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As implied
earlier, just one regional family-owned brewery is left in the
county – Hardys & Hansons (H&H) of Kimberley, which
still remains independent.
Several
real ales are brewed by ‘Kimberley’, as they are known
amongst local connoisseurs, but even they are now producing
a non real mild, presumably to cater for the younger drinkers
who appear to be brainwashed by the mass marketing campaigns
suggesting that keg products are flavoursome and are good for
you!
Lets hope
that H&H continue to produce the excellent range of cask
conditioned products in future years, along with the inter-twinned
seasonal beers that they brew periodically on an annual basis.
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Constructed
in 1855, above what was once part of the North Notts coalfield,
Mansfield Brewery stood on the south side of this Nottinghamshire
market town. It was situated less than half a kilometre away from
Field Mill, home ground to the ‘Stags’, Mansfield’s
famous football club.
And before its closure, cask ale beer production was thriving after
being reintroduced at the brewery back in 1982, after a break of
ten years.
Surprisingly
enough though, trying to find a pint of Mansfield cask ale in Mansfield
was a challenge in itself. One reason for this must have been due
to the large number of miners welfares, social clubs, and working
men’s clubs etc, content on selling keg products at highly
discounted prices. Sadly a discount which the average pub tenant
could not afford to offer the drinker when it came to real ales.
When it was
in business, Mansfield Brewery boasted an array of seasonal beers
such the ‘Deakins’ range’ sitting along side relishing
regulars like Old Baily and the quaffable Mansfield Bitter, all
brewed in traditional Yorkshire squares so as to appeal to the taste
buds of a wider audience outside of their traditional trading area.
But unfortunately,
as part of the brewery take-over by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries
(W & D) in 2000, Old Baily was quashed in order to make way
for a marketing drive of Marstons’ Pedigree, a cask ale of
similar strength – at the time the flagship beer of W &
D – and beer production was moved to Wolverhampton.
There, the water
was different, so the taste that Mansfield drinkers were so accustomed
too, changed. Then followed the winding down of the other brands
of what once was the major employer in the area – and as history
repeated it self yet again, Mansfield Brewery, like so many others
before it, was finally laid to rest in 2002.
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| Phil
Mallard, Mallard Brewery, Carlton |
Ten microbreweries
trade in Nottinghamshire. Most of these are run on a similar basis
to the one-time ‘cottage industries’, along much the same
lines that those breweries would have been operated all those years
ago – a small brewery plant, two or three members of staff,
and local regular outlets from where their beers are sold.
They are:
Alcazar of Old Basford (Fox & Crown pub); Broadstone of Retford;
Caythorpe of Caythorpe (Black Horse pub); Castle Rock, Nottingham;
Holland of Kimberley; Mallard of Carlton; Maypole of Eakring; Nathan鈥檚
Fine Ales, Elston, nr Newark; Nottingham Brewery of Radford (Plough
pub) and Springhead of Newark on Trent.
Richard Studeny 2001
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