Just the one survivor, again. Though one of the others did close very recently. Both of the Scottish brewers were sad losses, being the last long-established brewers in what were once proud brewing towns: Alloa and Edinburgh.
Lorimer
Edinburgh,
Scotland.
Founded: 1865
Closed: 2023
Tied houses:
A subsidiary of Vaux, their one cask beer often turned up in the parent company’s pubs. Often as the only cask beer. I’m not sure how available it was in Scotland. I can remember drinking it in Kendal in the Lake District. It would latter become the Caledonian Brewery, be taken over by Heineken and closed. Best Scotch was a pleasant enough beer, a fairly light Bitter.
Maclay
Alloa,
Scotland.
Founded: 1830
Closed: 1999
Tied houses: 34
The last surviving independent in the famous brewing town of Alloa was Maclay. A fairly small outfit, producing the classic Scottish range of Light, Heavy and Export. Plus the occasional Scotch Ale. Their brewing records are possibly the dullest I’ve come across. As all of those were parti-gyled together in various combinations. Using the same recipe from the 1950’s to the 1980s. At coloured up post-fermentation. Which is why 60/- looked like Dark Mild. They abandoned brewing in the 1990s to become a pub company. I rather liked their beers. Especially the Mild.
McMullen
Hertford,
Hertfordshire
Founded: 1827
Closed: still open
Tied houses: 200
I suppose I shouldn’t bear a grudge against an independent brewer. But McMullen piss me off by insisting on calling their AK a Light Mild. It’s a fucking Light Bitter. Or Mild Bitter. Not a fucking Mild Ale. Can’t say their beers ever excited me, but they were OK.
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9 comments:
Maclays still weren't the least imaginative Scottish brewers, though. That prize goes to Maclachlans: their Glasgow brewery was called the Castle Brewery, so was their Edinburgh brewery, their beer was called Castle Ale, their whisky Five Castle, their head office was Castle Chambers and all their pubs were called the Castle Bar or Castle Vaults.
When Vaux were still going, on Tyneside Lorimers Scotch (the dark one) was south of the river in Gateshead with McEwan's Scotch (S&N) north of the River in Newcastle.
Both fairly similar with the Lorimers served on electric pump with a plastic tam o shanter hat on the top of the font.
I drank in a Maclay's pub in Edinburgh when I had to go to the Australian consulate there for my visa back in 1977. Great beers, served by water engines.
Mostly forgotten about now, they worked on mains water pressure and looked like the characteristically tall Scottish keg fonts that replaced them that were designed to look the same on the bar.
Didn’t Lorimer make Deuchars IPA? Much beloved by Ian Rankin’s creation John Rebus.
Oscar
Vaux owned two breweries in Edinburgh, in fact: the Caledonian Brewery (Lorimer & Clark), which they had taken over in 1946 and sold in 1987 to become the Caledonian Brewing Co. Ltd; and the Park Brewery (Thomas Usher & Son Ltd), which they had taken over in 1959. Curiously, for many years after 1960, Lorimer & Clark’s beer was not available in Scotland; most of its production consisted of Lorimer’s Best Scotch, which was supplied by Vaux in north-east England. Usher’s was renamed Usher’s Brewery Ltd in 1972, and Lorimer’s Breweries Ltd in 1977 (presumably it was felt that the Lorimer’s name was better respected than Usher’s: certainly Usher’s was brewing no cask-conditioned beer by the 1970s). The Park Brewery, along with Usher’s 214 pubs, was sold by Vaux to Allied Breweries in 1980 and closed in 1981.
Yes, and it made its way south of the border to Newcastle in a few pubs until the 1960s but during the Vaux era it got replaced with Lorimer's Scotch and other Vaux offerings.
There used to be a Deuchar's "ghost sign" on the wall of a pub on Westgate Road in Newcastle that I always passed on the bus, back in the 1970s ... now long gone.
It's before my time so I don't know what it was really like, but I have only ever heard negative opinions about Usher's beer from people who drank it.
Thanks for that interesting story.
Oscar
Lorimers cask Scotch was a lovely easy drinking pint. Easy enough to find in those days in North Northumberland, especially in and around Berwick. Mostly the keg version further south but a few places in Newcastle and the Tyne valley sold it. R.I.P my old local from then, the Crown & Anchor at Horsley
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