Has anyone got the full story (or can point to a url with details) on the PubCo GK's brewery/tied house acquisitions over the past few years and the various brands bought etc. IIRC I know about Morelands, Belhaven, H&H Youngs... what else?
I seem to hear/read nothing but complaints about this pernicious greedy organisation from CAMRA, breweries, landlords, communities etc.
I seem to remember that GK brewed beers had a good reputation about 25-30 years ago - so what happened?
CR
Ridley's.
They became a property company which happens to brew beer.
Join the boycott - I did.
As far as their beers go GK also fell in love with hop oil, which might appeal to accountants as an ingredient, but IMHO is totally detrimental to the taste and smell of the finished product.
Not Youngs. That's now a joint venture with Charles Wells - nothing to do with GK.
In message , Mike Roebuck wrote
Just wait a while.
Mike Roebuck23/11/06 13:16
Cheers, I realised after I posted that Youngs inclusion was wrong.
CR
In message , Chris Rockcliffe writes
Ridleys
Ridley's, as Sue says (incl AFAIK the Tolly Cobbold brands?) & following on alliteratively - Ruddles (i.e. when they bought Morland they got the Ruddles brands too IIRC) & several moons before, Rayments of Furneux Pelham (1987?), plus they closed their own ale & lager brewing plant at Biggleswade in 1997 (formerly Wells&Winch?) - dismantled by the brewer/engineer team that went on to open the nearby Potton Brewery. Cheers MikeMcG
MikeMcG24/11/06 14:57
Mike - Thanks for this info'.
CR
I don't think Rayments went to GK. Allied Lyons? I remember drinking Rayments BBA in Bishop's Stortford in the mid 1980's. GK have certainly killed Ridleys with the result that I now avoid the majority of former Ridleys pubs - makes life difficult as I live only a few miles from Hartford End.
GK's biggest crime re Ridleys was stopping production of the full flavoured excellent IPA in favour of the horse pi$$ they call GK IPA.
It says GK closed Rayments. Nothing new there then.
They had an excellent range of bottled beers then.
Strong Suffolk always has been, and still is, a wonderful winter ale on the increasingly rare occasions you can find it on draught. Most GK landlords have never even heard of it.
The GK website refers to this fine old beer as a 'brand', which sums up the philistine corporate attitude nicely:
Paul
I remember drinking Rayments (IPA?) in Cambridge in the 1990s, AFAIK GK kept the brewery going for quite a while after takeover, then kept brewing their IPA at BurySt.Ed for a while after they closed it. If memory serves it tasted quite different to GK IPA.
After reading some very interesting techie stuff ages ago, about unusual production practices used for Old Bob, I still never got to try it. cheers MikeMcG
Come on then, tell :)
Never! That secret will die with me!
Oh, OK then . . .
After fermentation they would run the beer into a tank full of air (it would normally be purged with a gas such CO2 / N2). This encouraged the yeast to produce 'diacetyl', which tastes of butter/butterscotch. Diacetyl is usually avoided in most breweries (& despised by some brewers/drinkers!), but according to Ridley's then headbrewer, it worked v nicely in a strong darker brew like Old Bob (& also their mock-Irish Caffrey-a-like smoothflow beer). Cheers, MikeMcG
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