As implied earlier, just one regional family-owned brewery is left in the county – Hardys & Hansons (H&H) of Kimberley, which still remains independent. Several real ales are brewed by ‘Kimberley’, as they are known amongst local connoisseurs, but even they are now producing a non real mild, presumably to cater for the younger drinkers who appear to be brainwashed by the mass marketing campaigns suggesting that keg products are flavoursome and are good for you! Lets hope that H&H continue to produce the excellent range of cask conditioned products in future years, along with the inter-twinned seasonal beers that they brew periodically on an annual basis. |
Constructed in 1855, above what was once part of the North Notts coalfield, Mansfield Brewery stood on the south side of this Nottinghamshire market town. It was situated less than half a kilometre away from Field Mill, home ground to the ‘Stags’, Mansfield’s famous football club.
And before its closure, cask ale beer production was thriving after being reintroduced at the brewery back in 1982, after a break of ten years. Surprisingly enough though, trying to find a pint of Mansfield cask ale in Mansfield was a challenge in itself. One reason for this must have been due to the large number of miners welfares, social clubs, and working men’s clubs etc, content on selling keg products at highly discounted prices. Sadly a discount which the average pub tenant could not afford to offer the drinker when it came to real ales. When it was in business, Mansfield Brewery boasted an array of seasonal beers such the ‘Deakins’ range’ sitting along side relishing regulars like Old Baily and the quaffable Mansfield Bitter, all brewed in traditional Yorkshire squares so as to appeal to the taste buds of a wider audience outside of their traditional trading area. But unfortunately, as part of the brewery take-over by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries (W & D) in 2000, Old Baily was quashed in order to make way for a marketing drive of Marstons’ Pedigree, a cask ale of similar strength – at the time the flagship beer of W & D – and beer production was moved to Wolverhampton. There, the water was different, so the taste that Mansfield drinkers were so accustomed too, changed. Then followed the winding down of the other brands of what once was the major employer in the area – and as history repeated it self yet again, Mansfield Brewery, like so many others before it, was finally laid to rest in 2002. |
 | | Phil Mallard, Mallard Brewery, Carlton |
Ten microbreweries trade in Nottinghamshire. Most of these are run on a similar basis to the one-time ‘cottage industries’, along much the same lines that those breweries would have been operated all those years ago – a small brewery plant, two or three members of staff, and local regular outlets from where their beers are sold.
They are: Alcazar of Old Basford (Fox & Crown pub); Broadstone of Retford; Caythorpe of Caythorpe (Black Horse pub); Castle Rock, Nottingham; Holland of Kimberley; Mallard of Carlton; Maypole of Eakring; Nathanβs Fine Ales, Elston, nr Newark; Nottingham Brewery of Radford (Plough pub) and Springhead of Newark on Trent.
Richard Studeny 2001 |
