The Draught Bass revival that shows no sign of slowing down

PLENTY has been written about Draught Bass in the last couple of years and here is some more, because a remarkable story continues to evolve.

What has happened with Bass is one of the more unlikely tales in the last few years of Britain’s brewing history because, at a time when many beer enthusiasts favour the work of independent breweries, here is a revered brand which is owned and marketed by one unloved international conglomerate (Ab-InBev) and brewed for them under contract by another (Carlsberg)! I can’t imagine anyone can show another example of that happening.

A couple of gulps out of a Bass from the older glass and with the old pump clip at the Chequers, Ticknall.

You would fear that the result of such an odd marriage would be a bland, derided nothing beer. And yet it’s my view – and that of many others – that Bass is as good now, or better, than it was in, say, the 80s, when it was still a widely-available national brand.

I drank it then but take with a pinch of salt people who claim a perfect memory when it comes to what their favourite beer tasted like 40-odd years ago.

I just feel it’s a brilliant beer right now, with a subtlety to its nutty bitterness and, when kept and served well, with a lovely aroma. There are very few beers I enjoy as much these last few years.

So how did we reach this point? After a complex series of mergers and takeovers, once Ab-InBev had the brand, they largely showed no interest in it. For more than 20 years, it’s been contracted out to what was the Marston’s Brewery in Burton to brew it.

It is some irony that they have made a brilliant job of it while the quality of their own main brew, Pedigree, has been all over the place – and while the new owners, Carlsberg, appear to be sidelining Pedigree, withdrawing it from many outlets.

So, while Bass was still available in its heartland, in many Derbyshire and Staffordshire pubs, it was lost to many other areas and became a niche product.

And then Ian Thurman, a Bass enthusiast, decided to do something about it. After enjoying a pint in the Queen Anne pub in Great Hucklow, Derbyshire, he had the idea of launching a nationwide directory of pubs selling Bass in April 2018.

He thanks three men in particular – the late Peter Edwardson and fellow beer bloggers Martin Taylor and Ian Clarkson – for helping him compile the first list. The labour of love grew and grew and, with it, slowly but surely, interest in Bass.

Next came a Facebook page called Great Stuff This Bass, which will be seven years old in January. When I wrote about Bass for the Derby Telegraph in May last year, that page had 4,500 followers. Now it has passed the 8,000 mark.

The new glass and the new pump clip as it finally dawned on AbInBev that they could have a winner in Draught Bass.

Then, significantly, someone at the Budweiser Brewing Group, as the British arm of AbInBev is known, finally noticed that they were sitting on something special.

A new Bass Pale Ale Facebook page appeared, with some well-made teaser videos, a marketing campaign was launched and sales teams started to sell Bass into more pubs.

Pubs received new pump clips, towels, glasses and the like. The glass is very smart, with the Bass red triangle on the base as well as the side, along with the new catch-line “Trademark No 1.”   

All good then? Well, not entirely, unfortunately. The next move made by the brand owners was to introduce a bottled version, fine on the face of it, but it has a strength of 3.4%, whereas real Draught Bass is 4.4%.

Ian Thurman, the man who began the Bass revival, outside the pub where he had the idea for a National Bass Directory, the Queen Anne at Great Hucklow.

My take is that it’s a different beer and shouldn’t carry the same name but there are scores of examples of bottled beers that are not the same as their draught versions, so that ship has sailed.

The plus is that it spreads the Bass name wider, the minus is having people think what’s in the bottle is the authentic beer.

A bigger issue is that the brewery appears to have struggling to keep up with the increased demand for both versions of the beer, once a chunk of the production was diverted to the bottled stuff.

There was also, we were told, a technical issue at the Burton brewery which slowed production and, as a result, in the last few months, a good few pubs have found they cannot get hold of Draught Bass – especially those who had not been taking it regularly or had only recently started to do so.

These, you would hope, are solvable issues. For some large pub company outlets, more of a problem is the ridiculous price they have to pay for Bass, rendering it uneconomic. One outlet I know puts Bass on their free-of-tie guest pump in order to be able to buy it at a much lower normal market price.  

Independent pubs, of course, have no such problem so, overall, Bass continues to grow in popularity and awareness and perhaps it cannot be long before it makes a reappearance in the top 10 of ask ale sales, although that is dominated by big brands that are made nationally available.

Raise a glass to Ian Thurman next time you have a Bass. Had he not done what he did, we may have lost the beer altogether.

• Great places to drink Bass in fine condition? This is my opinion, based on my own experience, so it isn’t an exhaustive list, but in Derby, try the Smithfield, the Silk Mill, the Flowerpot and the Old Bell.

• Out of Derby, you can’t go wrong at the Harrington, Thulston; the Coopers, Weston on Trent; the Chequers, Ticknall; the Malt, Aston on Trent; or the Brookfield, Barrow on Trent.

• In Burton, try the Devonshire, the Roebuck, the Coopers, the Coppersmiths, the Elms and the Gate, Branston.

Have a look at the Great Stuff This Bass Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=great%20stuff%20this%20bass, from which you can also access the Bass Directory, updated monthly.

And here’s Ian Thurman’s blog about how it all started, from 2018, which is a smashing read: https://thewickingman.wordpress.com/2018/05/09/mirror-mirror-on-the-pub-wall-where-can-i-drink-draught-bass/