Ruddles @ Wetherspoons

Ruddles is no longer real Ruddles - ie brewed in Oakham, Rutland. Greene King bought and closed the Ruddles brewery many years ago.

Ruddles now comes from Greene King's brewery in Bury St Edmunds. Although it produces "real ale" in the technical sense, many real ale drinkers steer well clear of any Greene King pubs or any beers originating from them.

In my opinion, Ruddles County and Greene King Abbot were two of the really great beers 20 plus years ago. I wouldn't consider drinking either now.

Malcolm

I check our local spoons for quality (or lack of, recently). some chaps I meet are beholden to Abbot; it's like the Bass drinkers of yesteryear.

Why don't they learn? Never go back. I remember Bass - proper one-inch beer[1] and many other fine beers of the 70s and 80s that live on in name but are now brewed by accountants.

[1] One-inch beer ie. The very best: You're meeting up again with friends after a while and have so much to say when the conversation suddenly stops! Grins appear as you look at the lacing, savour the tastes and bathe in the mutual enjoyment of superlative beer. Not at the first sip but after drinking an inch.

Please, please, somebody tell me this still happens.

Quite - that's why I won't drink Abbot any more - it's now bland and innocuous. Adnams bitter has gone the same way - my local (in Suffolk) has Adnams and 1 or 2 guest beers. The Adnams is mainly drunk by the tourists - the regulars drink ABA - "Anything But Adnams"

It can do - occasionally. The TT Landlord we had recently was exactly like this.

Malcolm

100% agree.

Hooray.

but 'spoons are bit all over the place sometimes on "real ale" i find alot of their beers can taste smoothflowed, though by rights shouldnt be,such that their beer festivals can often feel a bit lacklustre sometimes. dunno havent quite worked out what they are doing that makes it that way yet, is it that its just such the end of life stock they get, its just never going to be good however much care they take, or is it some 'spoons just dont care at all.

which gets into a bit of a temporal loop, because most real ale drinkers eschew GK (1 billion pound turnover) because when theyve tried it they didnt like it, most real ale pubs never stock the stuff, the only places that do are GK estate or a 'spoons or somesuch other chain. alot of which dont look after the beer, its rack it sell it, and every so often you try it again and dont like it, which leads to it only being stocked etc etc etc.

I tried it once at the gbbf and it actually tasted alright, not spectacular, but not half as bad as its reputation, or normal experience belies, so theres something going wrong in the chain somewhere.

This may well be true but the complaint of many (including myself) about GK has nothing to do with how well it is kept. It's the fact that Ruddles County and Abbot were both once very distinctive beers and both when on-form were "one-inch" beers to borrow Peter Fox's very apt description. Neither, even when supremely well kept, are worth seeking out now because GK (presumably deliberately) has made both of them blander in the hope of appealing to a more mass market.

There's also another reason many people boycott GK. That's their policy of buying perfectly viable breweries (mainly I guess to acquire their tied house estates) and then shutting the brewery. They've done this to Rayments, Ridleys, Morlands, Ruddles, Hardy & Hansons, Belhaven and possibly others. Some great beers have been lost as a result and a lot of people will not forgive them for that.

Malcolm

[snip]

Remember Greenall Whitley?

[...]

As a former inhabitant of “Greenall Whitley Land”, I certainly do—what happened to them?

Thanks for reminding me - Shipstones and Simpkiss were well worth drinking before Greenall got their paws on them. Greenall themselves never brewed much of note in Warrington but their brewery in Wem brewed a very good bitter, Naturally, they shut the Wem brewery....

GK were similar in that respect, they had a brewery in Biggleswade whose version of IPA was far better than that brewed in Bury St Edmunds. No guesses which brewery they chose to close.

Malcolm

I used to live on the edges of GW land, so fortunately had a choice of other, more acceptable (to me anyway), beers - though Higsons was definitely an acquired taste. GW seemingly gave up brewing about 20 years ago.

Malcolm

They were vultures whoo acquired a brewery and pub estate and then shut the brewery - v. similar to GK modus operandi

It's a hotel & pub chain now, renamed themselves to De Vere

Yes, Ruddles is one of the worst but Wethers 'real ale' in general tastes a bit different to other pubs. Not normally 'off' but not as good as it should. They do generally have a good selection, (although lately not enough under 4.5%) so it's a shame that for some reason? it all lacks a bit of flavour. Any theories on why this should be?

cheers, phil

It's old, and cold.

"Didn't Greenalls end up being brewed at Boddington's at Strangeways.

They continued to sell it in their pubs after they stopped brewing.

I don't think they were ever forgiven for knocking down Tommy Ducks.

On the subject of Wetherspoons, I went to the new (to me) and excellent Trent Bridge Inn both before and after a day at the cricket yesterday. Superb pub, with lots of interesting cricket pictures on walls. The beer (Rock Mild, and another local ale) was still, not off, but bland tho. Shame.

Phil

I went to the TBI yesterday and had a cracking pint of Trent Bridge Ale (brewed just up the road by Nottingham Brewery)

These days your lucky to not get served with a one-inch (missing/head of) beer.