Supping nostalgia

An original R Cains poster

I see that the Cains name is to be revived with a new brewery set up within the old Higsons Brewery building where the most recent incarnation of Cains was brewed until 2013. Its disappearance wasn't much mourned, following as it did a drastic and sudden drop in quality; I wrote about it at the time here.

An entrepreneur called Andrew Mikhail, owner of bars and hotels in Merseyside including Punch Tarmey's, has acquired the name and states that the brewery will create 200 jobs and "partly model itself" on the Guinness Brewery visitor attraction in Dublin. If the 200 jobs do materialise, it would be a fairly sizeable operation.

The big old Higsons brewery building, Grade II listed, is being developed into a brewery village, which I wrote about in 2013 here. Mr Mikhail has given no indication yet whether he will revive the previous Cains beers or start from scratch with new recipes, as the latest manifestation of Higsons has done. I tried one of the new Higsons beers recently and didn't think it was anything special.

I'd be very surprised if this announcement will engender much excitement locally, but I'll save my judgement until I've tasted the product. This will be the second revival of the Cains name. The original Cains ceased to be brewed in Liverpool in the 1920s, but the name was called out of retirement in 1991. As for Higsons, we are now on the fourth version, if you include the original that was destroyed by Whitbread. I wonder how many times you can resuscitate a brand before its credibility evaporates completely?

Generally I don't see much point in using an old name and producing beers that have no resemblance to the originals; it's simply cashing in on brand nostalgia, but I suppose there's no harm in it because your beers will have to stand or fall on their quality: people won't sup solely for nostalgic reasons indefinitely.

Truman's Lazarus

I was at the Wednesday lunchtime song session in the White Star in Rainford Gardens, Liverpool, yesterday, and a good afternoon it was too. I haven't been in this pub for some time, although in the 70s and 80s my friends and I used to seek it out for the quality of its draught Bass.

Truman's Lazarus was on the bar. I knew Truman's had been revived a few years ago, but hadn't really expected to see its beer in Liverpool. I've no recollection of ever drinking the original Truman's, but then I've never been a frequent visitor to London.

As the pumpclip suggests, it is very pale, typical of the golden ales that are increasingly popular at present. It is made with Cascade and Chinook hops and Pale Barley malt, and the brewery website describes it as "juicy and zesty, without ever becoming overpowering". I'm not sure I'd quite agree: it is certainly citrusy and hoppy, but I found the bitterness quite pronounced, definitely far too much for lovers of beers such as Thwaites Wainwright or Robinsons Dizzy Blonde. I like beers with noticeable bitterness so I did enjoy it, but after three pints, even I found I wanted a change, so I switched to the Bass, which is still well-kept in the White Star.

It's a good example of the style, but I suspect too bitter for some.

Castle Eden's back

I went into the Guest House in Southport last night and saw on the bar the familiar pump clip for Castle Eden Ale. I haven't seen this around for years, and it got me thinking about the beer and the brewery.

The Castle Eden brewery in County Durham was unusual in that it survived decades of ownership by Whitbread without being closed. As well as producing its own beers, it was the final home of Higsons of Liverpool. Whitbread had closed the Higsons Brewery, moved production to the Hillsborough brewery in Sheffield, and then again to Castle Eden, by which time the beer bore no resemblance to the original. The Higsons closure was just one example of Whitbread's notorious predilection to close breweries; T-shirts were made showing the Whitbread Tour of Destruction, listing all the breweries they had closed over the years. Castle Eden regained its independence in the late 1990s, took over Camerons of Hartlepool in 2002 and closed down their own brewery, thus speedily achieving on their own what Whitbread had failed to do in decades. The new company, operating under the name Camerons, continued to brew the beer under licence from the brand owners AB Inbev, who decided to pull the plug on it in 2009.

A company called Limelight Brands Ltd has acquired the Castle Eden brand, and Camerons are brewing it again as a guest ale available from March to May this year. The Camerons website describes it as "a light, creamy golden ale with a late addition of Styrian Goldings hops giving it an interesting contrast between an initial sweet surge of flavour followed by a slightly bitter aftertaste." Perhaps, but to me it just tasted okay. Nothing exciting, but that's how I always remembered it anyway; in fact, that's how I remember all the beers from the Whitbread stable, including Flowers and Trophy. Fellow drinkers used to praise Flowers and Castle Eden, but I never thought they were more than adequate. I was used to drinking Higsons, Bass and Walkers on Merseyside.

It's worth a try, if only for old times' sake, but like a lot of revived beers, I think it will struggle against many of the excellent beers produced by microbreweries nowadays.

Walker's beers are back!

The Lower Angel, Warrington

I’ve only just opened an e-mail about this mini-festival in Warrington, having been away in London all week. The Tipsy Angel brewery is celebrating its first anniversary with a beer festival this weekend.  Tipsy Angel has been working on the original beer recipes from the old Walkers of Warrington brewery, and these will be on sale at the festival. They are:

Angels Mild, based on Walker Dark Mild.
Angels Folly, based on Walkers Falstaff.
Birthday Angel, based on Walkers Extra Stout.

Added to these are two modern brews, Tawny Angel and Angelic Angel, plus 8 or 9 from other microbrewers in the Warrington area, giving you quite a gathering of local real ales in a town that is much improved in beer terms in recent years. The Tipsy Angel brewery is situated in the Lower Angel pub, Buttermarket Street in Warrington town centre. This pub was the venue of many a great night out when I was student at Padgate College - quite a while ago now - but in a town dominated by Greenall Whitley and Tetley, it was one of the few places where we could still get the old Walker's Bitter, even though it was badged as Tetley. I'm hoping to try these revived Walker's beers soon.

The festival began today and runs through to Sunday 29 April. Regrettably, I'm not able to go - another time, then.