page_title: Beer in England
section_title: Burton upon Trent
hierarchical_section_title: Beer in England / Brewing / Burton upon Trent
caption_attribution_description: English: Burton Union Fermentation System, Coors Visitor Centre The Burton Union system was originally used to create Draught Bass. These interlinked casks are currently situated outside the Coors Visitor Centre (formerly the Bass Museum).
context_page_description: Beer in England has been brewed for hundreds of years. As a beer brewing country, England is known for its top fermented cask beer which finishes maturing in the cellar of the pub rather than at the brewery and is served with only natural carbonation.
  English beer styles include bitter, mild, brown ale and old ale. Stout, porter and India Pale Ale were also originally brewed in London. Lager style beer has increased considerably in popularity since the mid 20th century. Other modern developments include consolidation of large brewers into multinational corporations; growth of beer consumerism; expansion of microbreweries and increased interest in bottle conditioned beers.
context_section_description: For centuries, Burton upon Trent has been associated with the brewing industry due to the quality of the local water (from boreholes, not from the River Trent). This comes from the high proportion of dissolved salts in the water, predominantly caused by the gypsum in the surrounding hills; the resulting sulphate brings out the hops—see Burtonisation. Much of the open land within and around the town is protected from chemical treatment to help preserve this water quality.
  The town is still home to seven brewers:
  Coors, a brewery from the United States which produces Carling. In addition to their large-scale plant, Coors also operate the White Shield Brewery, a microbrewery producing a number of speciality beers, including the eponymous Worthington White Shield.
  Marston, Thompson and Evershed, now Marston's PLC. Marston's also brew Bass beer and Stones Bitter under licence from Anheuser-Busch InBev
  Burton Bridge Brewery, a small brewery founded in 1982 by Geoff Mumford and Bruce Wilkinson.
  Tower Brewery, a microbrewery
  Cottage Brewery, its retail outlet being the nearby Old Cottage Inn
  Black Hole Brewery, a microbrewery subsidiary of Kammac, a cask supplier
  The Bass Museum of Brewing—renamed the Coors Visitor Centre after Coors took over the brewery—continued until June 2008. This was reopened in 2010 as the William Worthington Brewery and its ales—including Worthington Red Shield, White Shield, and "E", are primarily sold through the on-site Brewery Tap outlet.
  A by-product of the brewing industry, figuratively and literally, is the Marmite factory in the town: Marmite being made from spent brewer's yeast. Together with the breweries this can give the area a distinctive smell.
  A pale and well hopped style of beer was developed in Burton in parallel with the development of India Pale Ale elsewhere. Previously, Englishmen had drunk mainly dark stout and porter beers, but pale ale came to predominate. Burton came to dominate this trade, and at its height one quarter of all beer sold in Britain was produced here. Although over thirty breweries are recorded in 1880, a process of mergers and buy-outs resulted in three main breweries remaining by 1980: Bass, Ind Coopes and Marston's.
  The fame of Burton ales gave rise to the English euphemism "gone for a Burton", meaning to have been killed—a World War II humorous suggestion that a missing comrade had merely nipped out for a beer.
  The town's connection with the brewing industry is celebrated by the sculpture of the Burton Cooper in the shopping centre.
  Burton upon Trent is also known in beer technology circles for the Burton Union recirculating fermenter system, now used only by Marston's Brewery (all other Burton brewers have switched to stainless steel).
caption: Museum Exhibit of the Burton Union Fermentation System
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