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Ours is deep, 61 metres deep. That’s the depth of the well at our Burton brewery, the well that provides our brewing water filtered through gypsum beds beneath the town – and it’s the name of our latest brew, 61 Deep.
It’s the water that made Burton Upon Trent famous for brewing – so much so that brewers in other locations learned to ‘Burtonise’ their water by adding salts so that it would match up to our tasty tipple.
But let’s not d(well) too much on the water, let’s think about how it’s turned into the lovely jubbly beer fresh out of the Marston’s Brewery. The five American and Australian hops packed into this beer give it a fresh, zesty aroma, whilst the tropical fruit and citrus notes make it extremely drinkable.
For those who like to dabble in a bit of beer and food togetherness, 61 Deep cosies up to spicy chilli and Mexican foods as well as doing a lovely tongue tango with fruity desserts such as Lemon Torte.
If your local doesn’t stock 61 Deep, please mention it to your kindly landlord, otherwise it will be appearing on shelves in Waitrose soon or you can buy it online here and have it delivered straight to your door.
Well? What are you waiting for? Dive in!
Marston’s bowled over the Warwickshire County Cricket Club by inviting them all to the brewery giving them a taste of what being a world famous brewer is really like.
Joining the team on the day were cricket legends Ian Bell and Ashley Giles who alongside the players and coaching staff, were led in an interactive brewery tour and a talk from Marston’s innovation brewer, Genevieve Upton. As part of the visit, the cricketers had a chance to taste some of the limited edition beers from ‘DE14’, the 600 pint micro-brewery situated in Marston’s visitor centre, and to also toast the newly created Birmingham Bears beer, which is due to be available across selected pubs in May. The beer will offer drinkers a chance to win Bears tickets for the T20 Blast matches throughout the summer, where Ian Bell will be hoping to add another T20 tournament win to his recent success down under in the Big Bash.
Lee Williams, marketing manager for Marston’s said: “It has been great to have the guys down for the day as part of our on-going sponsorship at the club and hopefully we have inspired one or two to become brewers one day!”
Burton businesses are brewing up exciting opportunities in the town as a new networking group launches in the country’s beer capital.
Burton Small Business, run by four, independent Burton companies with the aim of supporting business growth in the town, is teaming up with Marston’s Brewery to launch a new monthly get-together for all local businesses – a first for the brewery which has been at the Burton site since 1898.
MeetUp@Marstons will be held on the third Thursday of every month, with a launch event planned for Thursday February 16 from 6pm until 8pm at Marston’s newly-refurbished Shobnall Road Visitor’s Centre, DE14.
The DE14 site, which is home to Marston’s recently opened new 600-pint brewing line, will give visitors the chance to look behind the scenes at one of the town’s largest breweries.
This unique collaboration will also bring together businesses of all sizes, from sole traders and micro businesses to the town’s larger and more established companies to chat informally, find out more about each other and identify opportunities for growth and development.
Liz Strama, of Burton Small Business, said: “We know the importance of networking in helping to grow a business and form new relationships and opportunities. Marston’s is an integral part of our town and it is great to be able to work with them to launch this exciting, new, open networking opportunity.”
Lee Williams, Marketing Manager for Marston’s Brewery, said: “We are proud of our Burton roots and keen to be at the heart of the local business community. It’s appropriate that we’re launching our new networking event in the week of Valentine’s Day. Our beer goes out to the world with the message ‘From Burton with Love’ and we’d love to see as many local businesses as possible at our launch event to help us bring businesses together and brew up more success for the local economy.”
Admission to MeetUp@Marstons will cost £10 – payable on the door – and will include a speciality pie and drink. There will be no joining or membership fees and no restrictions on the number of businesses from any sector that can attend. To help plan the night, businesses are being asked to join the Facebook event at the new www.facebook.com/MeetUpMarstons page. More information is also available at www.burtonsmallbusiness.co.uk
Burton Small Business is run by writer and social media consultant Elaine Pritchard of Caittom Publishing, HR professional Liz Strama at HR Protected, award-winning animator Tilley Bancroft of Red Door Studios and journalist Cheryl Morris of Creative Word PR. The group is dedicated to providing support for town businesses and works closely with the Small Business Saturday movement each year to promote the importance of spending money locally.
In common with many of you, we’ve decide to have a few mates round for Christmas.
We’d like to invite you to our annual pre-Christmas bash on Saturday 10th December from 12 to 3pm. Christmas jumpers are welcome but not compulsory.
Enjoy sampling the odd beer or two – you can even try some of the trial brews from our brand new nano brewery called ‘DE14’ and see where the magic happens! Then tap your foot at some festive tunes whilst casting an eye over some potential Christmas goodies; local crafts, beer exclusives, beer hampers and beer merchandise. What else does the discerning beer fan need for Christmas?
Except for a good feed up of course – and that is magnificently provided by the hog roast, fish and chip van and a crepe stall.
Then there’s the big fella himself. When he’s not Ho-ho-ho-ing around on the dray pulled by his very own Shire Horse he’ll be ensconced in his Grotto listening to special requests on Christmas lists from the younger visitors.
Not only is there lots of free stuff for the kids to do but there is free parking, free entry and a free mince pie, as well us donating some of the takings to the Marston’s Charitable Fund.
Beer. Food. Presents. Santa. Mince pies.
It’s a lot to take in but that’s how we do Christmas parties in Burton.
For more info call us on 01283 507391 or email de14@marstons.co.uk
(We had you at ‘hog roast’ right?)
Patrick McGinty jumps out of bed every morning because he properly loves his job.
He’s the head honcho at Marston’s because as Head Brewer he’s the man responsible for brewing our beautiful beer.
A local lad, his mum worked in the research and development laboratories in another brewery which piqued his interest in brewing. So when he landed an apprenticeship at Marston’s at sixteen he decided to pass on A levels and go straight to work.
(It goes without saying that landing a job in brewing in Burton is something that makes your mum and dad really proud.)
Over the next twenty years Pat worked across all aspects of brewing and production in the brewery. In his time, he’s made sure that the labels were on straight on the bottles; the yeast was pitched into the brew at the right time; the beer dropped clear and bright on the bar and that the lads and lasses in the brewing teams washed up their own flippin’ mug in the brewery office!
Not only that, he has taken all his brewing qualifications along the way – on the job, as it were. The ultimate qualification, that of Master Brewer, took five years of blood, sweat and night school and is way harder than becoming a Prestige Master in Call of Duty Black Ops.
He met and married a local girl, Suzanne, who works at the brewery and they have a young daughter. Sadly for Pat, she hasn’t shown any sign yet that she wants to work in brewing.
But then she is only six years old. Give her time.
Beer was Burton’s gift to the world.
But lately Burton had been feeling really sad that (some) people had forgotten about its sublimely perfect brewing water and incredible brewing prowess so we decided to do something about it.
We got on the phone and called our favourite ex-skinhead photographer to ask whether he could get under the skin of our brewing town.
Famous for his iconic book ‘Skins’, Gavin Watson’s photographs taken of his friends during an intense period of his life as a skinhead in the late 70s and 80s have defined his life and brilliant career. He reputedly inspired Shane Meadows of ‘This is England’ fame with his brutally candid depiction of the fashion, music and lives of working class kids.
Up he came to Burton with his camera and a few colleagues to stay for a few days and get a feel for the place. They scouted the streets of the town for likely models; people who were born and bred, living or working in Burton. Without realising it, many of the models involved had direct or indirect links to beer and brewing.
Gavin observed: “It’s in the blood; in the water. If you’re going to live, grow and die in this town you’re going to be connected to brewing in some way. You can sense it as soon as you get off the train.”
His brief was to capture the spirit of Burton – making it look dramatic but as real as possible – and what it is to live and breathe in this town. Ordinary life in everyday situations played out in Gavin’s honest portrayals.
He continued: “I never think about what I’ll shoot until the camera is in my hand. You have to have a rapport with people. If I don’t make friends with my subjects or don’t get a connection with them – from the gayest of hairdressers to the surliest of models – then it doesn’t work. I just talk all the time and take photos while we’re chatting. I’ll see a bit of light and take the photo and then carry on talking.”
It turned out that Gavin can’t half talk.
He’s not bad at photography either.
Back in the 1970s Burton-on-Trent gave an education to that jean-clad, smart-mouthed, handy-with-his-fists motoring journalist and broadcaster, Jeremy Clarkson.
Yes old Clarky went to the fee-paying Repton School, a few miles outside Burton. A prestigious 400 year old boarding school, Yorkshire-born Clarkson managed to gain nine O Levels (GCSEs if you’re under 30) before he was expelled just before his A levels.
In fact he and his fellow pupil, Andy Wilman who was on the Top Gear production team, may have coined the name of the helmet-clad mystery driver ‘the Stig’ from a term that was given to the first years at the school.
Recently in a local newspaper* he waxed lyrically about his time at Burton: “I went to school about half a mile from it, my virginity went west in Yoxall, I got my first speeding ticket on the A38 outside Barton under Needwood, and it was in Abbots Bromley that I learned how to be chemically inconvenienced, how to be thrown out of a pub, how to be chucked by a girlfriend without blubbing, how to drive fast, how to do everything that matters really.”
Quite an endorsement we think you’ll agree.
*The Derby Telegraph
A long way from Burton’s magical brewing prowess did you know that we own our very own hop garden in Kent?
We wanted to get back to our roots and a bit closer to nature so in a cunning plan we did a deal with our farmer mates, Clive and Richard, to take over eight acres on their fruit and hop farm.
As we all know hops are the magical ingredient that gives beer its wonderful bitter, zesty or citric flavours and range of aromas that makes beer so darned drinkable.
They are the flowers of the hop plant humulus lupulus and are distantly related to the cannabis plant, hence that lovely warm, sometimes sleepy feeling when you’ve sunk a few before Sunday lunch.
They’re grown like grapes, in rows of vines along trellises in slightly warmer places in the UK like Hereford, Worcester and Kent.
So, with a germ of an idea, Clive and Richard’s green fingers and a few years’ patience we will be harvesting our very own.
If only the FA could think that far ahead.
Burton town sits on the River Trent – hence Burton Upon Trent – and inspired our new ad ‘Trent Setter’. The rather dapper fella in the hat having a good old belly laugh is a local-boy-done-good, Morgan Silk.
He’s your classic ‘grew up in Burton, left for fame and fortune in London and has returned to the lure of his home town for the quieter life’ kind of guy.
Our Morgan did alright for himself: Having studied photography at Burton College and then Blackpool he moved to London for some proper action. After sofa-surfing for a few years, he found his niche in digital re-touching of photos in advertising using the then relatively new Photoshop software. He was good at it and became very sought-after in his field.
A trend setter if you like.
After 10 years of editing he took up photography again, got his first big job for Landrover and won awards for the campaign successfully relaunching his photographic career for some pretty big names.
He still takes the big commissions but recently moved back to Burton where he lives with Donna and brews beer in his garage.
See. Burton is in the blood. It gets you like that.
Cast your mind back to 1952….
No?
Well in those days brewers like Marston’s used to name their beers after simple branding on the casks to denote the different strengths. Marks such as P, PX, PXX and PXXX.
Apart from sounding like the sizes in a range of T-shirts, they didn’t really make a great bar call did they? “Barman, I’ll have a pint of P.”
So George Peard, the hero of this story and the head brewer, turned out to be the branding guru of his time when he came up with a proper brand name for his most popular beer – a lip smacking 4.5% abv pale ale quaffed in great volumes by East Midlanders since 1834.
He ran a competition amongst brewery workers to come up with the best one and lovely Marjorie Newbold from the typing pool, came up with a zinger!
Marston’s Pedigree was born and the rest is history.
Hats off to you Georgie-boy – that’s why you’re on the bottles and the bar.
