Boddingtons Draught Bitter (24 x 440ml Cans)

Product Information

The 20th Century continued to be prosperous for Boddingtons, and as family members died and took over, they continued to serve the city with their beers – an unmovable force within Manchester and a common sight in every pub and on adverts seen on every street. It was during the Whitbread era that Boddingtons became an international brand and a household name.

Somewhere along the line, however, even as Britain was in the midst of the late-1970s ‘real ale craze’, Boddington’s edge began to grow blunt. The story is told by the brief entries in successive editions of the Good Beer Guide: by 1983, it had ceased to be ‘exceptionally bitter’ and had become, instead, ‘A popular light quaffing bitter’, and the 1984 edition noted that ‘locals are concerned that the bitter has lost some of its distinctive character’. First, they removed Boddingtons from its home (Manchester), then lowered the alcohol percentage, then stopped spending any money on marketing. Now the beer is largely forgotten. Is Boddingtons Gluten-Free? In World War II Boddingtons’ brewery was smashed to bits by the Luftwaffe in the Manchester Blitz, and they were forced to close for several months.John Hegarty, who had worked on the 1990s Boddingtons advertising campaigns, argued that Interbrew, "just didn't care [about the brand], they underinvested and let it rot". [28] There was such a buzz around these events every time they were on. The dilemma of what to wear, when to go, where to meet, what time the performances were on, who was Queen of the night (the winning performer that night) was honestly playing on a loop in my head everyday.” Ali Saeedian

Ali Saeedian fondly remembers outrageous club nights in Manchester’s Gay Village before the pandemic. He says: “Nights such as ‘Cha Cha Boudoir’ that elevated the standards of club performances to new levels where nothing was impossible and a spectacular show was put on no matter what, and in turn launched countless drag careers in Manchester. You will be only too aware that present-day pressures bear heavily towards the elimination of individuality and character in many consumer goods. There is an inexorable progression towards the mass-produced nationwide product of standardised quality. You, however, are still, at this moment in time, a shareholder in one of the remaining independent brewery companies whose traditional draught beers have a reputation for quality and individual character beyond the immediate area of the North of England in which we operate... The takeover of Boddingtons and its consequent elimination can achieve very little. It will do nothing for the national economy, add nothing to the nation's exports, and contribute nothing at all to the quality of life that we are all used to enjoy. [22] a b c d e Wilson, R. G. (October 2007). "Boddington, Henry (1813–1886)" ( Subscription or UK public library membership required). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/96881 . Retrieved 12 May 2011. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) During this time the Boddington family were selling shares and by 1930 only owned around 40% of the business. Then in 1961, Whitbread bought a 13% stake in the company.Forced outside of the city centre due to the Grammar School’s monopoly, two grain merchants, Thomas Caister and Thomas Fry created a moderately-sized operation and started to whet the appetites of the city’s workforce. John & Henry Boddington There has been renewed interest in the Boddington’s cask-conditioned bitter that was produced in the 1960s to the 1980s. It was widely regarded as one of the finest examples of its genre in Britain. In 2012 it ceased to exist completely in cask form although there appear to be two versions still available in keg/can form. Much of the discussion that has occurred centres around when the decline in quality occurred, with a variety of dates being mentioned, spanning the 1970s/80s. The aim of this research is to try and make an objective judgement about the decline and pinpoint when it commenced via Boddington’s tied house postings in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide (GBG). My approach was to collate GBG entries for Boddington’s tied houses for the period 1974-1994, with Boddington’s tied houses are defined as the 256 listed in the guidebook Boddington’s published c.1973. Analysis of the results identifies four periods in the life of Boddingtons’ tied houses in the GBG. SOURCE: John Robinson/CAMRA Good Beer Guides 1974-1994. Period 1: 1974-1983 The company's independence was maintained after Whitbread acted as a white knight by raising its stake in the company from 13 to 23 per cent, and the family and many small shareholders refused to sell their stakes. [24] The chairman of Whitbread, Colonel Whitbread, is reputed to have said, "You are a very old firm. You have a very good name. You mustn't go out." [25] At the time, it was rare for a company to win the emotional argument for independence, and it was the first time a regional brewery had headed off an offer from a national company. [26] In 1970, Charles Boddington retired and his son Ewart assumed the directorship. [22] It wasn’t easy to get inside – if the door staff didn’t like what you were wearing or there were too many of you, you would likely be turned away.