Burton-on-Trent - some personal reflections and thoughts

I enjoyed an excellent “Proper Day Out” in Burton, on Friday, in the company of some fine fellows – most of whom either write blogs, or contribute to various online, beer-related discussion groups. In addition, all have many years experience of drinking in pubs and bars up and down this fair land of ours.

I shall be writing more about the pubs we visited, and the beers we enjoyed, in a later post, as for now I want to put down a few thoughts, and some personal reflections concerning Burton-Upon-Trent after what was my first proper visit to the town.

I say “proper visit” as previous trips to Burton were either work-related or single purpose events for brewery or museum visits. Friday was different, as it afforded my first opportunity to explore the town and get to know a few of its best pubs.

The first thing that struck me, as I exited the station and began my walk into the town centre, was the extent to which brewing dominates the town, from both an historic point of view as well as an up to date one. Across from the station, and on both sides of the rail tracks, are buildings with obvious past connections to brewing, whilst just off the town centre is the very modern and contemporary face of brewing exemplified by the massive Burton Brewery itself.

This sprawling complex of brewery buildings, silos and tall forests of

huge conical fermentation vessels and conditioning tanks brings into sharp focus just how important the brewing of beer is to the local economy. In addition, whilst such an obvious assembly of industrial plant and equipment might seem incongruous in another town, in Burton this all seems perfectly in keeping with what the place is all about.

The last time I’d walked past the entrance to that brewery, it had belonged to Bass who were then Britain’s largest brewing company. They had recently signed a deal to acquire the neighbouring Allied Breweries site and associated plant, which was formerly the premises of Messrs Ind Coope & Allsop.

Today, the whole complex is owned and operated by multi-national conglomerate, Molson Coors. I mention this because having worked for Bass during the late 1970’s, I now have a small pension maturing with Molson Coors. I won’t go into the convoluted deals which transferred ownership of the site, and some of the Bass brands to Molson Coors, but I have to say the whole complex still looks pretty impressive.

Later in the day, whilst walking past the rear of the site, we were assailed by the unmistakable smell of mashing; the abiding sweetish odour resulting from the extraction of fermentable sugars from malted barley, that is so characteristic of any brewing town.


Whilst much of this vast site is dominated by modern and functional-looking units, it is encouraging to see a significant number of older, Victorian buildings still standing and being used for a variety of different purposes. The best known example is the National Brewery Centre & Museum, which is housed in a former joinery workshop operated by Bass. Other  former brewery buildings have been converted into apartments or even offices.

We stopped off at the Brewery Tap, attached to the National Brewery Centre, for a spot of lunch. A rather tasty and well-presented fish-finger sandwich was my lunchtime choice; satisfying and without being too filling. We also tried a couple of beers brewed at the NBC’s Heritage Brewery which, as its name suggests, was set up to replicate old Bass and other former group company recipes.

My pint of Charrington IPA seemed a pretty good replica of the beer once brewed at the old Charrington Brewery in London’s Mile End Road. It was certainly far hoppier than the beer turned out at the Mitchell & Butler’s Cape Hill plant in Birmingham, which was where brewing was transferred to when Mile End closed. I also tried a swift half of Charrington Oatmeal Stout, which I found a little on the thin side.

Before leaving, I purchased a bottle of “Czar’s P2 Imperial Stout,” a recreation of a beer once brewed for export to Czarist Russia. At 8.0%, and bottle-conditioned as well, it should last quite a while, so no need for me to open it any time soon.

The Bridge Inn was our next port of call, and was a pub I had been in a couple of times before. Checking back through some old reports, my first visit was in 1987 and the second in 1998. The purpose of that last trip had been to visit the Bass Museum,and must have been shortly before the takeovers and sell-offs that led to Bass exiting brewing, and the transfer of their Burton Brewery to Molson Coors.  
I am pleased to report that little has changed at the Bridge Inn, apart from the opening up of a second room behind the bar. The chatty barmaid seemed quite keen to point this out, so I took a quick peep on the way to the Gents. The Bridge Inn is home to the Burton Bridge Brewery, which is housed in a group of buildings at the rear of the pub.

As expected there were several Burton Bridge beers on tap, including the company’s version of the classic Draught Burton Ale. The latter was originally brewed in Burton by Ind Coope, and when it first appeared, during the late 1970’s, it marked a turning point in what CAMRA had described as the “Real Ale Revolution.” It was certainly the moment in time when the large brewing conglomerates began to take “Real Ale” seriously.

A couple of us plumped for this legendary beer, now resurrected and returned to being brewed in Burton once again, but unfortunately that particular cask was not at its best – still perfectly drinkable, but not quite the beer either of us were anticipating.

As its name suggests, the Bridge Inn is situated at the foot of the lengthy, and rather impressive bridge over the River Trent, so with our next pub situated on the quite rural looking opposite bank, we crossed the river and headed out of town. The Trent divides into a couple of parallel channels, one with a semi-circular weir, but there is ample room to accommodate any flood waters. It all looked rather picturesque, particularly in the early Spring sunshine, and I found it quite uplifting after the gloomy wet and windy weather we’ve had in Kent, these past few weeks.

I’m tempted to break with the narrative at this point, but  will just mention the Elms Inn, which was where we were heading for. I didn’t manage to get a decent camera angle on the Elms, as it looks out over a busy road which was swollen by traffic from the “school run,” making it very difficult for us to cross. When a number of cars did eventually stop, to let a woman and her dog cross, we rushed across as well, missing out on the perfect photo opportunity.

This was shame as the Elms has an attractive brick frontage, and a painted sign advertising “Best Bass.” A number of inter-linked rooms, including a corridor with a serving hatch, added to its attraction, and the pub certainly seemed very busy for a Friday afternoon. This, and its semi- rural setting overlooking the Trent, some distance below the road, might explain its popularity.

The Bass provoked mixed feelings, with the advanced party, who had arrived some time ahead of us, finding it disappointing, whilst the group of four I was with, agreed it was in fine form. We surmised that a fresh cask had been pressed into service, shortly before our arrival.

Well, that’s it for now folks; more to follow next time.