Thwaites Brewery
 | |
| Company type | PLC |
|---|---|
| Industry | Beverages |
| Founded | 1807 |
| Headquarters |  Blackburn, Lancashire, England, UK |
Key people | Daniel Thwaites founder Ann Yerburgh chairman |
| Products | Beers; lagers |
| Revenue | £162.7m (2007)[1] |
| Website | http://www.thwaites.co.uk/ |
Thwaites Brewery is a regional brewery founded in 1807 by Daniel Thwaites in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. The firm still operates from its original town centre site. A variety of cask ales, draught beers, lagers and ciders are produced in Blackburn or imported from Europe by Thwaites. In 1999, the Mitchell brewery in Lancaster closed down, and was bought in part by Thwaites. Lancaster Bomber has since been available from Thwaites public houses after being acquired in the takeover. Thwaites also has a hotels division, which is called Shire Hotels.
Brief details
Thwaites was founded in 1807 and now has over 450 pubs in the North of England. The brewery is gradually shifting away from cask ales into pasteurised keg beers, especially those powered by nitro.[citation needed]
Availability
The beers are available in draught form in the company's 450 pubs, which are mainly in the North of England. The bottled beers are widely distributed. Many of the pubs in Blackburn and nearby smaller towns such as Great Harwood are owned by Thwaites.
Beers
Thwaites produce regular ales:
- Original, an old recipe that is attributed to the success of Thwaites in the North West.
- Daniel's, a premium ale available in selected pubs and hotels.
- Smooth, a Bitter ale.
- Mild
- Dark Mild now available in cans at many supermarkets.
- Thoroughbred
- Liberation
- Lancaster Bomber, taken from the Mitchell Brewery in Lancaster.
- Strong Ale, a strong dark beer brewed on behalf of the Co-op.
Thwaites also produces several seasonal ales.
- Good Elf is available in November and December and is a pleasantly sweet and slightly spicy mild.
- Blooming Ale is a fairly ordinary bitter, and becomes available in the Springtime.
Awards and Fame
A particularly successful brew was Thwaites Best Mild, one of only three ales to win the Champion Beer of Britain twice - once in 1978 and again 1980. The recipe has been changed and the beer is now known as Dark Mild and is mainly available pasteurised in keg form.
Bicentenary
In 2007, the brewery reached it's 200th year producing ales. To draw attention to the bicentenary, a large banner was hung from the top of the brewery tower, and a digital countdown activated counting down the days to the event.
To celebrate, the brewery released a range of limited edition ales - Double Century, Flying Shuttle Premium Ale, Elma's Pound and Wainwright's Fine Ale.[2]
12,000 bottles of Double Century were produced and distributed. The ale is sweet and mild, and rather refreshing for a traditional ale.
Wainwright's Fine Ale, originally a limited edition, is now on sale indefinitely due to popular demand. It was initially only available as a cask ale.[3] In 2008 a bottled version was launched.[4]
References
- ^ Champ, Hamish (2007-06-29). "Thwaites warns of interest rate threat". The Publican. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
- ^ http://archive.lancashireeveningtelegraph.co.uk/2007/1/6/958896.html Lancashire Telegraph, 6 January 2007
- ^ http://www3.newsandstar.co.uk/unknown/viewarticle.aspx?id=535731 News and Star, 25 August 2007
- ^ Henfield, Sally (2008-05-28). "Wainright bottled beer is oast of the fells". This Is Lancashire. Newsquest Media Group. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
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