Beer Guide to the 1970s (part eight)

Another couple of regional breweries which closed in the 1980s today. As I remarked in an earlier post, that decade seems to have been particularly hard for the larger regional brewers.

It includes one of Greenall Whitley's victims. They had a habit of buying up well-respected breweries, fucking up the beers and then closing them. They were almost as bad as the worst members of the Big Six when it came to destroying beloved breweries.

Davenport
Birmingham,
West Midlands.
Founded:    1739
Closed:    1989
Tied houses:    118

The tied estate of Davenport, though not enormous, was spread over a wide area. In addition to the West Midlands, it reached the East Midlands, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire. There was even a pub in Leeds and one in Usk South Wales. The brewery was best known for its home delivery service, which operated pretty much nationally. I quite liked their cask beers. They were purchased by Greenall Whitley in 1986 and closed a couple of years later.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1038	well-hopped
Mild	Mild	draught	1033	Dark Mild
Drum Bitter	Pale Ale	keg
Drum Mild	Mild	keg
Continental Lager	Lager	keg
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Best Bitter	Pale Ale	bottled		weaker and more Bitter
Top Brew	Pale Ale	bottled		very strong Dark Ale
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled
Continental Lager	Lager	bottled

Devenish (Redruth)
Redruth,
Cornwall.
Founded:    1792
Closed:    1991/2004
Tied houses:    200

A subsidiary brewery of Devenish since being purchased in 1934. It mostly supplied the company’s pubs in Cornwall. Devenish closed the brewery in 1991. It reopened again under different management, before closing again in 2004. Devenish didn’t have the best of reputations. Which wasn’t helped when it was revealed much of their beer was under 1030º. They did respond by raising the gravities a few degrees to the ones you see below.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1032.5	full bodied
Cornish Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1042.5	thin but pleasant
XXX	Mild	draught	1033	fruity Dark Mild

Devenish (Weymouth)
Weymouth,
Dorset.
Founded:    1742
Closed:    1985
Tied houses:    190

Between their two breweries, Devenish supplied tied houses across most of the West Country, stretching as far east as Hampshire. Their beers didn’t have the best reputation. In 1985 all brewing was moved to Redruth and the Weymouth brewery closed.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1043	well hopped
Wessex Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1032	stronger
Saxon Bitter	Pale Ale	keg	1030.9
Dark Keg	Mild	keg		sweet
Whitbread Tankard	Pale Ale	keg
Light Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1029.8
Wessex Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1037.5
Cobbler's Nio	Barley Wine	bottled
Bosun Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled	1032.2
S-W Stout	Stout	bottled		sweet