New corporate toss-pot owners the Heiniken Group has announced it is moving production of the iconic Newcastle Brown Ale (SB article number 1538) from Gateshead to North Yorkshire in order to cut costs. The decision, which has been blamed on falling sales, means the Federation Brewery in Dunston will close with the loss of 63 jobs and move to Tadcaster, where the Group’s insipid John Smiths Bitter is produced.

So the Newcastle in Newcastle Brown ale is no more, making the beer about as credible and authentic as the uncaring bunch of suited twats who are driving the brand into the ground.

Tadcaster Brown just doesn’t have the same ring about it, does it?

Read about it here:

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/4680853.Losing_our_bottle/

If you’re a real fan of the ‘Broon’ you can do your bit to preserve its memory by learning to speak proper Geordie with this indispensible Geordie translater:

http://www.whoohoo.co.uk/geordie-translator.asp

Personally I think if a beer says it comes from a specific place then that’s where it should come from. I mean, next you’ll be telling me that Mariestads isn’t brewed in Mariestad. Oh hang on a minute, it isn’t – it’s brewed by Spendrups in Stockholm!