As we Brits are well-known for our drinking culture and our adore of Beer I thought I would write about the oldest British beer and trademark. The oldest brand is in fact Bass Pale Ale Beer. Bass is the name of a former brewery and the brand name for numerous English beers brewed in Burton upon Trent. Bass is most particularly linked with their pale ale. The distinctive Red Triangle logo for Bass Pale Ale was Britain’s first registered trademark. The Bass &amp Co Brewery was established by William Bass in 1777.

Early in the company’s history, Bass was exporting bottled beer around the world with the Baltic trade being supplied via the port of Hull. Growing demand led to the developing of a second brewery in Burton upon Trent in 1799 by Michael Bass the founder’s son, who entered into partnership with John Ratcliff. The water produced from boreholes in the locality became popular with brewers, with 30 diverse breweries operating in the mid-19th century. Michael’s son, an additional Michael succeeded on the death of his father in 1827 and renewed the Ratcliff partnership and brought in John Gretton, and produced the business of ‘Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton’ as it traded in the 19th century.

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The opening of the railway through Burton in 1839 led to Burton becoming pre-eminent as a brewing town. In the mid-1870s, Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton accounted for one third of Burton’s output.The business became a public restricted firm in 1888, following the death of Michael in 1884, who was succeeded by his son, yet another Michael, later Lord Burton.

Both Michael Bass and Lord Burton had been considerable philanthropists with extensive charitable donations to the towns of Burton and Derby. Early in the 20th century, in a declining market, a lot of Burton breweries closed down. The numbers fell from twenty in 1900 to eight in 1928. Bass took over the breweries of Walkers in 1923, Worthington and Thomas Salt in 1927 and James Eadie in 1933.

Bass was one of the original FT30 organizations on the London Stock Exchange when the listing was established in 1935. Over the next half-century, Bass maintained its dominance in the UK marketplace by the acquisition of other brewers such as Birmingham based Mitchells and Butlers (1961), London brewer Charringtons (1967), Sheffield brewer William Stones Ltd (1968) and Grimsby based Hewitt Brothers Limited (1969) (with the overall organization being identified as Bass, Mitchells and Butlers or Bass Charrington at various times).

By the end of the 20th century, following decades of closures and consolidation, Bass was left with 1 of the two large breweries remaining in the town. It also had substantial holdings in hotels, now owned by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG). The Mitchells and Butlers name lives on as the firm that retained the licensed retail outlet enterprise when it was separated from the Six Continents PLC firm (the successor to Bass plc) in 2003.

The National Brewery Centre (formerly the Bass Museum is a museum and tourist attractions in Burton Upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The centre celebrates the brewing heritage of Burton and features exhibits showcasing the history of brewing techniques. The centre also houses a bar and cafe, a history of the town, a collection historic vehicles, a micro brewery and a Shire horse collection.

On 18th March 2008 owner, Coors announced that it was to close the Visitor Centre which the company was subsidising to the tune of £1 million a year. The museum closed on 30th June 2008 but the attractions had been mothballed in the hope that the museum could be reopened at a later date. A steering group was established to investigate reopening the museum. The museum reopened as the National Brewery Centre on 1st May possibly 2010 and was officially reopened by HRH The Princess Royal on September 21st 2010.

The National Brewery Centre is also house to an extensive array of historical collections that relate to brewing. This consists of an extensive archive of ledgers, books, photographs and film from the breweries that once occupied the website a library containing brewing-related books and journals and objects that contain paintings, ceramics, glass, bottles, cans, beer mats.

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The Chinese call Britain ‘The Island of Hero’s’ which I believe sums up what we British are all about. We British are inquisitive and competitive and are constantly searching over the horizon to the next adventure and discovery.

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