Global brewers: putting all their kegs in one basket

Despite assertions that they value cask ale, global brewers don't seem to be planning to produce it.

This may have slipped under your radar, but Heineken UK has axed John Smith's Magnet and in so doing has emphasised yet again the twisted priorities of the global brewers. The priorities are simple: concentrate on big-volume brands and kill off smaller ones even if they are appreciated by a section of the drinking public.

A spokesman for Heineken UK — the new name for our old friends Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) — explained the reason for sending Magnet down the memory hole: it was on sale in fewer than 100 outlets. I can think of many brewers who would pop the champagne corks if one of their brands was on sale in 100 pubs. But for Heineken UK, Magnet was, in every sense, small beer.

It's a case of putting all your kegs in one basket. Long before Heineken arrived on the British scene, S&N was interested only in promoting the smooth-flow version of the standard John Smith's Bitter brewed at Tadcaster. Magnet was sidelined and eventually hived off to Camerons of Hartlepool to brew it under licence.

Now the 4% beer has gone completely. It was a malty, fruity beer. Some might call it an "old-fashioned beer", as it suited the palate of older drinkers. But in case the global brewers haven't noticed, people are living to a greater age and the grey generation has considerable pulling power and financial muscle.

As news of the demise of Magnet flashed round the blogosphere last week, a pertinent point was made by Brendan Boyle, a CAMRA activist in Darlington. He wrote: "Stronger, darker and maltier than standard bitters, they were beacons of local distinctiveness in this area and were long associated with heavy industry.

"As the latter has declined so it seems has availability of these ales. Imperial was Tetley's candidate in this sector, also now gone, I believe. Draught Bass was another — still with us, but increasingly rare."

Young's cask beer in decline​

Thirty years ago, when I first started writing about beer, Draught Bass was everywhere. I remember John Young, the chairman of Young's of Wandsworth, reminiscing to me shortly before he died about his early years in the pub trade. "If a Young's pub didn't sell Draught Bass, it wasn't worth opening the doors," he said.

The brand was worth in the region of two million barrels a year. When I last heard a figure, it was less than 100,000 barrels and declining fast. It's now owned by AB InBev, an American-Brazilian-Belgian conglomerate with little knowledge of the cask beer sector.

But you'd think the accountants who run these global giants would have sufficient sense to look at the British beer market and notice that the only growth sector is cask beer and draw the conclusion that it might be sensible to put some money behind Draught Bass.

I last drank the beer two years ago in the Coachmakers Arms in Stoke-on-Trent. Landlord Jason Barlow serves a wide range of craft breweries' beers but, as befits a former Bass pub, he also has Draught Bass in the cellar. He told me that every Friday retired servicemen and former Potteries workers down a few gallons of Bass.

When I first drank Boddingtons Bitter in Manchester in the 1970s I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I didn't know beer could be that good.

The impact of CAMRA turned Boddies into a national brand and I drank it whenever possible. The brewery was bought by Whitbread and the brand is now owned by AB InBev. It's brewed for the group by Hydes of Manchester, a fine company, but I never see the beer on my travels.

Tetley's Bitter, in common with John Smith's, is now sold mainly in smooth-flow form. The cask version accounts for only 14% of production. That figure is astonishing. Handpumped Tetley's was once the jewel in the brewery's crown.

Carlsberg committed to cask​

Carlsberg says it's committed to cask but doesn't say where Tetley's Mild and Bitter will be brewed when the Leeds plant closes this year or next. As Brendan Boyle wrote, Tetley Imperial has already gone and it's likely that Draught Burton Ale, brewed in Leeds, will follow. It's the only beer from a national brewer ever to have won CAMRA's Champion Beer of Britain award.

In marketing-speak, it's a beer with legs. But the legs have been amputated. My belief in these beers has nothing to do with nostalgia. By any definition, Magnet, Draught Bass, Boddingtons and Burton Ale are great beers. They have given pleasure and delight to millions.

They could reach out to a new and wider audience as a result of the cask-beer revival. But the bean counters who run the global companies think only of volumes and discounts.

They can maximise their profits with pasteurised and carbonated ales and lagers with a long shelf life, so "fiddly" cask beers are sidelined or axed.

It was said of the French monarchy, the Bourbons, "They have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing." The Bourbons lost power. The global brewers, too, have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing, but they will be around for some time yet, killing our pleasure and treading on our dreams.