I hope not as Holts beers are one of my favourite beers and i have been in over 100 of their tied house.
I think if i remember rightly Joseph Holts bought all their shares back and became a non listed company to avoid a takover from another company.
A question of cause or effect: Fremlins was succesful and tastey when brewed at Faversham: Twitbread's shut that and turned it into TESCO (I think), and moved the brand to Cheltenham, whereupon it became niether tastey nor succesful, and Cheltenham closed,with Twibread turning into a coffee shop.
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.
I'll admit I don't know any of those.
In my brief drinking career, I have only ever seen expansion of good brewers and the closing of bad ones.
Thornbridge, Summer Wine, Brewdog, Marble, Mallinson's, Magic Rock, Ossett, Fernandes, Salopian, Oakham are all thriving along with the pubs that serve their brews.
Boring brews like Tetleys, John Smiths, Bass, Thwaites are probably still serving a good few pints but it is pubs that serve these sorts of beers that are closing left, right, and centre. I do not see these as a loss to the drinking industry.
What you have got to remember is that , not that long ago those boring beers were like nectar compared with the crap most pubs served , the choice between a pint of Cask Tetley or Bass and a pint of Keg Springfield Bitter or Bass Special was a no brainer , we used to drive 10 miles just to drink in a pub that had Hook Norton beers on ! Trips out to places like the Three Tuns at Bishops Castle were all day jobs , a pub with 3 cask ales was like heaven .
Its things like Tetley and Bass that kept the up the intrest in real beer , without them we could be in a keg beer hell
I would not say Salopian are thriving , their only pub the Bull in the Barne is closed and up for sale .
Theres a Man with a Mullet going Mad with a Mallet in Millets !
Salopian deserve to be thriving as I saw their Lemon Dream absolutely everywhere I went in Shrewsbury 4 or 5 weeks back.
At 28 I clearly do not remember the beer scene from the 1980s, all I remember is being excluded from the cricket club. My father still drinks whatever stereotypical boring brown beer he is presented with in the bar though. I look around and would rather a bottle of Corona usually than a boring Thwaites, Smiths or Tetlys. If the craft beer market can influence the boring brown beer drinkers, then the likes of John Smiths will be goners.
I doubt the men and women brewing hop tea in their sheds will influence major companies like Molson Coors, Heinekin or Carlsberg in any way. Carling is the number 1 selling beer in the UK so what possible relevance would an expensive to produce, niche product have to that business?
The larger brewing companies may dabble from time to time in cask beers, Molsons involvement with Sharps, or Heinekin's Cask Orders being merely the latest in a line going back to at least Watneys/Ruddles. Cask versions of Tetleys, Smiths etc currently have about 16% of the cask market, which itself is only 8% of the total beer market, and their market share is constantly dropping. Soon the fashion will change and the brewery businesses will move on, dropping any involvement in cask beers of whatever sort and concentrating again on the highly profitable mass market mock pilsners, and the nitrokegs (smooth) which dominate (92%) the beer market. Mock pilsners and smooths seem to appeal to the widest range of pub users, certainly most old men I know drink one or the other and most younger beer drinkers seem to stick to those beers mainly with occasional forays into cider, wine, spirits or cask. Premixs may remain fashionable or some other gloop might come along that appeals to someone's taste, someone will always rave about drinks most people think are disgusting especially if fashion says so, it's all a matter of personal taste of course.
The niche market in cask beer might continue to grow slowly although Simon Theakston believes it is already shrinking, in spite of the Cask Report figures proving otherwise. It depends on younger drinkers finding cask beers an acceptable drink, they may prefer modern unpastuerised and unfiltered kegs but the ones I've tasted make me doubt even that, a cold fizzy alcoholic drink that isn't cloudy is probably more acceptable than a cloudy cold fizzy alcoholic drink to most people, Carling's sales tend to support that view.
Well not exactly "hate", but by heck is n't it dull? Purely in the interest of research I tried it in a pub where the only other real ale was Black Sheep Best. I admit to be intrigued by how it managed the transfer to its new home.I don't really remember it in its Leedian heyday, but today's version is so damn dull.Nothing wrong with it, but bland. I found the BS excting by comparison!
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.
I agree with a lot of Oggwyn and Old Boots comments. My drinking started in the 1960's.A time that many look back to with rose tinted specs. There were good and bad beers then just as now. Some older drinkers visit my local simply because they like the taste and look of the John Smiths served there.Because we all have different tastes I think it right we respect other drinkers choice . It is , after all, their money to dispose of and how other people spend their money has always been good for a lively topic of conversation.