In 2006, we wrote to British supermarket chain Marks and Spencers to tell them how impressed we were that they’d started stocking some decent beer, namely their OK IPA and excellent Irish Stout.
But we also had some suggestions:
1. Real ale bores, just like serious foodies, like to know who is making their beer. The standard M&S practice of concealing their suppliers didn’t enhance the appeal of the product but rather seriously reduced it. Couldn’t they tell us who was making their booze for them, as ASDA, Sainsburys and others do?
2. Given that everything else in their range is supposedly of the finest quality, why weren’t these beers bottle conditioned? It seemed odd to us that they would sell hand-reared, free-range, 21-day aged beef next to pasteurised, filtered beer.
I’m delighted to see (in the latest issue of What’s Brewing) that CAMRA were also pursuing the same line of enquiry — as I’m sure were many other individual consumers — and that it’s paid off. M&S are now to stock four new bottle-conditioned beers from around the UK, each attributed very clearly to its home brewery (Woodforde’s, Vale, Cropton and Black Hills).
Last night, I tried their Norfolk Bitter (Woodforde’s) and was very impressed. Tons of citrusy hop flavour and aroma, and a lovely thick, persistent head
Nice one, M&S, and nice one CAMRA! Now to get that fantastic Irish Stout bottle conditioned too…
3 replies on “M&S get real”
I’m a fan of that Irish stout too, yes it would be great to try it as a BCA.
It is rather expensive though – up from £1.99 to £2.19 now. That’ll put a lot of people off.
The only problem that I can see with the new M&S beers is that they are rebadges. I would rather they were unique beers.
Maieb — good point, although they’re rebadges of beers I’ve not been able to get hold of before, so I’m still reasonably happy.