Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC) has teamed up with another brewer to provide a new future for Union sets retired from a Staffordshire brewery earlier this year.
The firm faced criticism when it announced it was moving away from using a historic system and retiring four Union Sets at Marston’s Brewery in Burton upon Trent.
The sets were used exclusively for fermenting Marston’s Pedigree ale in cask, but the company said that low volumes due to the decline of the UK cask market meant that fermenting using the Union sets was no longer viable.
Now CMBC is working with Thornbridge Brewery to establish a Burton Union system using some of the remaining sets at its base in Bakewell, in Derbyshire.
The system is expected to be completed this month, with the Union sets used for brewing special edition cask beers.
Emma Gilleland, Director of Brewing at CMBC, said: “This collaboration is a perfect showcase for the ways brewers can come together to deliver something special, for the love of beer and Britain’s incredible brewing heritage.
“We’ve been proud to support Thornbridge through the process by sharing our time and expertise to help set up their own Union system, and we are confident they will be fantastic custodians for our Union sets.”
CMBC have invested in the preservation of one of the remaining Union sets at Marston’s Brewery, which will be on display to celebrate the brewery’s heritage and history of the Burton Union system, which was first created in Burton upon Trent in the 19th Century.
The preservation work should be completed by the end of May.
