THE Suffolk brewer of Abbot Ale and Old Speckled Hen will call last orders for the final time at its Westgate site after 200 years of beer making.
The move by Greene King is part of a wider shift and a change in customers tastes, as drinkers move away from real ales to more modern fizzy beer.
The closing of that site comes alongside a £40m investment in a new one and a distribution centre in the town, as well as focusing on craft beer, with the hope of attracting younger customers.
A new range of beers launched in 2022 include Level Head, a tropical & grapefruit session IPA and Flint Eye, a crisp dry-hopped lager,
Nick Mackenzie, chief executive officer at Greene King, said of the move: “Brewing in Bury St Edmunds is a core part of Greene King’s DNA. This investment represents a further and significant ongoing commitment to our brewing operations in a town which has such a rich and storied connection with our business and with brewing.
“As we seek to make our operations more sustainable, our new brewery will future-proof our ability to brew our much-loved brands, as we create a thriving modern hospitality business.”
Greene King was founded in 1799 by Benjamin Greene and has been brewing on the site ever since, while brewing in the town can be traced back to the Doomsday book in 1086, when it first helped Brits develop their fine tradition of getting bladdered.
They still make the beer using water drawn from the chalk wells beneath the brewery which was a tradition started over 1,000 years ago by the Benedictine monks of St Edmund.
The current gravity fed brewhouse was built in 1938 to to such high standards that it – and much of the equipment – has been in use ever since.
As well as brewing beer the company also have over three thousand pubs across the UK.
