The Alma (in 2004)
<- The Alma (in 2004)
Ridleys themselves took over what was left of the Tolly Cobbold brewery last year.

GK will brew four of the Ridleys beers - Old Bob, Tolly Original, Prospect and Rumpus - at Bury St Edmunds. However they will be on a 13-week rotation so only one will be available at any one time. There's also a possibility of Witchfinder Porter coming back as a seasonal beer. Ridleys flagship brand, IPA, is to be ditched.

Since 2003 Ridleys have been brewing GK's own XX Mild on a contract basis and making an excellent job of it. The good news here is that brewing of XX will return (in fact, has already returned) to Bury; GK recently purchased the Laurel estate which has a lot of northern pubs where mild is popular, so volumes of the beer have increased to the point where it is economical to brew it at Bury again.

Ridleys had also been brewing, on a contract basis, Pale Island, which is a version of the 2004 Champion Beer of Britain, Kelham Island Pale Rider. However, it is understood that that contract has already ceased.

CAMRA has attacked the brewery closure; we also claim that the deal threatens consumer choice as GK's dominance in East Anglia continues to grow. We have called on GK to either sell the brewery as a going concern or keep it open as part-brewery, part-tourist attraction. Thousands of people have signed our on-line petition to save the brewery.

ALE took the chance to talk to some senior GK people about this at the recent Great British Beer Festival. GK first made the point that Ridleys wanted to sell; this wasn't an aggressive takeover. If GK hadn't bought them, someone else - probably one of the big pub companies - would have done and they too would have closed the brewery. The brewery itself is very run down, brewing way below capacity and would need major investment to keep going. It simply doesn't make commercial sense to retain it when they have capacity to brew the beers at Bury. GK say that if someone came along and made a realistic bid to buy the brewery they would consider offers - but given both its size and condition, they feel it unlikely anyone would do so.

GK say they are committed to investing in the Ridley's pub estate and Ridley's signage will be retained on the pubs.

The bigger issue in all of this is the continued growth of Greene King and their Midlands rivals, Wolverhampton and Dudley, both of whom now have well over 2000 pubs. Who will they swallow up next - Belhaven? McMullens? Elgoods? (perish the thought). CAMRA is calling on the Government to reinstate legislation to force brewers with more than 2000 pubs to allow their tenants to take a guest beer of their own choice.

Postcript

No sooner had this article been written than news came through that Greene King had agreed to pay £187m for Belhaven, Scotland's largest independent brewer. Belhaven will keep its name and brands and the brewery in Dunbar will stay open (though the obvious question is for how long). CAMRA is urging Belhaven shareholders not to sell to Greene King though Belhaven themselves say they welcome the deal and that Greene King will be the "ideal partner" for them - a rather lop-sided partnership in this case!