Toontown vats go south to Yorkshire
It was stretching things to brew Newky Broon in Gateshead, but moving it to Tadcaster? I ask you!
Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) speaks with forked tongue. In 2005, when the group closed its Newcastle brewery and moved production of Newcastle Brown Ale to the former Federation Breweries plant in Dunston near Gateshead, a spokesman said: "This isn't the trigger to move abroad. We chose to keep Newcastle Brown in the north-east and that will stay."
At the same time, S&N's then chief executive, John Dunsmore, added that the move to Dunston had been taken "to protect the integrity of the brand."
The brand is not staying in the north-east. It's going to Yorkshire — most Geordies would consider Yorkshire to be abroad — and will therefore, if we use Mr Dunsmore's criterion, lose its integrity.
It would be easy to blame S&N's new owner, Heineken, for this fine mess and I'm happy to put the clog in. But in truth S&N under its old regime had done little to help the brand. S&N was granted a PGI — Protected Geographical Indication — by the European Union when the beer was brewed in its home town. A PGI is similar to a French wine appellation — a guarantee that a product is rooted in its home territory.
S&N lost its PGI when it moved production to Dunston and became the butt of jokes about brewing Gateshead Brown Ale. Next year, when it moves to John Smith's in Tadcaster the new joke will be that the beer should be called Taddy Brown Ale. The rival brewery in the town, Sam Smith's, may have thoughts on this matter as it uses the term "Taddy" for some of its brands. Lawyers are about to be consulted, I fancy.
"Iconic" is an over-used word, but Newcastle Brown Ale fits the bill. It speaks for its town of origin, with the Tyne Bridge emblazoned on its label. It's widely exported and is massively popular in Russia. I have drunk it on draught in a pub in Manhattan — it's also a big brand in the United States.
But back home S&N took its eye off the ball. The beer was once the biggest packaged ale in Britain by a mile but its owners allowed Greene King to sneak past and overtake with Old Speckled Hen. Now the beer will become something of a joke — a Geordie beer brewed in Yorkshire.
Some years ago, when Whitbread bought another iconic beer, Boddingtons of Manchester, the boss of Whitbread, Miles Templeman, told me in an interview that "Boddingtons was safe for a few years until drinkers find out it's owned by Whitbread."
He was right. Boddingtons is still brewed, but no one takes it seriously any more. It has lost — to quote John Dunsmore again — its integrity. I have no doubt the same will happen to Tadcaster Brown Ale.
S&N let the brand slip because its attention was focused on Russia and the Baltic States. Until it was bought out by Carlsberg, S&N was part owner of BBH, Baltic Beverages Holding, by far the biggest brewer in the old Soviet bloc. The arrival of the free market in that vast region offered the potential of enormous profits for global brewers. BBH turned the Baltika brands into money-spinners and who cared if, back home, S&N beers, including Newcastle Brown Ale, were left to slide.
Before we castigate Heineken for closing British breweries, let us not forget S&N's dismal track record in this field. It axed Edinburgh and Newcastle, giving rise to the quip that it should be renamed NSNN: Neither Scottish Nor Newcastle. The Reading and Bristol breweries also felt the steel on their necks. Now Dunston, which had an important role in British brewing history as a plant owned by working men's clubs, will quietly slide into the Tyne.
By closing Dunston, S&N/Heineken is trampling on another piece of brewing history. The brown ales made in the north-east are radically different to the style in the south of the country. The likes of Newcastle Brown and Double Maxim in Sunderland were the Tyneside and Wearside versions of Burton pale ale, darker and sweeter, brewed to please the palates of industrial workers who had spent long shifts hewing coal and building ships.
As industry declined, brown ale found a new market among younger people, students in particular. The first time I ever drank the beer was when, a decade or two ago, I spoke at a meeting at Durham University and was then taken to the student bar for a bottle of Newky Broon.
And so another piece of our brewing heritage goes down the Swannee as well as the Tyne. Global brewers such as Heineken have no experience of or sympathy for that heritage and fail to see the stupidity as well as the hurt created by sending a Tyneside beer to Yorkshire.
I asked the company whether it intended to keep the Tyne Bridge on the label of Newcastle Brown Ale when it's brewed in Tadcaster. They were still discussing that, I was told. They had better think long and hard. In case Heineken is not aware of British legislation, may I point the group in the direction of the Trades Descriptions Act. Awa' the lads!
