Newcastle Brown Ale

File:Newcastle Brewery - geograph.org.uk - 954044.jpg|thumb|right|Tyne Brewery on Corporation Street, , the same location in 2020 Tyne Brewery, Newcastle Newcastle Brown Ale was originally created by Lieutenant Colonel James ('Jim') Herbert Porter (b. 1892, Burton upon Trent), a third-generation brewer at Newcastle Breweries, in 1927. Porter had served in the North Staffordshire Regiment in the First World War, earning his DSO with Bar, before moving to Newcastle. Porter had refined the recipe for Newcastle Brown Ale alongside chemist Archie Jones over a period of three years. When Porter actually completed the beer, he believed it to be a failure, as he had actually been attempting to recreate Bass ale. The original beer had an original gravity of 1060º and was 6.25 ABV, and it sold at a premium price of 9 shillings for a dozen pint bottles. Move to Federation Brewery, Gateshead Despite investing £16.6 million in a new bottling plant at the Tyne Brewery in 1999, Scottish and Newcastle announced its closure on 22 April 2004, in order to consolidate the brewing of beer and ale at the Federation Brewery site in Dunston, Gateshead, which was to pass to them with their £7.2m purchase of the Federation Brewery. In 2010, Scottish and Newcastle closed the Dunston brewery, moving production of Brown Ale to the John Smiths Brewery in Tadcaster. was removed for health reasons. Instead, roasted malt was used to darken the beer. In 2019, the company started making a different version in America and ceased importing Brown Ale from Europe. Newcastle Brown Ale is still brewed in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, for the UK and some EU markets, and also in the Netherlands for the export market. Lagunitas Brewing Company (a Heineken subsidiary) produces a product named Newcastle Brown Ale for the US domestic market. The recipe for this variation has a noticeably different taste compared to the original. ==Production and distribution==

Newcastle Brown Ale is brewed with pale malt and crystal malt. It has a lower hopping rate than traditional English bitters. At the time of brewing moving to Dunston in 2005, Newcastle Brown was being exported to 41 countries. Newcastle Brown Ale left the United States in 2019. A product labelled “Newcastle Brown Ale” is still sold but it is produced by Lagunitas Brewing Company and has little in common with the original product. The original product returned to the United States in 2025. In Canada and France (Brittany), the beer is available in short and tall bottles and in cans. The beer is also available in British-themed pubs as a draught beer in Australia and New Zealand, brewed in the UK and imported by World Brands Australia Pty Ltd. The UK-brewed bottled, kegs, and cans are widely available in Australian liquor outlets as part of their international range. It is also popular in Canada, available on draught at many British-themed pubs. ==Names and phrases==

In 2000, the beer was renamed "Newcastle Brown" with the "Ale" being removed from the front label. This change, only in the UK, was due to market research claiming that the term "ale" was outdated and costing the company sales in the youth drinking markets. The older name was reinstated with no fanfare in 2004, when it was realised that the change had made no difference to sales. It is also known as Broon, "brown" pronounced in the Geordie dialect. Elsewhere in the UK, it is known as Newkie Brown. ==Serving==

Newcastle Brown Ale is traditionally sold in Britain in and, more recently, bottles. Typically, the ale is consumed from a Wellington glass. This allows the drinker to regularly top-up the beer and thereby maintain a frothy "head". In the United States, it is sold in servings. In April 2010, Heineken USA introduced the Wellington glass, branded as the "Geordie Schooner," for Newcastle Brown Ale consumers in America. The glass features a nucleated base. ==Association with the North East==

Like many British breweries, Newcastle Brown is strongly associated with its local area, in this case North East England. While the name provides a lot of this, the sponsorship of Newcastle United and the depiction of the River Tyne in the blue star has helped ensure its association. Its local provenance gave the brand an association with "hardy, working class traditions and values". Under European Union Protected Geographical Status laws introduced in 1992, the name Newcastle Brown Ale was registered as a Protected Geographical Indication in 2000. In 2007, this was removed when brewing of the beer moved away from its place of origin to Tadcaster in Yorkshire. The company was not obliged to make a formal application to cancel it, but not move its production outside the area designated in its PGI application years before. The closure of S&N's Dunston brewery in 2010 left Camerons Brewery in Hartlepool as the only remaining significant volume brewery in the North East of England. ==Variations==

Special editions When the Australian brewer Elders IXL launched a takeover bid for Scottish and Newcastle, locals of Newcastle began the "Keep Us on Top!" campaign. As a sign of solidarity, the Newcastle Brown label was inverted until the takeover was quashed. In 2005, the last 3,000 bottles produced in Newcastle were given commemorative labels "121 years of brewing history, last bottles produced at Tyne Brewery April 2005." and given to the brewery staff. Other Newcastle brands Newcastle Exhibition is a draught pasteurised keg beer (4.3% ABV) first introduced in 1929 and commonly found around the Newcastle area. Newcastle Amber Ale (1032 OG) was a light ale available until the 1980s. It was a diluted version of Exhibition. Amber Ale and a much stronger aged stock beer were formerly blended to create Newcastle Brown Ale. This method was discontinued sometime before the brand was moved to Dunston. Newcastle Star was a strong bottled beer (7.5% ABV) available from 1999 to 2006. In 2010, Heineken USA launched Newcastle Summer Ale in bottles. In 2011, Heineken USA launched Newcastle Werewolf (fall ale) and Winter IPA. In 2012, Heineken USA will introduce Newcastle Founders ale (an Extra Special Bitter style) as their spring seasonal. In 2012, Summer Ale (4.4%) and Founder's Ale (4.8%) were launched in Tesco across the UK. In winter 2012, Newcastle winter ale (5.2%) and Newcastle nocturnal ale (4.5%) were also launched in Tesco stores across the UK. ==References==