Hall of Shame, Whitbread Traditional Draught Bitter

Hall of Shame part 5

An occaisional series devoted to the worst in the world of brewing.

Whitbread Traditional Draught Bitter

Came across this advert from 1980 the other day. At the time Whitbread had just closed down the Ely and Rhymney Breweries and the keg only factory at Magor (sad to say it's the Editor's nearest beer factory) had opened. Something that got me thinking was the advert stating that this beer could be enjoyed in over 200 Welsh pubs. Not a claim that many breweries could make today, with the exception of Brain's. Also looking at the 1980 Good Beer Guide there are so few Whitbread pubs in there, the majority of pubs in the South Wales section of the GBG were either Brain's or Welsh Brewers (Hancock's). Even the rare free houses sold Brain's or occasionally Crown SBB (Otley Arms of course).

At the time Whitbread Traditional Draught Bitter was brewed at the Cheltenham Brewery and the beer had an original gravity of 1038. The Good Beer Guide described the beer as “Full-bodied and hoppy”, not a description many of us would recognise as being a Whitbread beer. Perhaps because the GBG descriptions were a bit vague in those days, for instance Tim Taylor's Landlord is merely described as “a distinctive and full-bodied bitter” back in 1980.

The beer did not have a long life – it was withdrawn as a real ale within a few years.

Nowadays Whitbread has all but gone, they are merely a restaurant-owning company. The Cheltenham Brewery has gone the way of Rhymney and Ely but unfortunately the Magor factory is still there, producing traditional Welsh beers such as Stella Artois and other such dishwater.

Hall of Shame - Allbright

Hall of Shame part 4
An occasional series devoted to the worst in the brewing world.

Allbright, Welsh Brewers.
Dreadful keg beer which dominated the South Wales valleys for decades. Alllbright was weak, 1033 OG about 3.3% ABV and was a pasteurised version of the popular Hancocks PA (Pale Ale). First brewed in 1963, it came to dominate the Hancocks pubs and later when Bass bought them; together with Webbs Brewery to create the huge Welsh Brewers empire, their pubs.

“The most popular beer in Wales” went the slogans on advertising mirrors in countless bars across the region. The chimney stack of the old Hancock's Brewery in Cardiff had Allbright in large letters on it for years, until the brewery was bought by Brains and it was a good day for real ale when they put their name to the stack. Allbright was only ever sold in Wales, in England it was marketed as 'Toby'. In the late 1990s, whilst Bass still had a pub estate, sales dropped off and they were even overtaken by sales of Hancocks HB, the cask beer produced at the same brewery in Cardiff. Not sure if it is still made, Coors would no doubt own the brand nowadays but have not seen it on a bar for years.

Hall of Shame part 3 - Watneys Red Barrel

An occasional series devoted to the worst in the brewing world.

Watney's Red Barrel

In the film Quatermass and the Pit, there is a frightening scene where our heroes seek shelter from the monster in an East End pub, now the interior of this pub has a long bar which is totally empty apart from one solitary keg dispense font – a Red Barrel. That bit of the film still scares me today. But it is an insight into 1950s Britain where sometimes the only beer available was, in the words of Monty Python, 'bleeding Watney's Red Barrel'. It was a beer that no one ever had a good word to say about it, a mass-marketed, mass-produced and fizzy excuse for a beer that gave rise to the joke that, “Drinking Red Barrel was like making love in a boat – f***ing close to water!”

In the 1970s the 'beer' was relaunched as Watney's Red, with an over £1million advertising campaign which even involved painting pub interiors red. However according to the Penguin Guide to Real Draught Beer (Mike Dunn, 1979) “the new chilled, filtered, pasteurized, carbonated and pressure dispensed beer failed to sell at all well”. Keg beer was slowly on it's way out as customers once again discovered real ales again. The last time I saw Watney's Red was in the 1990s when it was being brewed by Usher's of Trowbridge for export to the USA! Not sure if it was in revenge for the American rice beer they have supplied the world with, but it was a good way to get back at them. That brewery has now been sold to North Korea, where it is no doubt producing beers of similar quality to help wash down the family pet after lunch.

Hall of Shame - Watneys Starlight

Hall of Shame, part 2

An occasional series devoted to what Brew Wales considers the worst in the world of brewing and drinking

Watney's Starlight - this beer was so weak in strength that a 1971 Sunday Mirror investigation discovered that it could have been legally sold in the United States during Prohibition.













Luckily it died a death along with the Watney Empire some time ago. Not even tickers want to see this return.

Hall of Shame

An occasional series devoted to what Brew Wales considers the worst in the world of brewing and drinking

Part 1

Ushers Welsh Pale Ale _ marketed as 'Cwrw Cymreig' or 'Welsh Ale' in the 1990's this con-trick of real ale was actually brewed by Ushers of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, for their extensive estate of pubs in Wales. Weighing in at 3.2% ABV, this real ale was short-lived, unpopular and bland. Complaints to Trading Standards went unheeded as there was no Protective Geographical Status (PGI, PGO etc) for Welsh beer, allowing any brewer in the world to brew and market a beer as 'Welsh'. It turned out to be unpopular with real ale drinkers due to being bland, tasteless and low in alcohol and so was soon dropped from Usher's pubs.

Would any ex-Ushers employee who reads this blog like to claim responsibility for trying to con Welsh drinkers?