Great British beer moves county Newcastle Brown Ale - one of Britain's most famous and recognisable beers - is moving from its home on Tyneside to Yorkshire. Technically, the brewery had already left Newcastle when it moved to Tyneside, south of the river, in 2005. But the move south to Yorkshire is still likely to shock locals. Brits drink about 47 million …
It can only be a good thing - Yorkshire and Derbyshire are the two finest beer-producing regions on the face of this planet. Even Carlsberg make some excellent "every day" beers, like Tetley Imperial (although you'll struggle to find anywhere selling it) and Double Diamond (popular in Canada).
Oi scamps, get on MSN. I need to talk to you about Stu [-]
How the F can they call a product "Newcastle Brown Ale" when it's got no links to the toon? As an ex-NBA drinker I'm very, very concerned that it's being moved to Tad. After all, that's the home of John Smith's - a concoction that I regularly hear compared to the contents of a urinal after you've been to the doctors. (The other comment being "it's cheap, wet and gets you drunk - taste is optional").
Moving to Gateshead was fine - after all it's still in the area, so I've got no issue with NBA still holding it's name. But if/when it moves to Tad then seriously they should retire the name and call it something else - how about "the chemical concotion we sell as JS but in a different bottle". Maybe "SellOot Ale" would be a good name? ;)
Oh, by the way - spelling mistake - it's "Dunston" not "Dunstun". Unless this was a jokey spelling and I missed the joke - in which case apologies. IT angle - NBA was the pint (or four) of choice at the end of a shift on the end of a helldesk phone line.
I'm now in a very, very, very bad mood.... >-(
I've seen some bollocks about it being drunk from a Wellington glass but having started drinking the stuff in 1975 I had never seen it drunk from a 'glass' until the designer everything shit at the end of the last century.
'It was traditionally drunk from a glass so it could be topped up to keep the head fresh'.???
If you drink so slowly you have to worry about the head going flat you shouldn't be touching the stuff in the first place.
Dog lost its true home when the Corporation Street brewery was closed and demolished. What is closing, is the old Federation brewery.
It was never all that pure a drink, anyway. The vats in which it was brewed at Corporation Street were so vast that mechanisms extisted to allow incorrectly-mixed batches of the smaller brews to be washed through into it, to avoid otherwise wasting the ingredients. This was always its purpose, from the earliest days of it's true popularity in the 1920s. I would expect that this will be the appeal in shifting the brewing to the Tadcaster site.
The popularity of Brown Ale was based on the fact that bottles were sealed meant that the contents could not be tampered with by the publican: the fact that the brewer might have done any amount of tinkering around with, in the making, was largely immaterial, so long as it managed to undergo the rest of the journey from the brewhouse to the drinker's hand, in an otherwise unmolested state.
If you want a beer that's the finest by far,
Then the sign that to look for, is the famous Blue Star.
It's a good beer, it's a strong beer, with the Norths greatest sale,
Wherever you go say; Newcastle Broon Ale!
(Probably badly remembered lyrics)
It's a shame it is moving away from Newcastle, but I am a fan of Taddy Ales, so it could be worse.
Scottish and Newcastle Brewers haven't had any breweries in Scotland or Newcastle for years...and to be honest, I don't care...their beer is largely, in my opinion, mass produced crud (their only reasonable beer, McEwan's 80 was made at the Caledonian Brewery) and Scotland has many other, infinitely better brewers - Harviestoun, Atlas, Orkney, Caledonian to name but four - which produce a wide range of incredibly varied, and wonderfully potable brews which would keep the most seasoned dipsomaniac happy and sloshed for years.
Fare thee well S&N, and don't let the door hit you on the way out....
And they announced plans to shut their Edinburgh brewery recently too. You might well say that they should no longer call themselves S&N, and in fact this is going to be the case: as of next year they will be called Heineken to match their parent company.
Which is all a bit shit.
Not made in Tyneside anymore? Then it is not Newcastle Brown Ale. It's Yorkshire Ale now. Perhaps they can call it Leeds Brown Ale, or York Brown Ale.
THEY closed Vaux in Sunderland, even though it was profitable and there was a buyout plan. Now THEY are going to scrap 63 jobs in Newcastle. Just what we need more unemployment. If it is only operating at 60% capacity then move product there, for when the recession ends, THEY won't have the capacity to take advantage of it.
Who are THEY? The accountants and directors of companies who know the price of everything and value of nothing.
S'funny. I've always heard it referred to as "Newcy Broon" or "Broon Eel" myself. I believe that "Brown Ale" is regarded as something of a southern* poncification** of this.
Sometimes "Buddler dog", but that's another story.
The most thoroughly mangled usage I ever heard was from a chap called Jeff. It was "Aaaaamoooargh", which apparently translates as: "Gentlemen, I am considering taking a trip to the bar to purchase some Newcastle Brown Ale. Does anyone else wish to partake with me?".
*As one whom the epithet "southern ponce" is aimed at, I should know.
**If that isn't a word we need to get the yanks to use the word "ponce" more. It will be one shortly afterwards.
The yanks already use this word - Juan Ponce de Leon was the Spanish discoverer of Florida (or at least, the first European to get there, the place was already full of Seminoles). He is commemorated by the USS Ponce (www.ponce.navy.mil) - a troop landing ship*, whose crew have difficulty understanding why Brits tend to find their ship's name so amusing.
* Also on Star Trek, apparently.
It's a bit like when they move the brewign of Boddingtons from it's home in Manchester to Wales. It used to be called 'The cream of Manchester' now they have to call it 'The Cream'. Shame it now tastes of crushed slugs!
Just like when they try and brew foreign beers in the UK such as Red Stripe, they come out as pale imitations of their former selves. This is what happens when buisinesses try and run regional delicacies they have no connection with.
...in Newcastle. Call it "El Reg Newcastle Pledge" or something.
Then apply to the EU to get the protected regional status re-instated.
And tell Scottish and Newca...err...Yorkshire to sling their hook.
Big, generic conglomerates (as S&N seem to have desires to be) are the death of decent beer. We (well, I) don't want watery piss that all tastes the same; we (that'll be me again) want beer that differs and is only available in certain place/times of year. That's half the fun!
Newcastle Brown will not be welcome in my house until it's brewed in, well, Newcastle.
@Citizen Kaned
Yes it is traditionally drunk from a half pot and there's a sound reason for this; To keep the head on it. There was a tradition in the pub where I worked that if you could kept the same half pot for a gallon you could take it home. The landlord didn't like it, but what the hell.
@TeeCee
I've never heard it's true fans refer to it by any of those names. It has always been Dog. At the start of the night the order would be Bottle a'Dog, by last orders BollaDog.
@AC - Yorkshire Beer
I know a pub where you can often get a pint of Imp and also Tetkey's dark mild. One of those proper city drinkers pubs where you don't dare look at some of the clientelle for fear of your life. Funny that those places always seem to have the best beer. Probably because the landlord is equally frightened of the customers.
Anyway Dog is one of those beers like fizzy keg and those smooth flow types of beer that comes from a requirement to produce a consistent product cheaply, rather than the best quality product at any cost. Beer by it's very nature can be a little inconsistent and the attempt to make a consistently good beer is as old as brewing itself. Just look at Bass' procedures to "Burtonise" water at all it's breweries. However big business long ago settled for producing a consistently average product for the lowest price possible.
"Newcy Brown or brown ale, as it is known" - Wrong on both counts. It's called "broon". Repeat, "broon". Not "brown", not "Newcy" or "newkie", just "broon".
Why would a taccum refer to Newcastle when they're already in Newcastle?!?!
Signed,
A maccum who gets annoyed after years of southerners telling me "Did you know, that in Newcastle they call it 'Newkie Brown'? I heard that from some other southerner who in turn heard it from..."
PS Broon is c**p, anyway.
"Scottish and Newcastle Brewers haven't had any breweries in Scotland or Newcastle for years"
Erm, try looking at http://www.scottish-newcastle.com/locations.aspx and you'll see the Caledonian brewery at Slateford Road down as a location - okay it's not owned by S&N outright (thank god!) but they've reputedly got a large shareholding. And I've got to admit to sneaky liking for the Deuchars IPA they produce.
Re: NBA from a glass?
Never, never - only use a glass in a hotel or resturant (and that's only because they insist). Everywhere else do it properly, pizza or fish supper, watch the fitba, and drink it frae the bottle.
I think like most here I'll be avoiding NBA until (a) someone buys the brand back from Heinousken and (b) they return it to where it belongs.
Indeed.
Whatever it used to be, Newcastle Brown Ale is now just a designer label applied to a bland brown piss in a bottle, and sold exclusively to wannabe notherners who couldn't tell a proper ale from a babycham.
Traditionally drunk by the half pint glass? Thank you, the marketing department. Now take your fascinating history of toss and piss off, while I go drink a real beer, by the pint.
"You know, there's a "New Castle" just outside Westbury, Long Island, NY. It would be a marvelous place to relocate this brewery, *and* you could keep the name (almost) the same."
New York, just outside of Newcastle. I don't think they have a Long Island there. Not even a Short Island. There's a few Traffic Islands though :-)
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=new york tyneside&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
I find this quite scary.
I'm pretty much addicted to the stuff. When the brewery was moved 4 years ago the taste suffered for a while until they figured out how to stop bottles that were well within use by dates from going off. For a period of a year I had to buy my 4 daily bottles looking for the longest best before date possible to avoid a bad pint.
What's going to happen by moving to another region and different water supply?
If they loose the taste again or introduce another sour pint issue they could drive customers away and cause more problems. If the Dog is allowed to disappear, through negligence, I have no idea how I will live. Fucking short sighted bastard accountants and fuck the Government for taxing beer and providing the landlord with mountains of costly legal crap to follow, just to serve a pint. And fuck the British Medical Council as well for making up fake alcohol limits that have no basis in any scientifically proven research. Years ago the Government asked for a recommended safe limit to promote and not having a clue or any research they just made up the limits. Twats. War on terror? War on Pubs more like. Piss off!
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