Protz on Burton: Revival of a draught classic

It’s not my habit to sneak into pubs by the back door at 10 o’clock in the morning for an early snifter but this was — I promise, m’lud — purely in the interests of research. The previous evening I had the first taste of Draught Burton Ale — DBA for short — brewed by the Burton Bridge Brewery for the town’s CAMRA beer festival and was bewitched, overjoyed and gen-erally knocked asunder by the beer’s glorious aroma and palate.

The beer came straight from the cask and the brewers at Burton Bridge, Geoff Mumford and Bruce Wilkinson, suggested I might care to compare the beer when pulled through a beer engine. It was too good a challenge to turn down and so I reported for duty the next morning at their brewery tap, the Burton Bridge Inn.

Verdict

My verdict was simple: the beer was superb and I enjoyed the fact that — pulled to the bar — it had a tad more luscious hop character than the gravity version of the night before.

More importantly, the appearance of DBA in Burton was a small but not unimportant victory for both brewers’ bravery and consumers’ determination to save a legendary beer from the knackers’ yard. On the opening night of the festival on 26 March, two nine-gallon firkins of DBA disappeared down drinkers’ throats in two hours. There was an even speedier response in the Bridge Inn: two “nines” were emptied in 90 minutes. The good folk of Burton-on-Trent are proud of their beers and the town’s brewing legacy.

The reason for the excitement was that DBA was declared dead and buried in January by the brand’s owner, Carlsberg UK. I wrote about this decision at the time, and a brief résumé will suffice. The beer — originally called Ind Coope Draught Burton Ale — was first brewed in 1976 and its success helped kick start the real ale revival. Ind Coope, with breweries in Burton and Romford, was part of the national group Allied Breweries.

Allied at the time was best known for Double Diamond keg bitter and Skol lager. Its return to cask ale reverberated throughout the industry and encouraged the other giant national brewers to return to the fold.

But the beer fell victim to the shenanigans in the brewing industry in the 1980s and ’90s. Allied became Allied Lyons and then Allied Domecq. Neither Lyons nor Domecq had much interest in beer and the Allied brewing interests were sold to Carlsberg. DBA moved around the chessboard to Marston’s, then Tetley in Leeds and finally to JW Lees in Manchester.

Sales

Sales, once buoyant, dwindled. The beer was available in only a handful of pubs. Unloved and unwanted by Carlsberg, the group pulled the plug in January.

The response was rapid. Burton’s MP, Andrew Griffiths, lobbied Carlsberg to release the brand so that another brewer could produce it. At the same time, three CAMRA members in Derby: John Arguile, Dave Evans and Les Baynton formed BLOTTS — Beer Lovers On ‘T Tour — with the aim of restoring such lost Burton beers as DBA. They held talks with Geoff Mumford and Bruce Wilkinson at Burton Bridge and, as a result, a batch of beer was brewed for the local beer festival.

Geoff Mumford and Bruce Wilkinson were the ideal people to brew the beer because they had worked for Ind Coope and helped formulate the recipe. They told me DBA was based on the bottled 4.7% ABV version of Double Diamond.

Mumford and Wilkinson are at pains to stress that it’s not possible to recreate a beer that tastes exactly the same as the DBA of the 1970s. They are able to use similar if not identical malts and hops, along with the legendary Burton spring waters, but they don’t have access to the yeast culture used by Ind Coope.

Pale and crystal malts are joined by four English hops, Challenger, Fuggles, Goldings and Target with Styrian Goldings added for “dry hopping” — hops added to each cask for additional aroma.

Future

It has a rich, malty aroma with a fine floral hop character and a fruit note reminiscent of lime marmalade. Juicy malt, lemon & lime fruit and floral hop resins combine on the palate. The finish starts bittersweet but ends dry with a good hop bitterness balanced by continuing ripe malt and citrus fruit.

It’s a delicious beer and let’s hope it can continue to be produced. Burton Bridge will produce 50 barrels a week while demand is high. “We’ll shoehorn it into our range,” Wilkinson says, “but if it continues, we’ll have to take another beer out.”

In the grand scheme of things, a small batch of beer on sale in 16 pubs won’t change the world. But DBA is a beer that represents the history and heritage of a renowned brewing town and needs to be revered and restored.

A lot will depend on the attitude of Carlsberg. Will it turn the other cheek, take legal action or agree to hand over brand names and trademarks? The company hasn’t made a decision, but all lovers of Burton beers hope for a positive outcome.