Why would the Bass plc management stay in what they perceived as a low growth, low margin business with active government interest, when they could invest in higher growth, higher value businesses, like hotels?

Pre-COVID I could get Marston’s (my favorite bottled beer) when I lucky and was happy to get Taylor’s Landlord at times.Interesting look at the early days of the CIA and the Cold War, with a focus on 4 different employees/covert operatives whose stories provide a pathway into the larger institutional narrative and context. And when the Indian trade declined, brewers such as Allsopp and Bass revolutionised domestic beer, using their international brand reputations to effectively exploit the trend for paler, lighter beer styles (pale ale and bitter in particular), coming up with new classics in their own right. In a nutshell, the history of Bass is interwoven with the history of British Empire and industrialisation. After WWII, the USSR was busy around the world working to expand their influence, and the US response was run by the new CIA office. I bought four x 355ml bottles from Tesco today of what is now described on the label as “British Pale Ale and brewed in the UK, but failing to state precisely where.

As much as looking forwards and outwards, the craft beer movement has always been about looking backwards and trying to identify more closely with our national brewing history. I’ve been drinking Cask Bass Ale well kept at Tennents Bar in Glasgow for years – it’s been a treat for my regular Glasgow ale trips – tonight (June 2019) it wasn’t on tap and sounds like it may no longer be available- I’m devastated!Meanwhile, those who prefer old-school beer are likely to give these a miss, or (see above) feel that their custom is not wanted. The second wave of this consolidation in the late 1990s saw Inbev acquire Bass – by then a massive conglomerate still based in Burton on Trent – only to be referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. The aroma is slightly sugary, the taste crisp and minerally as a Burton Pale Ale ought to be, the finish dry and only slightly bitter. Adnams and Fuller’s generally make better beer but there’s not a great gulf between them and Marston’s.

Adnams’ craft spin-off is especially clever and classy-looking using as it does a revamped version of their 100-odd-year-old trademark rather than, say, faux-graffiti. This, of all Pale Ales, a signature beer of its style, a world class beer, superbly balanced, flavoursome and nuanced, has been mugged by the shadowy yakusa of international brewer consolidation and left, breathing, but barely audibly, in a brewing back alley.Bass in my opinion is the best beer brand in our portfolio, it’s the brand that I grew up with and am gutted that the company has completely defocussed it since purchase – it’s never even had a Brand Manager. Regret cannot say the same of Whitbread>Interbrew>InBev>ABInbev, not least for their being stripped of Pilsner Urquell in the whole sorry process. For our part, we instinctively felt it a misstep and, after a bit of chat over the porridge, decided that the problem was the potential confusion and disappointment for consumers. In Pedigree, perhaps… but for me, still too unreliable when kept in the wrong hands and all too often these are the hands of Marstons publicans. com) on the topic of Local Brewery History – Reuben wants us to give a history of a local brewery – one that’s more than 20 years old.