Author: Colston Crawford

You would hope not but the recent signs are not good as it disappears from some pubs and is harder to get hold of…

Are we seeing the slow death of Marston’s Pedigree at the hands of Carlsberg-Britvic? I posted this on a Facebook forum a couple of weeks ago. It might seem over-dramatic but the once classic beer is disappearing from some Marston’s pubs in favour of one of the Wainwright derivatives, with that often being the only traditional cask offering.

The first thing to make clear, although I suspect most reading will know, is that “Marston’s” is now only a pub-owning company, not a brewer. Marston’s, deep in debt, first “merged” with Carlsberg and then sold out the brewing operation completely to them in July, 2024. So, Marston’s are now merely a customer of Carslberg-Britvic.

Once, the idea of walking into a Marston’s pub and not seeing Pedigree on the bar would have been unthinkable. It was revered and deservedly so. It was the first beer which showed me what traditional beer was about, first nipping out under-age from sixth form to the Bull’s Head in Breaston, then continuing to drink it in there when I had left school.

A few years later, with support for Burton Albion discovered, I began almost 40 years of drinking Pedigree in the Derby Inn, not far from the ground in Burton. I was spoilt. There are plenty of people who will tell you that no-one in Burton kept Pedigree better than the late Tony Foster at the Derby Inn and one of the reasons was that Tony would battle the brewery reps who wanted it on the bar quicker. He believed in having it mature in the cellar awhile before serving it at its best. The Derby Inn was not big enough and profitable enough for Marston’s liking, so they sold it to Admiral Taverns, who were eventually happy to sell it off as “unviable”, as pub companies do when they cannot see past a one-dimensional business model.

Coming up to date, I was asked recently by a long-time acquaintance if I knew what was happening to Pedigree. His local, in Derby, a Pedigree stronghold for years and home to many Campaign for Real Ale branch meetings, had been struggling to get the beer delivered. I’ve since heard several similar stories.

And then, a couple of weeks ago, the family took an agreeable stroll around Branston Water Park, where you can nip down the canal towpath and take refreshment at the Bridge Inn, Branston, a Marston’s pub. The food, service and one of the most comfortable beer garden marquees I have been in were exemplary.

But on the bar, there was only one cask ale, Wainwright Amber, a beer not far removed from what used to be called Marston’s Burton Bitter, by my reckoning. The barmaid told me Pedigree had been taken off because “it wasn’t as popular as it used to be.” I know many people will say one of the reasons for that is that the recipe has changed over the years but I’m not getting into that particular debate here.

When my aforementioned acquaintance, Julian Tubbs, asked about availability of Pedigree on the Save Burton’s Brewing Heritage Facebook page last month, a woman called Julia Eaton, who appears to be a Carlsberg-Britvic employee, replied: “Pedi is being brewed on a very small scale and will keep being brewed for the foreseeable future at this scale.” Scary words for the future of the beer, I would say.

How far we have come, relatively quickly. It was only 2019 when, with other beer writers, I toured the then Marston’s Brewery and met then head brewer Patrick McGinty. Trainee brewers were learning their trade on a nano-brewery adjacent to the visitors’ bar. The brewery ran a home brew club but appear to have used Covid as an excuse to end it, as they did brewery tours. There was no input from the brewery to the Marston’s Home Brew Club Facebook page beyond 2022. Contact with customers is not something Carlsberg-Britvic go in for but that had already become the case before Marston’s sold out to them.

Perhaps we should have seen Pedigree’s possible fate coming when Carlsberg immediately ditched 11 cask beers upon completing the takeover. Now we are seeing “falling customer demand” for cask beer apparently being deliberately generated by the brewer – but that is not a new tactic. It is a sad state of affairs and another hammer blow to Burton’s proud brewing heritage.

Just for the record, I offered Carlsberg-Britvic the chance to respond, a fortnight ago, to a few questions about the future of Pedigree. If by some chance they do respond, of course I’ll add their response here.

A little shorter (hurrah, you say) and lighter from me this week. Hands up if you know what these are? I say that in the full knowledge that a lot of beer drinkers, certainly those over 40, will know that they are carrykegs, used for taking home beer from the pub.

I still use them a fair bit and I was prompted to write this piece after strolling into one of my locals with a carrykeg to grab a takeaway. A woman in a group eating at one of the tables was staring in my direction and stopped me as I passed: “I haven’t seen one of those in a long time.”

That’s the main point. They used to be quite common and I find it a little odd that they aren’t still. More than anything, I’m surprised pubs don’t make them available or, if not them, then the two-pint cartons that are like milk cartons.

The old carrykegs hold four pints and have a breathable push-down cap. The beer will keep overnight, just about, but they’re really for consuming the day or evening you buy the beer.

You would think pubs would still make them available, because they need all the help they can get in these tough times and if I or anyone else takes beer home from the pub, that’s beer I’m not buying in a supermarket. Or from another pub, for that matter. To me, it’s a logical situation: I fancy a few pints but either I’m driving or I’ve got stuff to do at home. Ideally, I’d like to spend the evening in the pub – at least, this way, the pub sells the beer and gets the money they would have got if I’d stayed (and if they’re busy, someone else can have my seat)!

However, since writing the first draft of this piece, I have been reminded that the biggest reason pubs don’t set out to sell beer in this way is that a change in the law made it very complicated for them to do so… yes, it’s yet another way in which legislation and red tape – not this government’s, before any one jumps in – stands in the way of pubs at a time when they need all the help they can get.

My thanks to Emma Cole, of the Burton Bridge Inn and Brewery in Burton. She writes: “It was legal to do so until March 2025 I believe. On duty submissions it counts as smallpack so we can do it if we go and amend our beer duty submission to reflect that it was sold, so we pay the right rate. It’s also not simple to do. As pubs don’t have this option it means it can only be done at venues that handle their own duty, like breweries.

“The info online about it has been really unclear but though selling takeaway is permitted under licensing rules, every pint sold will be paying the wrong duty unless the brewery amends their earlier submission. I hope some clear communication happens soon as someone could easily get in trouble as the rules are so unclear.

“I do worry when I see places still offering it and hope they won’t get in trouble. There is hardly any info online and not many are going to read through excise duty notice 226 as it’s very very long.”

So there you have it. I didn’t set out, in what was meant to be an innocent reflection, to suggest pubs should ignore this obscure and, you would think, wholly pointless legislation. However, in my experience still using my carrykegs, I would guess that if a regular customer is known to a publican, chances are a blind eye is going to be turned and you’ll get to take home a few pints of your favourite beer…

• Finally for now, many thanks for the engagement in this fledgling blog so far. I still need to get my head around making it better to look at. The next subscriber (at the time of writing) will be the 50^th and I see there’s been an upturn in people following the Facebook page. Thanks, too, to Paul Gibson of Derby Camra for mentioning it in their latest newsletter and to my fellow beer blogger Ian Clarkson for giving me a plug on his more well-established site. I’ve no great ambitions to hit big numbers but I do have a fairly long list of subjects to go at in the next few weeks.

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