Ale move falls flat

4:00pm Thursday 9th August 2007

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DRINKERS around York have been turning their noses up at John Smith's beer after Scottish and Newcastle Brewery started brewing the cask version on the wrong side of the Pennines.

The traditional Yorkshire beer had always previously been brewed in Tadcaster, but a decision was made in January to switch production to the Thomas Hardy Burtonwood Brewery in Warrington, Cheshire in June with the loss of around 25 jobs.

This was because of the sale of Tadcaster-brewed Courage ale brands to Wells and Young's Brewing Company in Bedfordshire, which led to the closure of the John Smith's cask-filling line.

Since then there have been complaints about the taste of the cask beer and drinkers say the ale loses its head quickly and goes flat.

At least two pubs in York have stopped selling it and many others have been returning virtually entire barrels.

Jim Hardie, landlord of the Blue Bell pub, in Fossgate, took John Smith's Cask out two or three weeks ago.

He said: "It wasn't very good. A lot of the regular John Smith's drinkers were sending it back saying it was not right and I ended up out of pocket.

"Now I have got Black Sheep bitter in and I am selling more of that than I was John Smith's."

He has sent about 90 gallons - or 720 pints - back to the brewery as he was "fed up with it".

The Three Cranes pub in St Sampson's Square has also stopped selling John Smith's Cask.

Manager Andy Innes said the pub had a reputation for selling good beer and did not want to jeopardise that by selling a substandard product.

He said: "We had customers complaining it was going flat all the time, they were leaving half a pint of beer."

The pub has sent a dozen 18-gallon barrels - or 1,728 pints - back to the brewery, but he expected that once Scottish and Newcastle sort out the problem they will begin selling it again.

Similar complaints also came from Monk Ward Conservative Club.

The Press reader Barry Sellers, of Stockton-on-the- Forest, has been drinking John Smith's for years.

He said he is thinking about turning to Tetleys beer as the John Smith's has been "tangy", "sharp" and quickly going flat.

He said: "You get an odd barrel that doesn't taste right and you think it is just a bad batch, but this is different."

Karen Hannah, a member of York CAMRA - the Campaign for Real Ale, said the consensus is that the beer is not as good as it was since production was switched to Warrington.

She said: "The purity of beer often relies on the quality of the water and tiny little details.

"Moving it to be brewed elsewhere will affect the quality of the beer as it is an individual product."

She said it was sad that a real ale which had been brewed locally for so long had moved from the area.

Brewer issues apology

IN a statement a spokesman for Scottish and Newcastle UK confirmed there had been some quality issues with their cask-conditioned John Smith's bitter.

The spokesman said: "We can confirm we have received a number of complaints in recent weeks regarding the quality of John Smith's cask -conditioned bitter.

"The complaints refer to the taste and quality of the beer produced in a couple of production batches since June when brewing transferred to Thomas Hardy Burtonwood.

" We contacted John Smith's cask ale stockists in July to verify the situation and, where an issue has been identified, we replaced the affected product with beer that meets the high quality standards normally associated with John Smith's. We offer our sincere apologies to licensees and consumers that have been inconvenienced by this issue.

"Product quality is of paramount importance to us and we are working very closely with the Thomas Hardy Burtonwood Brewery to ensure the problem is eradicated."

He said the decision was taken to brew John Smith's cask in Warrington because of the sale of the Courage ale brands to Wells and Young's Brewing Company (W&YBC), which resulted in the loss of around 25 jobs at Tadcaster.

Because of this sale the decision was taken to close the cask-filling operation altogether and hence switch the brewing of John Smith's cask to Warrington.

Rise denial

THE brewer Scottish and Newcastle, which brews John Smith's bitter, has denied a price rise is looming.

A report in a national newspaper yesterday said drinkers would be hit by a 10p rise in the price of a pint from January next year.

But a spokesman for Scottish and Newcastle denied this was the case although admitted brewers are under financial pressures like any business.

He said: "We were talking about the need to control costs as barley prices are going up and canning prices are going up. We are committed to holding our prices until next year but the 10p figure is purely speculation."

The spokesman confirmed Scottish and Newcastle boss Tony Froggatt had said prices will have to rise, but denied that he had said a big price rise was round the corner, adding beer went up in price this year and last year.