The story I’m about to repeat below, caught my eye the other
day, whilst browsing the internet for beer and brewing - related news. It concerns
the sad closure of yet another piece of the
UK’s brewing heritage, even though
the location of the brewery concerned, isn’t actually in the
United Kingdom.
The territory concerned is much closer to
France than it is to
Britain,
although because for historical reasons, it has strong ties to the
United
Kingdom.I’ve never visited the
Channel Islands, although this
Crown
Dependency, is high on my travel wish list. One of my colleagues holidays in
Jersey on an annual basis. I forget how many years she and her
husband have been visiting the island, but they stay at the same hotel, every
year. It reminds me of a former colleague, in a previous existence who, together
with his incredibly bossy wife, did the same thing in
Cyprus. Not only did the
couple stay at the same hotel, but they ensured they were allocated the same room,
each year. Furthermore. they always chose the exact same week in
August, for their stay. Talk about boring!
Returning to the
Channel Islands, and to
Jersey, the largest of the inhabited islands, the closure of the
150-year-old
Liberation Brewery has recently been announced.
Liberation began life as the
Ann Street Brewery, and became famous for visitors to
Jersey, for its
Mary Ann beers. Somewhere along the line, the company changed its name to the
Liberation Brewery, to commemorate the islands' liberation, in
1945, from five years of
German occupation, during
World War II. In , the company purchased
Butcombe Brewery, a company that was one of the original micro-breweries, having been founded in the
Somerset village of
Butcombe, back in
1978. Renamed as the
Butcombe
Group, the company controls over
130 UK pubs, in the
Channel
Islands as well as on the
UK mainland.
The parent company are now saying that,
due to dramatically increased costs over the past few years, it is no longer viable to run their Jersey brewery. The latter, which-is based at Tregear House in
St Saviour, has been a quintessential part of
Channel Island life for nearly
150 years. A statement issued by the group, just over a week ago said:
"The costs of brewing beer and operating the brewery have dramatically
risen over the last few years. To make sure we can continue to run a viable
brewing business, including brewing a range of Liberation beers, we have
evaluated the current effectiveness of the brewery in Jersey and made this
difficult decision to shut the brewery at Tregear House. Pat Dean, Head brewer
for the Liberation Brewing Company, will transfer to the Somerset site. Some
jobs, in Jersey, could be affected but the firm was confident other roles would
be made available for those employees".Managing director
Tim Hubert said it was a
"sad
day" and a
"difficult decision" to close the brewery and
relocate brewing operations to
Somerset, although he did offer a sop
to islanders, by confirming that the
Liberation wholesale and distribution
business would remain unchanged and would continue to operate from the
St
Saviour site. This concession is little consolation for
Liberation's loyal customers, and is
disappointing too for visitors to the island, as well as potential
visitors, like me. The
Butcombe Group is owned by the investment company,
Caledonia Private Capital, whose main objective, like all such groups, is to maximise the returns on investors' capital. And therein lies the clue, as speculators and property investors, are no strangers to the brewing industry.
At the other end of the spectrum, and still keeping tradition of brewing in
the
Channel Isles alive,
is
Matt Topman, who co-founded the
Jersey's Stinky Bay Brewery Co in
in 2017. Describing the closure of Liberation, as a sad day for the industry. He explains:
"I'm pretty gutted actually, I feel for
the guys at Liberation. "It's a real shame, especially when the guys that
work there have put so much effort over the years into keeping it going and
that local tradition alive."Sad news then, that the Channel Isles are now left without a
brewery of any size, a situation that makes any visit to the islands a lot less
appealing to beer lovers like me. Fifty years ago, things were a lot different, as described in Frank Baillie’s “The Beer Drinker’s
Companion”. Published in 1973, this ground-breaking book gave details of the four independent brewing
companies based in the Channel Islands, at the time. There were two in Guernsey – Guernsey Brewery Co, and R.W. Randall Ltd, plus two in Jersey -Randalls Brewery (seemingly unrelated
to their Guernsey neighbour), and the Ann Street Brewery Co. The latter, famous
for their Mary Ann Ales, are the forerunners of Liberation Brewery who, after two surviving two World Wars, German occupation, depressions, recessions and cultural shifts, are
being closed by an investment company that seems more interested in making money, than respecting the heritage and traditions of its spiritual home.
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