Are they chronic liars or are they just shit at their jobs? 48 days after insisting that their decision to close one of their breweries will not impact the range of cask beers it brews, Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Co (CMBC) are forced to admit that the are axing eleven – ELEVEN – beers, eight of them cask.
On 7th October, CMBC announced that they would be closing the Banks’s brewery in Wolverhampton. It was a tough decision. It wasn’t their fault; it was San Miguel’s fault. It was the market’s fault. Actually it was YOUR fault, because you don’t drink their beers as much as you should. You bastard.
Every time CMBC commits an act of corporate vandalism on Britain’s cask ale market – and that’s become a regular occurrence over the last year or so – they plead that they had to do it. The cask ale market is in such bad shape, so frail and weak, they had no choice but to kick it in the face. Really hard.
As the biggest player in the cask ale market, there was absolutely nothing they could do to prevent the decline of the cask ale market. You know how it is. It’s not as if they could – ooh, I dunno – put any marketing support behind their cask brands, or join any of the industry campaigns trying to promote cask, or even put one single fucking picture of a cask ale on their corporate website or anything. Nope. As the UK’s, and therefore the world’s, biggest brewer of cask ale, there were utterly powerless to prevent its decline.
But don’t worry, they said. Just because we’re closing a massive cask ale brewery doesn’t mean the brands we brewed there are under any kind of threat. What would make you think that, you great big paranoid lummox? As reported in the Morning Advertiser, the closure of a massive cask ale brewery was actually going to allow them to brew more cask ale! Better cask ale! That’s how business works. You just don’t understand. The headline couldn’t be clearer. CMBC: ‘Banks’s brewery closure won’t affect cask brands.’
You’ll never guess what happened next.
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) recently heard rumours that, actually, some beers were going to be affected, and pressed CMBC for a response. According to a press release from CAMRA today, CMBC confirmed to them directly that the following beers are all for the chop:
- 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
- Ringwood Old Thumper
To go from “the brewery closure won’t affect our cask brands” to axing ELEVEN beers in one fell swoop suggests to me one of only two possibilities. One, they’ll just say any old shit they feel like saying to get people off their backs at the time. Or two, someone is really rubbish at their job and has absolutely no idea what’s going on. Or maybe even the whole company is just making it up as they go. Back in October, they could have said, “Obviously things are tricky but we’re going to do the best we can.” They could have sought buyers for these brands, or people to brew them under licence. But no.
When real ale fans wrung their hands over the closure of the brewery last month, I’m sure none of them imagined the scale of the slaughter would be this bad. To be told that everything was fine just 48 days ago makes it seem even more brutal.
The impact is of course uneven. I’m not sure there’ll be too many people missing Eagle IPA, but I used to bloody love Old Empire on the increasingly rare occasions when I could find it. I was never a fan of Bombardier, but it used to be one of the biggest ale brands in the country till this lot got their murderous hands around its neck. In their respective geographical heartlands, Banks’s Mild, Jennings Cumberland Ale and Ringwood Boondoggle were beloved icons.
CMBC have still not issued a public statement on this. But most of the above listed beers aren’t currently shown on their website as available brands anyway. It’s not as if they’ve actually been trying to sell them to drinkers. Why the hell would they want to try doing that?
Are CMBC honestly trying to deliberately destroy the UK’s cask ale market? Of course they’d say no, if they could ever be arsed to comment on the situation. But if they really were trying to murder cask ale, what would they be doing differently to what they’ve done so far this year?
Bastards
Who? The people who shunned these brands for years? Seriously, what do you expect the brewer to do, when CAMRA are actively avoiding three beers?! Drinkers and supposed fans of cask ale are to blame.
Who? The people who shunned these brands for years? Seriously, what do you expect the brewer to do, when CAMRA are actively avoiding three beers?! Drinkers and supposed fans of cask ale are to blame.
Do you work for CMBC by any chance, I have never seen CAMRA actually trying to discourage its members from drinking those brands the problem is CMBC they bought Jennings who brewed some of the best cask beers in the north and then literally destroyed it over night how anyone can blame CAMRA, When a big brewery is actively buying up the opposition then eradicating those brews to gain a monopoly for their keg rubbish is beyond me
Looking at Wolverhampton CAMRA, they have quite a few branch meetings in Marston’s pubs
The management of global brewing companies are obsessed by the market share occupied by their products,brands with small market shares in distinct geographical areas are of no interest to them as potentially they take away sales from products which,as they have a greater share of the market,are of interest and significance to the global brewing company. There is a reluctance to licence other brewers to brew brands that they wish to discontinue as this would detract from the market share and the licensee would demand access to premises tied up by the global brewer to sell the licensed brand. There is however perhaps some truth in the argument that drinkers are not drinking enough of threatened brands and perhaps campaigning organisations should direct more of their efforts to encourage supporters to drink the threatened brands,a low key campaign to support Bass seems to be having some effect.
The argument that it is drinkers who are to blame for beers ceasing to exist is 100% correct. CAMRA has been discouraging drinking of these beers for years and years. It’s ridiculous for them to pretend to be shocked and angry, when the brewer takes the only option that has been left open to them.
The management of global brewing companies are obsessed by the market share occupied by their products,brands with small market shares in distinct geographical areas are of no interest to them as potentially they take away sales from products which,as they have a greater share of the market,are of interest and significance to the global brewing company. There is a reluctance to licence other brewers to brew brands that they wish to discontinue as this would detract from the market share and the licensee would demand access to premises tied up by the global brewer to sell the licensed brand. There is however perhaps some truth in the argument that drinkers are not drinking enough of threatened brands and perhaps campaigning organisations should direct more of their efforts to encourage supporters to drink the threatened brands,a low key campaign to support Bass seems to be having some effect.
As a publican and have a succesful cask ale pub in wolverhampton we are disgusted that this has happened.
Three ales on our bar namely Mild,Empire and Sunbeam are to be demister.
13% of sales or £17,500 over 12 months.
You’re in a huge minority. Most likely you’re one of the largest stockists of these beers. Hardly anywhere else chooses to stock them, because CAMRA has been encouraging its members to avoid them. This has been going on for years and years. CAMRA are to blame for this.
CAMRA has been encouraging its members to avoid them? Really? Can’t say that I’ve seen evidence of that anywhere; perhaps they are not the most popular beers to its membership, but they’ve not been telling them (myself included) not to drink them – unless it’s been subliminal and I’m too dumb to get it
The only reason why CAMRA would avoid these beers would be because the brewery has ‘dumbed them down’, so that discerning drinkers prefer to drink more interesting beers. There will be no official policy on avoiding beers, providing that they are cask beers which meet CAMRA’s definition of real ale. However, that does not necessarily make them any good, so the brewery has to look at why they have turned the membership away from drinking them.
I really don’t understand the repeated claim that eight cask beers are being axed because CAMRA refused to support three keg beers which also happen to be disappearing. The clue to CAMRA’s campaigning is in their name; they actively campaign for ‘real ale’ (ie cask beer). They have never ever since they were founded in 1971 campaigned for keg beer. They have, however, actively campaigned for mild (of which Banks’s is a fine example), and for distinctive regional beers such as Cumberland Ale and Old Thumper. The idea that drinkers are being deprived of cask ale choice by CAMRA members not drinking keg beer is bizarre, to say the least.
B******** to em! Brew your own. Malts and hops on line. Herbs from garden. Food grade bucket. Sugar from Aldi. 12 days covered fermentation, bottle in clean PET bottles, 1/2 tsp prime. Leave 4 weeks. Celebrate. 60p/pint.
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If I see Bank’s mild I will drink it and would have like to try hand pulled Sunbeam, the bottled version showed some promise that cask might fulfil.
Isn’t Eagle IPA is an old Well’s of Bedford beer?
Jennings Cumberland
I see this as a mercy killing, the Lake District breweries tales are of slash and burn and Jennings is no exception
CA13 home of Jennings… the brewery that was shut down in 2022 despite promises that it would be kept going, if you have a spare £750,000 the property sit still on the market.
Mansfield brewery was shut down more than 20 years ago and were keg only, so no real point or loss there.
I shouldn’t imagine Old Empire & 61 Deep were regularly brewed and even though they were hacked at the knees, I would give a cask offering a go just in case, and I am a CAMRA member
Ringwood, now there is the real tragedy, the Dorset brewery shut down at the start of this year and their beers already reduced to twig water by the original breweries accountants before Marston’s or Carlsberg got involved. But those beers were among some of the inspiration for the US craft beer seen.
To be honest, I don’t know why Pete Brown is lamenting the loss of already dead beer.
I think the post explains why. If you read it.
Brewing good cask ale and ensuring it gets to point of sale in good condition is objectively ‘hard’ and too many parts of that process are beyond the control of the brewer. As an industrial brewer that is a product that you will do your best to kill off.