Description
Marston's brewery began in 1834. Carlsberg, the Danish-owned international brewer, has been brewing in the UK since it acquired the Allied Lyons brewing group in 1992. In 2020 it bought Marston's and formed a joint venture brewing company, buying them out entirely in 2024. In January 2025 it bought soft drinks company Britvic to create a joint brewing and soft drinks operation. At around the same time eight brands of cask ale were axed, including the iconic Banks's Mild. At the time of going to press, its Wolverhampton brewery, formerly Banks's, is scheduled for imminent closure, leaving the Burton upon Trent brewery as its only producer of cask ales. The future of the remaining 25 cask brands is unclear. The company sells a number of brewery-conditioned beers through plinth-mounted handpulls that appear identical to cask handpumps. These currently dispense beers under the Wainwright and Hobgoblin brands. CAMRA believes this is a deliberate attempt to project these beers as cask ales, which they are not. Contract brewing includes Draught Bass, for rivals Budweiser (AB-InBev). A tiny brewery within the visitors' centre is sometimes used for small-batch brews.