The Joys of Theakston's
by Peter Millar

Once upon a time, there was Old Peculiar, complete with its peculiar spelling. A remarkable beer with a remarkable history. It was brewed in the little North Yorkshire town of Masham ­ pronounced "Massam" locally, at least until you've

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had a few pints of Old Peculiar. The Peculiar was the name given to the erudite gentleman who presided over the town's ancient ecclesiastical court. The beer, made by the Theakston family since 1827, acquired the name sometime in the 1890s, and profited from its peculiarity.

In its classic days Old Peculiar was a real delight, a dark, fruity ale with a flavor that could some times approach blackcurrant, and a relatively hefty 5.7 alcohol content. It was made with several varieties of hops including Northern Brewer but Fuggles dominated. Marvelous, individual, distinctive and idiosyncratic: all the adjectives that used to be used for the best of England's craft breweries.

Theakston's Best Bitter was all right too, a soft, golden, nutty session ale (3.8 ABV). The family name was synonymous with the best traditions of Yorkshire brewing. Masham was a place of pilgrimage for real ale fans. It was so successful in fact, that its success swallowed it. The attempt to expand led the company into debt. This lead, some dozen years ago now, to it being bought up by the giant Scottish and Newcastle (S and N), currently the subject of speculation that it might combine with Miller and South African Breweries to form the world's largest brewing company producing some of the world's worst mass-produced beers.

Theakston's was homogenized-­ some would say bastardized-­ and almost all production moved north to the giant plant at Newcastle on Tyne, which has all the rustic charm of a chemical factory. A token quantity was still brewed at Masham, but primarily as a sap to local opinion and so they could still use the slogan "Brewed in Masham" on bottles. Theakston's and Old Peculiar are now amongst the most commonly available beers in Britain, served up alongside the insipid Courage Best in all of the vast chain of pubs owned by S and N. But they are shadows of their former selves.

All of this wrankled with the last remaining Theakston still in employ: Paul, up until then more involved in administration than brewing. He was mightily annoyed by what had happened to the family name and products. So he did the decent thing. He quit and set up on his own. Almost immediately S and N warned him that under threat of injunction he could on no account use his own family name-­ which they now owned-­ as a trademark. Miffed, to say the least, Paul Theakston decided to annoy S and N as much as possible. He scoured the country for original top quality brewing equipment, and set up shop in the old maltings right next door to the Theakston brewery. Robbed of his own name, he resorted to the only one he could think of­ or rather his wife did when she dubbed him the black sheep of the family: Black Sheep Brewery was born (http://www.BlackSheep.co.uk).

And thank God it was! Paul's ales are as good as anything the old family tradition ever turned out. Black Sheep Best (3.8) is a richly flavorsome hoppy session bitter, and the only one in the country-­ to my knowledge ­-now fermented in traditional old Yorkshire Stone Squares. Inevitably, therefore, they also make Square Ale, as well as the chunkier Black Sheep Special, a stronger (4.3), full-boded amber ale, and the remarkable complex, dark Riggwelter (don't ask, it's something to do with sheep laid on their backs!) also fermented in the stone squares, 5.9 ABV and even better than the Old Peculiar I remember. The result is that Masham ­ and the Black Sheep brewery - is once again a place of pilgrimage for the serious beer drinker, and Theakston a name to look for on a bottle of beer ­ as long as it's not the big word across the label but the little personally scrawled signature in one corner. !