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Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Tetley's To Go, Tetley's To Stay


...An interesting piece here from the Yorkshire Evening Post about Tetley's. Although it's been confirmed that the brewery will now be closed in Summer 2011, it would that Tetley's Bitter and the Tetley's brand will not.

Looks like those rumours that have been bubbling away in recent months about covert Tetley's test-brewing in some of Yorkshire's larger breweries may have been true, after all....watch this space.

13 comments:

Rob Sterowski said...

If Carlsberg are planning to have Tetley's contract brewed rather than make it in one of their own facilities, it's not good news for the future of the brand. It means they do not consider it a core brand and they're intent on managing its decline and elimination rather than promoting it. Cf. Draught Bass.

Curmudgeon said...

Well, it's always been known that it would be brewed somewhere else rather than allowing the brands to die. And somewhere closer than Northampton might be good.

Apparently the contract was touted to Hydes in Manchester, but they didn't bite.

Tandleman said...

Off the top of my head I'd say Sam's don't and won't contract brew, Taylors are too small, so it must be Tadcaster. I assume though this is for the cask version only? Or is it?

Rob Sterowski said...

How high or low is the ratio of cask to keg with Tetley's?

I'm not sure if I'm right about what I said earlier. Tetley's is pretty much the only bitter they offer, and notwithstanding all the decline in the market share of bitter, I don't know if Carlsberg is ready to be the first major brewer with only lager brands in its portfolio.

If Tandleman is right and it ends up at Tadcaster, it's an interesting example of macrobrewers cannibalising their spare capacity. I hear Coors already contract brew Foster's for Heineken. If we get Heineken brewing Tetley's for Carlsberg it'll be even more confusing. It'll also mean the two leading keg ale brands come from the same factory.

Leigh said...

It'll be interesting to see - when it comes out - what the brand/beer end up like. I would imagine that this move still won't improve relations, as many purists will simply agree that it's not the same. And they'd be right, to be honest.

Tandleman said...

I tried to get some figures for cask/ keg ratio for Tets, but the Carlsberg guys said they didn't know. I'd guess it runs around 3 or 4 - 1 in favour of smooth and is probably around 70 - 100,000 cask barrels. Just a guesstimate though.

I doubt if they can find a single brewery to brew the lot, so cask will be brewed in Yorkshire - or Lees, and smooth - anywhere they can get a good price on it.

It all depends on how much capacity John Smith's have.

John Clarke said...

I have it on very good authority that the current volume of cask Tetleys is just 20,000 barrels a year (this came from the top man at a brewery approached to see if they wanted to take it on). Finding a single brewery to take this on should not be so difficult.

Leigh said...

John - wow, that's less than I expected!

Curmudgeon said...

How common is cask Tetleys in West Yorkshire now? Twenty years ago it was well-nigh ubiquitous.

Leigh said...

hi - not sure wether it's cask - i would assume Keg in all cases - but in Leeds, it maintains a decent profile - Nicholson's pubs such as The Victoria and The Palace have it permanently on. The Adelphi, just next to the brewery across the bridge, also has it most of the time. Apart from that, outside Leeds I would say not that high a profile at all. Maybe it will go the way of Schlitz or Pabst in the US - and become a 'relic' beer.

Unknown said...

I'm confused as to why anybody is bothered about Tetley's really.

Leigh said...

Everyone has thier own angle, Dave - for me, it's the loss of jobs.

TIW said...

It's also an iconically Yorkshire beer. It would be a shame to lose it - cask Tet's can be still be very good (at the Lamb in Oxenhope, for example). I wouldn't care if I never saw smoothflow again.