Lagunitas reformulates Newcastle Brown Ale

USA | Craft brewer Lagunitas may have gone fully corporate under Heineken’s roof, but it is not as if its brewers have lost their knack for creating new recipes. Lagunitas was called in to modernise the iconic brown ale and give it a more craft appeal for release in the US in March 2019.

Its brewmaster Jeremy Marshall was allowed to play around with Newky Brown Ale, as it was affectionately called by Brits. He used new American Centennial and Chinook hops, and fermented the ale with Lagunitas’ English house ale yeast. The result will be a familiar yet new beer. 

The beer will be produced by Lagunitas, both in Petaluma and Chicago. As part of the relaunch, Facebook followers will be randomly chosen and gifted with samples, so that they will taste the new beer and share the word with their friends.

The Newky Brown Ale brand has a bit of a colourful past. It was originally brewed in Newcastle in the industrial northeast of England, where it was perceived as a working-class beer with strong regional ties. In 2005, brewing moved from Newcastle to Dunston, Tyne and Wear, in 2010 to Tadcaster, and in 2017 to the Heineken Brewery in Zoeterwoude, The Netherlands. Who would have thought that one day it will be reborn as a craft-like beer in the United States?

Heineken’s CEO Jean-Francois van Boxmeer stressed at the brewer’s recent results presentation that Lagunitas is managed independently from Heineken.  However, at the same time he pointed out (not once but twice), that Lagunitas is now brewed in The Netherlands for European markets at the Heineken-owned Brand brewery in Wijlre. Go figure.