It's offical. Tetley's is to be brewed by Marston's in Warwickshire from 2011. That's proper, Tetley cask ale - not the weird 'Smoothflow' beer-flavoured drink with all the character of a McDonald's Thick Shake. That will continue to be synthesised in God's Acres, albeit in Tadcaster rather than Leeds. I'm not actually a Tetley drinker - but a lot of people are, especially in West Yorkshire which must still be the beer's core market. It's the pint of choice at my dad's club, despite the Taylor's brewery being 200 yards away. There will probably be some sort of boycott by the more patriotic Tykes, but ultimately the once-legendary brand will fade away to nothing more than a memory of a monocled hunstman.
Pete Brown has interviewed Darran Britton of Carlsberg about this sorry state of affairs.
(picture from newswampthing)
2 comments:
I remember when Tetley's was good ale.....some decades ago. Now it seems to be some sort of weird franchise: the Pierre Cardin of so-called 'Bitter'. Even VW have given up just rebadging the Golf: the Skoda and SEAT variants are made in Czecho and Iberio.
Fortunately (as Carlsberg seem to have forgotten), there are a host of better names and ales extant - and long may they reign. I think Cadbury's may face a similar situation soon, as their chocolate is reworked to become more like Dairylea.
John Smith's went the same way - a once classic Yorkshire bitter, made to slake the thirst of metal-bashers and colliers, now only associated with tins full of what (to me) tastes of frozen peas. I usually encounter it at parties when a well-meaning host has thought "TIW is coming - better get some 'ale' in".
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