Some big breweries are moving away from cask ale as closures hit small independents
The local brewery scene appeared to be fairly healthy until a few months ago, but with White Horse remaining closed and Bicester-based Wriggly Monkey deciding to close down in May, it seems we can’t resist the national trend any longer. Although a couple of very small local operations had already closed for good in the last few years, it was the demise of Wychwood in Witney last November that started the trend.
Wychwood is one of three breweries closed by CMBC. Image: Oxford Mail
Wychwood was different as unlike any other brewery in Oxfordshire, it was owned by one of the brewing giants – in this case multi-national Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC). Wychwood was the latest in a closure spree that started soon after Carlsberg and Marston’s merged in 2020, with Carlsberg having the controlling interest. Already closed down since the “merger” were Jennings brewery in Cumbria, Ringwood in Hampshire and the former Charles Wells brewery in Bedford then owned by CMBC, this being sold to Spanish brewing giant Damm of Estrella Damm fame.
It makes you wonder how safe real ale is in the hands of the big brewers, and this is confirmed by latest industry figures (collected by consultancy CGA) showing that total production of cask ale was down again last year to 1.40m Hl (1Hl =100 litres) compared to 2.02m Hl in 2019, before the pandemic.
Independent breweries increased their production, but compared to the big brewers their market share is small. The 2024 SIBA Independent Beer Report says that members increased cask production last year by 10% to 63% of their total, but that is still below the 67% of 2019. More than half of independent breweries now produce lager.
“Rumours of the demise of cask beer seem greatly exaggerated,” says CEO Andy Slee in his foreword to the SIBA report. “With global brewers walking away from cask it will be SIBA members’ collective action that enables it to survive and thrive over the coming years. Whilst Carlsberg’s brewery closure programme is a huge blow for those directly affected, it creates an opportunity for our members to satisfy local demand.”
CMBC has come under heavy fire from CAMRA not just because of these closures, but for describing its top selling Wainwright beer as “a Lake District original” when it’s now brewed in Wolverhampton. We understand that Witney’s own Hobgoblin beer, a very successful brand launched by Wychwood, is now produced in Wolverhampton too – along with the Brakspear beers originally brewed in Henley-on-Thames, which moved to Wychwood when the Henley brewery closed in 2002.
But this trend is nothing new. Many people continue to drink what they believe is a “local” beer when it is in fact produced possibly hundreds of miles away, and cannot taste the same even if (as in the case of Brakspear beers in Witney) the original brewing kit is still used. The most obvious examples of this locally are Morland Original and Old Speckled Hen, still favourites around Abingdon although Greene King closed down Morland and shifted production to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk nearly a quarter of a century ago.
Now Greene King has announced plans to open a new £40 million brewery in Bury St Edmunds in 2027 and close down its existing brewery, which dates back over 200 years. Major savings will be made as a result, but this is being interpreted in some quarters – including the Daily Telegraph – as undermining its commitment to real ale. Smaller breweries including Wadworth are also moving to new premises with craft keg being the main beneficiary (see news story).
Writing in What’s Brewing, Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz has this to say about CMBC: “When Marston’s was an independent company it energetically supported its regional subsidiaries, but under CMBC they have gone down the sluice while it invests £10m in its lager plant in Northampton.
“What will happen to all the beers from the former CMBC breweries? Some will no doubt end up in that elephant’s graveyard, Banks’s brewery in Wolverhampton, where you will find Tetley Bitter. Remember Tetley? It was synonymous with Leeds until Carlsberg came calling and closed the brewery. It also axed the Ind Coope brewery in Burton along with Draught Burton Ale, a beer that helped drive the cask revival in the 1970s.”
Where are Young’s beers brewed nowadays? London Original and London Special certainly aren’t brewed anywhere near London! This is a good question since these beers were evicted from the former Charles Wells and Marston’s plant in Bedford. Wolverhampton? Burton-on-Trent? And what about another CAMRA favourite, Deuchar’s IPA? Heineken closed the Caledonian brewery in Edinburgh and Deuchar’s is now produced by Greene King’s Belhaven brewery in Dunbar. Protz describes it as “a shadow of its former self. Under first Scottish & Newcastle and now Heineken, it lost its lustre as a result of using cheaper raw materials”.
CMBC is under renewed attack for what CAMRA calls the “Handpump Hijack”. It is now serving so-called “Fresh Ale” (brewery conditioned keg) through hand pumps, and CAMRA has reported CMBC to Trading Standards and the Business Secretary. Nik Antona, CAMRA National Chairman, said: “Misleading dispense is particularly detrimental to beer drinkers, as hijacking a handpump to serve a keg beer removes a genuine cask product from the bar, reducing choice for consumers.”
In response CMBC revealed that its sales of cask ales have slumped by 31% in the last four years (not a consequence of these brewery closures surely!!) and that Fresh Ale gives publicans the opportunity to sell what it describes as a “cask” ale when they hadn’t done so before, although it has now agreed to badge Wainwright Gold, Wainwright Amber and Hobgoblin IPA Fresh Ales served through hand pumps as “brewery conditioned”.
There aren’t too many Marston’s pubs around Oxfordshire where we need to be on our guard against this, but a recent deal for CMBC to become the main supplier to Stonegate, a property company that is the UK’s largest pub operator with 4,400 outlets, could mean we see it a lot more. Stonegate warned recently that it may be unable to continue as a going concern as it struggles with over £2 billion in debt, much of it accrued when it took over the Ei Group (Enterprise Inns) in 2019. Closures and sell-offs are a possibility.
Cask ales are now being produced by Tap Social. Image: Tap Social
The antidote to the move away from cask ales by some big brewers is of course to support independent breweries, especially local ones, as much as possible – a point made poignantly by Wriggly Monkey as it announced its closure (see news story). We are so, so lucky to have great local producers such as Hook Norton, Loose Cannon, XT or Little Ox, while even craft keg specialist Tap Social is now producing cask ales too. Let’s hope our local independents survive and thrive, but nationally the number of breweries going bust nearly doubled from 38 to 69 last year, according to auditors Mazars.
Skinner’s of Cornwall, Purity of Warwickshire and Black Sheep of Yorkshire all got into trouble, but survive under new ownership. Long-established favourite Adnams of Suffolk is exploring re-financing options – another indication that the brewing industry is struggling. Maybe there’s a need for the market to re-settle after the huge growth in small breweries over the last decade, but we can’t rely on big breweries such as CMBC to keep cask ale from further decline.
Problems facing breweries are starting to come home
Some big breweries are moving away from cask ale as closures hit small independents
The local brewery scene appeared to be fairly healthy until a few months ago, but with White Horse remaining closed and Bicester-based Wriggly Monkey deciding to close down in May, it seems we can’t resist the national trend any longer. Although a couple of very small local operations had already closed for good in the last few years, it was the demise of Wychwood in Witney last November that started the trend.
Wychwood was different as unlike any other brewery in Oxfordshire, it was owned by one of the brewing giants – in this case multi-national Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC). Wychwood was the latest in a closure spree that started soon after Carlsberg and Marston’s merged in 2020, with Carlsberg having the controlling interest. Already closed down since the “merger” were Jennings brewery in Cumbria, Ringwood in Hampshire and the former Charles Wells brewery in Bedford then owned by CMBC, this being sold to Spanish brewing giant Damm of Estrella Damm fame.
It makes you wonder how safe real ale is in the hands of the big brewers, and this is confirmed by latest industry figures (collected by consultancy CGA) showing that total production of cask ale was down again last year to 1.40m Hl (1Hl =100 litres) compared to 2.02m Hl in 2019, before the pandemic.
Independent breweries increased their production, but compared to the big brewers their market share is small. The 2024 SIBA Independent Beer Report says that members increased cask production last year by 10% to 63% of their total, but that is still below the 67% of 2019. More than half of independent breweries now produce lager.
“Rumours of the demise of cask beer seem greatly exaggerated,” says CEO Andy Slee in his foreword to the SIBA report. “With global brewers walking away from cask it will be SIBA members’ collective action that enables it to survive and thrive over the coming years. Whilst Carlsberg’s brewery closure programme is a huge blow for those directly affected, it creates an opportunity for our members to satisfy local demand.”
CMBC has come under heavy fire from CAMRA not just because of these closures, but for describing its top selling Wainwright beer as “a Lake District original” when it’s now brewed in Wolverhampton. We understand that Witney’s own Hobgoblin beer, a very successful brand launched by Wychwood, is now produced in Wolverhampton too – along with the Brakspear beers originally brewed in Henley-on-Thames, which moved to Wychwood when the Henley brewery closed in 2002.
But this trend is nothing new. Many people continue to drink what they believe is a “local” beer when it is in fact produced possibly hundreds of miles away, and cannot taste the same even if (as in the case of Brakspear beers in Witney) the original brewing kit is still used. The most obvious examples of this locally are Morland Original and Old Speckled Hen, still favourites around Abingdon although Greene King closed down Morland and shifted production to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk nearly a quarter of a century ago.
Now Greene King has announced plans to open a new £40 million brewery in Bury St Edmunds in 2027 and close down its existing brewery, which dates back over 200 years. Major savings will be made as a result, but this is being interpreted in some quarters – including the Daily Telegraph – as undermining its commitment to real ale. Smaller breweries including Wadworth are also moving to new premises with craft keg being the main beneficiary (see news story).
Writing in What’s Brewing, Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz has this to say about CMBC: “When Marston’s was an independent company it energetically supported its regional subsidiaries, but under CMBC they have gone down the sluice while it invests £10m in its lager plant in Northampton.
“What will happen to all the beers from the former CMBC breweries? Some will no doubt end up in that elephant’s graveyard, Banks’s brewery in Wolverhampton, where you will find Tetley Bitter. Remember Tetley? It was synonymous with Leeds until Carlsberg came calling and closed the brewery. It also axed the Ind Coope brewery in Burton along with Draught Burton Ale, a beer that helped drive the cask revival in the 1970s.”
Where are Young’s beers brewed nowadays? London Original and London Special certainly aren’t brewed anywhere near London! This is a good question since these beers were evicted from the former Charles Wells and Marston’s plant in Bedford. Wolverhampton? Burton-on-Trent? And what about another CAMRA favourite, Deuchar’s IPA? Heineken closed the Caledonian brewery in Edinburgh and Deuchar’s is now produced by Greene King’s Belhaven brewery in Dunbar. Protz describes it as “a shadow of its former self. Under first Scottish & Newcastle and now Heineken, it lost its lustre as a result of using cheaper raw materials”.
CMBC is under renewed attack for what CAMRA calls the “Handpump Hijack”. It is now serving so-called “Fresh Ale” (brewery conditioned keg) through hand pumps, and CAMRA has reported CMBC to Trading Standards and the Business Secretary. Nik Antona, CAMRA National Chairman, said: “Misleading dispense is particularly detrimental to beer drinkers, as hijacking a handpump to serve a keg beer removes a genuine cask product from the bar, reducing choice for consumers.”
In response CMBC revealed that its sales of cask ales have slumped by 31% in the last four years (not a consequence of these brewery closures surely!!) and that Fresh Ale gives publicans the opportunity to sell what it describes as a “cask” ale when they hadn’t done so before, although it has now agreed to badge Wainwright Gold, Wainwright Amber and Hobgoblin IPA Fresh Ales served through hand pumps as “brewery conditioned”.
There aren’t too many Marston’s pubs around Oxfordshire where we need to be on our guard against this, but a recent deal for CMBC to become the main supplier to Stonegate, a property company that is the UK’s largest pub operator with 4,400 outlets, could mean we see it a lot more. Stonegate warned recently that it may be unable to continue as a going concern as it struggles with over £2 billion in debt, much of it accrued when it took over the Ei Group (Enterprise Inns) in 2019. Closures and sell-offs are a possibility.
The antidote to the move away from cask ales by some big brewers is of course to support independent breweries, especially local ones, as much as possible – a point made poignantly by Wriggly Monkey as it announced its closure (see news story). We are so, so lucky to have great local producers such as Hook Norton, Loose Cannon, XT or Little Ox, while even craft keg specialist Tap Social is now producing cask ales too. Let’s hope our local independents survive and thrive, but nationally the number of breweries going bust nearly doubled from 38 to 69 last year, according to auditors Mazars.
Skinner’s of Cornwall, Purity of Warwickshire and Black Sheep of Yorkshire all got into trouble, but survive under new ownership. Long-established favourite Adnams of Suffolk is exploring re-financing options – another indication that the brewing industry is struggling. Maybe there’s a need for the market to re-settle after the huge growth in small breweries over the last decade, but we can’t rely on big breweries such as CMBC to keep cask ale from further decline.
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