Bass Stout - The Spit or Swallow Beer Review
Shagdog &
Jammer reeled one in with some help from
Louisiana Beer Review's
Ronald Theriot, next up
Bass Stout!
Bass Stout
Brewed by:
Bass Brewers Limited
United Kingdom (
England)
Beer Advocate:
BA
Score: 72
The
Bros Score:
N/A
Style:
English Stout
ABV: 4.20%
Availability: Year-round. bottle (5), nitro-tap (1)
Rate Beer:
Overall Score: 36
Style Score: 9
RATINGS: 15
MEAN: 2.94/
5.0 WEIGHTED
AVG: 2.88
EST. CALORIES: 126
ABV: 4.2%
The Bass Brewery was founded in 1777 by
William Bass in
Burton upon Trent, England. The main brand was
Bass Pale Ale, once the highest selling beer in the UK. Bass became one of the top breweries in the UK, its pale ale was exported throughout the
British Empire, the company's distinctive red triangle becoming the
UK's first registered trademark.
Bass took control of a number of other large breweries in the early
20th century, and in the
1960s merged with Charrington
United Breweries to become the largest UK brewing company, Bass Charrington. The brewing operations of the company were bought by Interbrew (now
Anheuser-Busch InBev) in
2000, while the retail side (hotel and pub holdings) were renamed
Six Continents plc.
The UK government's
Competition Commission was concerned about the monopoly implications arising from the deal, and instructed Interbrew to dispose of the brewery and certain brands (
Carling and
Worthington ) to
Coors (now
Molson Coors Brewing Company), but allowed Interbrew to retain the rights to the Bass Pale Ale brand. In
2010, it was widely reported that AB-InBev are attempting to sell the rights to the
Bass brand in the UK for around £10-15 million.
Draught Bass (4.4% ABV) has been brewed under contract in
Burton by
Marston's for AB-InBev since
2005. Bottled and keg versions (
5.1% ABV) are brewed at AB-InBev's own brewery in
Samlesbury for export.
Bass Ale is a top ten premium canned ale in the UK, with 16,080 hectolitres sold in 2010.
Prior to establishing a brewery, William Bass transported ale for brewer
Benjamin Printon. Bass sold this carrier business to the Pickford family, using the funds to establish Bass & Co Brewery in 1777 as one of the first breweries in Burton upon Trent.
Early in the company's history, Bass was exporting bottled beer around the world, serving the
Baltic region through the port of
Hull.
Growing demand led his son
Michael Thomas Bass (senior), to build a second brewery in Burton upon Trent in 1799 in partnership with
John Ratcliff. The water produced from local boreholes became popular with brewers, with 30 operating there by the mid-19th century. HIs son, Michael Thomas Bass, succeeded on his father's death in 1827, renewed the
Ratcliff partnership, brought in
John Gretton, and created 'Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton'.
The opening of a railway through Burton in 1839 redoubled
Burton's preeminence as a brewing town
. In the mid-1870s, Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton accounted for one third of Burton's output. A strong export business allowed Bass to boast their product was available "in every country in the globe".
Following the death of the second
Michael Bass in 1884, his son
Michael Arthur Bass, later the 1st
Baron Burton, took the reins. The brewer became a public limited company in
1888.
Both the second Michael Thomas Bass and his son
Lord Burton were philanthropically inclined, making extensive charitable donations to the towns of Burton and
Derby. Early in the 20th century, a declining market closed many Burton breweries, twenty in
1900 falling to eight in 1928. Bass took over
Walkers in 1923, Worthington and
Thomas Salt in
1927, and
James Eadie in 1933.
Bass was one of the original
London Stock Exchange FT 30 companies when the listing was established in 1935. Over the next half-century, Bass maintained its UK dominance through acquiring such brewers as
Mitchells & Butlers (
1961),
Charringtons (
1967), Bents-Gartsides (1967),
John Joule &
Sons (
1968),
William Stones Ltd (1968), and
Grimsby's Hewitt
Brothers Ltd (
1969), being variously known as Bass,
Mitchells and Butlers or Bass Charrington.
Following decades of closures and consolidation, Bass was left by the end of the 20th century with one of the two large remaining breweries in Burton. It also had substantial holdings in hotels, since sold to
InterContinental Hotels Group (
IHG). Mitchells and Butlers lives on as the assignee of the licensed retail outlet business which separated from the Six Continents plc company that succeeded Bass plc in
2003.
Bass plc's brewing business was bought by the
Belgian brewer Interbrew (now InBev) in June 2000, its hotel and pub holdings absorbed and renamed Six Continents plc.
After the Competition Commission raised potential monopoly concerns, Interbrew disposed of Bass Brewers Limited's Carling and Worthington brands to Coors (now Molson Coors Brewing Company), but retained rights to
Bass beer production.
Anheuser-Busch