it is exiting from brewing altogether....
As far as I can recall, I had never been to Burton-on-Trent before, the nearest I'd been was driving past the town on the A38, with the nearby site of the Marstons brewery with its clouds of steam rising into the sky a splendid spectacle. I have to say though that given Burton's pre-eminence in the history of the brewing industry, the fact that this was the first visit to the town for a beer writer is an admission of a serious omission, a dereliction of duty some might say.
The original settlement that is now known as Burton-upon-Trent, or Burton-on-Trent or just plain Burton grew up around an abbey which had been established near the river, although the Romans had been here earlier. The town was granted a charter to hold a market by King John in 1200, and over the centuries the town with its important bridging point over the River Trent continued to grow. In 1712 the River Trent Navigation was opened, and a wharf was built, allowing goods to be transported by boat along the river. This was one of the key developments that helped the growth of the brewing industry; the other was the presence of calcium sulphate in the local water which brought out the flavour in the hops that had started to be added to beer. This meant pale ales from Burton could compete with those of London, at that time the main brewing centre in the country, and beers such as Burton Ale were both sold elsewhere in the country and exported to Europe, a situation that was maintained with the arrival of the railways.
Burton came to dominate the brewing trade, and at its height a quarter of all beer sold in Britain was produced here. In the second half of the 19th century, the numbers of breweries in the town grew, with over 30 recorded in 1880. After further mergers and buy-outs, just three main albeit large breweries remained a hundred years later: Bass, Ind Coope, and Marston's. Since the 1980's the situation has continued to change; Ind Coope, part of Allied Breweries, disappeared, whilst Bass, founded in 1777, the biggest brewery in the world by the late 19th century, became one of the large brewing groups that dominated the UK scene back in the late 20th century, having acquired a string of smaller breweries like Mitchell and Butlers, William Stones of Sheffield, and Charringtons. The 1989 Beer Orders Act led to Bass like all the remaining Big Six groups - Watney Mann, Whitbread, Allied Breweries, Scottish & Newcastle, and Courage - being forced to reduce the number of pubs they could own, and this led to a sequence of events that saw the brewing side acquired by Interbrew (later AB InBev), and the pubs and restaurants acquired by Mitchell and Butlers, by now back as a separate entity. Due to competition laws the Bass brewing operations were sold on to Canadian conglomerate Molson Coors, but with no real ale brewed at their huge lager-dedicated plant in Burton, their flagship cask ale Draught Bass has in recent years been brewed across town at Marstons.
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| Part of Molson Coors' huge brewery in Burton |
Back when I started drinking in the 1970's, Marstons was regarded as a model independent, regional brewery. The company had a number of notable beers, including Pedigree, a 4.3% bitter which was brewed using the traditional Burton Union system (which has since been discontinued), Merrie Monk, a strong mild with the same strength as Pedigree that was at the time the strongest mild in the country, and Owd Rodger, an 8% sweet and rich barley wine. Against a background of the manoeuvrings of the so-called Big Six national breweries, Marstons, a brewery with over a thousand pubs itself, was largely regarded as the benign face of brewing. The change in the brewing landscape initiated by the Beer Orders Act meant that Marstons came to be amongst the biggest brewers in the country, having acquired a number of breweries such as Wychwood, Ringwood, and Jennings at different ends of the country. But then Marstons were bought by Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries, the home of Banks and Hansons beers, a company with huge brewing capacity for cask ale. The Marstons name was quickly adopted for this new combined brewing giant.
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| Marstons' Brewery, Burton-on-Trent |
In 2020 Marstons announced a £780 million merger with Danish brewers Carlsberg, in which Marstons would have a 40% share with the breweries acquired by the new group. For both Carlsberg, who are a large international player focussing on lager, and Marstons with their portfolio of ales and large number of pubs in the UK, the merger made strategic sense. However, the influence of the Danes, whose gleaming, computerised breweries such as their UK base in Northampton are far removed from a creaking traditional real ale brewery, began to take hold and as is inevitable in the wake of feasibility studies and return on investment analyses, the accountants hold the cards. When Carlsberg and Marstons got together, it wasn't to keep things as they were. It was to create synergies, ie. find mutually beneficial ways of saving money and creating efficiencies. And so cut to the recent announcement that Marstons were pulling out of the brewing side of things and selling their 40% stake in CMBC to Carlsberg, so they could concentrate on managing their pub estate.
Now Carlsberg have never shown any interest in cask ale, as was seen when they oversaw the closure of Tetleys brewery when the two were operating as Carlsberg Tetley (ironically, by a twist of fate, Tetleys is one of the cask ale brands brewed by Marstons), and so understandably there has been some concern expressed about the future of the real ale brands brewed within the group over this latest development. A previous announcement earlier in the year from Marstons saying they were starting to market some beers under the banner of Fresh Ale, beer conditioned at the brewery so it is not live when it arrives at the pub, yet sell it via a hand pump, long the acknowledged symbol of real ale which is still developing in the cask in the pub cellar, had caused outcry in CAMRA circles, and so put together, it is not surprising there is some concern over the future of cask ale, not just in Burton, but further afield.
Meanwhile, when you arrive at the town's railway station today you don't have to wander far to catch a view that is still dominated by the modern steel tanks and the large brick buildings that date from the 19th century growth of the brewing industry. The majority of these are now given over to lager production, whilst a sign that Burton is still an important brewing town has been the arrival of newer, smaller brewers starting up in the town in recent years. The oldest and best-established of these is Burton Bridge Brewery, who started brewing their large and traditional range in the town in 1983. Tower Brewery started brewing here in 2001, whilst the smaller Gates Burton outfit was established in 2011. And more recently, there is a plan to bring the Allsopps name back to the Burton brewing scene. This was an old family brewery which it is claimed brewed the first-ever Burton Ale back in 1730, and recently a descendant has re-established the name but the beers are currently being brewed elsewhere.
There are 4 pubs in the Good Beer Guide within 10 minutes walk of the station, so my plan was to visit them all and get a flavour of the town. The Roebuck Inn is an imposing building with a curved facade, and was once the brewery tap for Ind Coope. I walked in to a long narrow room with dark wood panelling, with the long bar running down the left-hand side of the room. There was a mix of older blokes, plus the odd couple sat at tables facing the bar where a number of high-vis guys were enjoying a pint after work. There were 6 beers available on handpump including local ones like Marstons Pedigree and Draught Bass, plus nationally-distributed beers like Theakstons Old Peculier. I decided to go for a pint of Bass, and went to sit at a table near the far end of the bar across from a dartboard. The beer was good (NBSS 3.5) which you'd expect near to where a beer is brewed, but as I've found many times isn't always the case. There was a friendly atmosphere to the place, with people coming and going. A couple at the bar chatted to the landlady about their holiday, whilst a couple at a table nearby were debating whether to have one more before they went. I finished my pint and left them to it.
It was starting to rain as I left the Roebuck, but fortunately it wasn't far to the next pub. I carried on along Station Street, with the huge site of the Molson Coors Brewery across the road. A short distance along I came to the Devonshire Arms, one of the pubs on my list, but I carried on a little and turned down Cross Street to another place on the list, the Coopers Tavern. This 19th century ale house, built in traditional brick features a Bass & Co painted wall sign and etched windows, a throwback to the days when it was once the Bass tap house. These days it is run by Joule's brewery, another old name that started brewing again in 2010 after a gap of 40 years, although they are based in Market Drayton rather than Burton. Whilst the famous red triangle logo used by Bass was the first registered trademark in the country, the cross logo used by Joule's was not far behind.
Whilst the exterior with its neat hanging baskets is attractive, it is inside where the Coopers Tavern really displays its charms. Spread over a number of rooms, each featuring brewery signage and historic photos on the walls along with traditional furnishings, the place oozes history although in actual fact it was refurbished a few years ago. The heart of the pub is the tap room, with bench seating and copper-topped tables and the odd wooden barrel, where the servery is located. There is a small counter with four hand pumps, whilst a gantry along the back of the bar features a number of barrels, each wearing a jacket to keep their contents cool, from which beer is dispensed by gravity (opening image).
Resisting the temptation of the beers from the barrel, I ordered a pint of the Joule's Pale Ale from one of the hand pumps. This 4.1% beer was cool and refreshing and another beer in excellent form (NBSS 3.5). I was enjoying a quiet pint in a room beside the bar which contained a sink and a counter with a glass cabinet containing cobs and some tempting-looking scotch eggs. The calm was disturbed by a group of noisy middle-aged couples who it seemed came from Leeds, and as each one got served by the patient guy on the bar, a head would pop round into the room where I was sat and look surprised that their companions had instead gone into one of the other rooms, one where the old Bass board of directors used to meet. I could resist no longer, so I returned to the bar to get a half of Bass from the barrel and a scotch egg. Both were excellent: the Bass had a greater depth of flavours here compared to the one on hand pump I'd tried earlier, but lacked the smoothness of the hand pump version (NBSS 3.5), whilst the scotch egg featured the added spice of a few chilis. If you only have time to visit one pub in Burton, this is the one.
I retraced my steps back to the Devonshire Arms, looking welcoming with its attractive painted exterior adorned with a number of flourishing hanging baskets. This is a popular Grade II-listed 19th century free house which was quite busy when I walked in. And unlike the Coopers there was music playing in the background, which made it feel quite modern by way of a contrast, despite the fact there are plenty of old photos, maps, and items of breweriana on display. There are around 8 hand pumps, with beers from Burton Bridge, Marstons, Bewdley, and Titanic amongst those on offer when I called. I decided to go for a pint of the Burton Bridge Bitter, a beer I'd not had for a while from a brewery whose beers don't often get up to Yorkshire. The beer was a decent example of a bitter with a malty base, some fruit, and a dry hoppy finish (NBSS 3).
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| The Devonshire Arms, Burton-on-Trent |
I didn't have that long before I was due to catch my train, so I went back towards the station and made my way to the Weighbridge Inn, which had literally just opened, a little later than its advertised 4pm opening due to the owners having been caught up in tailbacks from an accident on the A38. This is the nearest pub to the station and is a micro pub located in former coal yard offices. It is a single storey building with the bar on the left as you go in with a further small room beyond. It was opened in 2015 by the Muirhouse Brewery from Ilkeston, and one of their beers, the multi-award winning Magnum Mild (try one and make your day, as the pump clip says!) was on one of the four hand pumps on the small bar. First up though I tried a half of the 5.1% Super Star, a hoppy, citrussy, crisp West Coast IPA from the Silhill brewery who are based in Solihull and whose beers I'd not encountered before (NBSS 3). And then I went for a half of the aforementioned mild, which comes in with an ABV of 4.5% and was rich, malty, and delicious which I rated as a 3.5 on the National Beer Scoring System scale. There was a cracking atmosphere in this friendly little micro, with plenty of people enjoying a cosy early Friday evening pint. It was approaching time to go, but with a delay on my train arriving in Burton, I went for another half, this time Hop Tropic, a 4.2% pale ale featuring Cascade, Citra, Mosaic, and Ekuanot hops, from another Derbyshire brewery, Leatherbritches. This was another fine beer (NBSS 3.5) from a brewery who started out way back in 1993.
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| The Weighbridge, Burton on Trent |
I made my way back to the station where I still had a while to wait for my train home, apparently due to signalling issues between Cheltenham and Droitwich. I'd had a most interesting few hours in Burton, and hopefully I can now be forgiven for my delayed first visit to one of the spiritual homes of British brewing....
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