So many breweries that have disappeared since I started drinking. Some of the most frustrating were those that closed just before that. So I just missed out.
Gray
Chelmsford,
Essex.
Founded: 1828
Closed: 1974
Tied houses: 52
A brewery that disappeared just too early for me to have had chance to try their beers. The company still exists and owns a tired estate, whose beers are now supplied by Greene King. Their pubs are mostly concentrated around Chelmsford.
| beer | style | format | OG | description |
| Bitter | Pale Ale | draught | 1033.6 | well-balanced |
| Best Bitter | Pale Ale | draught | 1040.4 | |
| Mild | Mild | draught | 1028.6 | dark |
| Stock Ale | Strong Ale | draught | fairly strong, darkish, roughly a cross between the Bitter and the Mild | |
| Light Ale | Pale Ale | bottled | ||
| Brown Ale | Brown Ale | bottled | ||
| Home Brew | Strong Ale | bottled | bottled Stock Ale |
Greenall Whitley (Warrington)
Warrington,
Cheshire.
Founded: 1762
Closed: 1993
Tied houses: 1,500
One of the largest independent brewers, Greenall Whitley wasn’t that far behind Scottish & Newcastle in terms of tied houses. Lancashire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Herefordshire and North Wales were lucky enough to be home to their tied pubs. I never cared for their beers, even though they were often available in cask form. It was also annoying the good brewers the bastards took over and closed. The Warrington brewery closed when Greenalls decided to get out of brewing and become a pub chain. Not a brewery I miss.
| beer | style | format | OG | description |
| Best Bitter | Pale Ale | draught | 1038 | well-balanced |
| Mild | Mild | draught | 1033.7 | full-bodied Dark Mild |
| Festival Keg | Pale Ale | keg | 1036.8 | |
| Grunhalle Lager | Lager | keg | 1037.3 | high-gravity Lager |
| Champion Ale | Pale Ale | bottled | 1034.8 | |
| Festival Export Ale | Pale Ale | bottled | 1041.6 | A strong Light Ale, not the same as the keg. |
| Five Star Strong Ale | Barley Wine | bottled | nip | |
| Old Chester Ale | Old Ale | bottled | A dark and sweet strong Old Ale. | |
| Bullseye | Brown Ale | bottled | 1033.6 | A medium sweet Brown Ale |
| Family Ale | Brown Ale | bottled | sweet Brown Ale | |
| Red Rose Stout | Stout | bottled | 1040 | sweet |
| Grunhall Lager | Lager | bottled | 1037.3 |
Greenall Whitley (Wem)
Wem,
Shropshire.
Founded: 1878
Closed: 1988
Tied houses: 220
In contrast to their owner, the Wem brewery produced excellent beers. Some of the best I drank back then. Though that was only at beer festivals. They were bought by Greenall Whitley in 1951 and survived for surprisingly long. A brewery I do miss.
| beer | style | format | OG | description |
| Best Bitter | Pale Ale | draught | 1038 | well-balanced |
| Pale Ale | Pale Ale | draught | 1032 | a light Bitter |
| Mild | Mild | draught | 1033 | full-bodied Dark Mild |
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6 comments:
Greenall's made a pig's ear of Shipstone's as I am sure you will remember.
As a teenager in the late eighties, Greenall Whitley keg bitter was one of the beers I cut my drinking teeth on, at a pub down the road and the Labour club where our Young Socialists branch met (now respectively a food-led Greene King house and a children's nursery). Not a particularly memorable beer as you say. The former brewery in the Wilderspool district of Warrington is now an office building, partly occupied by the civil service department I once worked for (Wilderspool was also home to the ground where the town's rugby league team played for many years).
I tasted Wem Bitter only once, in 1978, while returning to Aberystwyth University after a day out rattling Rag Week tins in front of shocked people in Nottingham. Wem was CLASS. I hope one day you might find and share a recipe for Wem Bitter!
I really liked the Wem beers. Only had them at beer festivals.
Only the Bitter, though. They left the Mild alone.
Wem beers were certainly very good (I particularly liked the mild), but I found Greenall Whitley beer to be OK, if not very memorable - at least in the early to mid-70s (I recall that around that time it was said that Greenall Whitley had more wooden casks than any other UK brewer). I managed to drink Gray's a few times before they closed, and thought the beer was excellent - often served by gravity (I never sampled it through hand pumps, and have never seen a Gay's pump clip - did they exist?). I think I sampled three of the four draught beers, including Stock Ale: I can't remember whether the one I missed was the mild or the ordinary bitter.
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