One for the road as brewer returns

It took brewers at Davenports more than 100 years to perfect a beer which was honed to the tastebuds of folk in the West Midlands.

Then 20 years ago it disappeared to Warrington. But now Highgate Brewery in Walsall has brought Davenports back to its home region – and, in time-honoured tradition, they are re-launching the Davenports home delivery service. “‘Beer at Home Means Davenports’, was the famous slogan that went with the brand,” says managing director of Highgate Brewery, Bob Norton.

“Davenports had been based at Bath Row in Birmingham since 1829, but closed in 1987 when it was bought by Greenalls of Warrington. Then it was acquired by us in 2003 and bottles have been available in Threshers stores since the end of last year.

“We can take orders by phone from the beginning of next month, then we are going to launch the online service at the end of April.

“Once we have a customer base we will be doing deliveries of 12 bottles in each crate, to homes in July.

“Davenports started making deliveries to peoples homes in the 1930s.

“They started the deliveries because pubs were going through a depression, like they are now.

“At the moment there are 27 pubs a week closing throughout the UK, and this is because of the smoking ban, the anti-alcohol lobby and the fact that people can buy low-priced drinks in supermarkets.

“People are drinking at home more often and we are hoping the home delivery service will do for Davenports what it did for the product in the 1930s.’’

After buying the Davenports trademarks and brands, the brewery hired ex-Davenports staff – including head brewer Neil Dain – to ensure the taste was the same as before.

Highgate has spent £1 million on new equipment and is installing a new bottling plant to produce Top Brew Deluxe, Original, IPA, Export and the new Continental Lager, which will be launched at May’s Publican Show at the NEC.

“Subject to planning permission we will be developing our site in June to create the bottling plant as until now we have mainly produced cask ales,’’ says Bob.

Highgate Brewery started in 1898 by James Fletcher on the site of a sandpit and well. He built up an estate of pubs and had 50 by the time they were bought out by Mitchell & Butlers in 1939.

In 1995 it was acquired by Aston Manor Brewery and was sold by them in June last year to Global Star, a Black Country company with 100 pubs.