150-year-old, Jersey brewery moves its brewing operations to the UK.

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.