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Editor’s Comment: Dog lost by careless owner

WHILE Scottish & Newcastle has virtually cut its ties with the North East, it continues to play on its Geordie roots to grow its global brand.

Where once brewers in blue overalls made Tyneside’s most famous export – save perhaps for coal and football – a new science development is now taking shape.

Meanwhile across the Tyne in Gateshead, the short-lived stint of brown ale being brewed at the Federation brewery officially ended last week.

However, take a look at the brown ale website aimed at its massive American following, and you can see its owners are desperately keen to maintain the image of a tipple soaked in Tyneside tradition.

Its new ‘Geordie Schooner’ campaign urges Americans to take a trip down their local and knock back the brown stuff from a wellington-style glass that allegedly “brings Newcastle’s history to life for a new audience.”

I was brought up believing that dog was best supped from a half-pint glass, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, who am I as a born and bred Tynesider to tell the Danish owners of a Tadcaster-brewed ale, about Geordie tradition?

S&N’s Geordie love-in continues back across the pond. It’s worldsgreatestcity.co.uk website says brown ale “sits at the heart of a local community” - a strange claim given its complete removal from its homeland.

There’s no doubt that brown ale helps boosts the profile of the North East globally. But it seems a travesty that it now has zero connection to the region and has been stripped from its birthplace – a bigger crime perhaps than robbing Melton Mowbray of its pork pie-making prowess or Arbroath of its smokies.

With the backing of one of the biggest drinks empires on the planet, surely the coffers could stretch to at least a small production line on Tyneside, which in time could grow as the recovery picks up speed?

Economic issues aside, perhaps some consideration is needed in the Heineken boardroom of how much the brew owes its home town.

With unemployment set to soar this year, there is an army of skilled and available workers on Tyneside who would no doubt be honoured to continue the legacy that their brewing ancestors started.

Realistically however, it seems unlikely that the lost dog will find its way home anytime soon.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .