End of the line
Kieran Haslett-Moore
Last month Young’s, one of England’s great brewing companies, severed its final link with actual brewing. Up until 2006 the London based brewer and pub operator brewed at one of the oldest breweries in England, the Ram brewery in Wandsworth, South London.
Through the 1970’s and 80’s the company was one of the heroes of traditional brewing holding out against the tide of bland keg beer and gimmicky pub themes. Specialising in dry hoppy English ales Young’s influence stretched as far as New Zealand with the gloriously hoppy Special London Ale being a firm favourite of mine. The late beer writer Michael Jackson described it as possibly containing a whole hop garden in every bottle. Moa brewer Dave Nicholls was so taken with the beer that he was inspired to brew Moa 5 Hop. Regional Wines founder Grant Jones named Young’s Special Bitter as his desert island beer.
Things started to go wrong with the publicly listed company when London investment group Guinness Peat took a 15% share in the company and took on an activist role pressuring the company to sell its Wandsworth site which was now worth a considerable amount of money. The Young family still owned 40% of the company and Chairman John Young held out against Guinness Peat often going to theatrical lengths to make a point. He once attended a shareholder meeting wearing a three piece suit and boxing gloves!
In 2006 with John Young suffering from ill health the Young family relented and the London site was decommissioned and sold. Brewing operations were merged with Charles Wells of Bedford. Six weeks later John Young died and it was truly the end of an era.
Now Guinness Peat has triumphed again having pressured the company into selling its 40% share in the brewing operation to Charles Wells leaving Young’s to concentrate on its pub business. It’s a very sad fate for a once proud brewery. When Young’s closed its London brewery Fullers were left as the last sizable brewery in the English capital. Worryingly rumours are coming out that Guinness Peat are quietly buying up shares in Fullers with plans to do the same to the Chiswick brewer.
Fuller’s are my desert island brewery producing an incredibly character ful and varied range of beers. Fullers say they have been brewing for 350 years and intend to be brewing for 350 more. I for one will be crying into my beer if this turns out not to be. Cheers
Through the 1970’s and 80’s the company was one of the heroes of traditional brewing holding out against the tide of bland keg beer and gimmicky pub themes. Specialising in dry hoppy English ales Young’s influence stretched as far as New Zealand with the gloriously hoppy Special London Ale being a firm favourite of mine. The late beer writer Michael Jackson described it as possibly containing a whole hop garden in every bottle. Moa brewer Dave Nicholls was so taken with the beer that he was inspired to brew Moa 5 Hop. Regional Wines founder Grant Jones named Young’s Special Bitter as his desert island beer.
Things started to go wrong with the publicly listed company when London investment group Guinness Peat took a 15% share in the company and took on an activist role pressuring the company to sell its Wandsworth site which was now worth a considerable amount of money. The Young family still owned 40% of the company and Chairman John Young held out against Guinness Peat often going to theatrical lengths to make a point. He once attended a shareholder meeting wearing a three piece suit and boxing gloves!
In 2006 with John Young suffering from ill health the Young family relented and the London site was decommissioned and sold. Brewing operations were merged with Charles Wells of Bedford. Six weeks later John Young died and it was truly the end of an era.
Now Guinness Peat has triumphed again having pressured the company into selling its 40% share in the brewing operation to Charles Wells leaving Young’s to concentrate on its pub business. It’s a very sad fate for a once proud brewery. When Young’s closed its London brewery Fullers were left as the last sizable brewery in the English capital. Worryingly rumours are coming out that Guinness Peat are quietly buying up shares in Fullers with plans to do the same to the Chiswick brewer.
Fuller’s are my desert island brewery producing an incredibly character ful and varied range of beers. Fullers say they have been brewing for 350 years and intend to be brewing for 350 more. I for one will be crying into my beer if this turns out not to be. Cheers
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