Reading brewery shuts good friday.

Ash

Oh Yes....
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After 225 yrs of brewing, Courage brewery reading shuts it's doors for the last time tomorrow 02/04/10 :(.
With it brings an end to Reading's brewing heritage that began with Simonds' Brewery in Broad Street in 1785.
when i moved into the area we had Sutton's Seeds,Huntley & Palmer's and Courage.plus all the associated industries.
now feck all bar offices and warehousing.
sign of modern times i suppose. :nenau
 
Very sad, I've had many meetings there as I used to work for Courage :(

Overcapacity has been a problem in the industry for a long time now though, and the merger with S&N was laways going to lead to some rationalisation.
 
My parents and grandparents came from Reading... I've got a Simonds Brewery bottle-opener round here somewhere! Too young to remember much myself - moved away around 1965.

I remember Huntley and Palmers, and Suttons Seeds, I think my grandad worked in an aircraft works at Woodley Aerodrome, and my great-Uncle owned a farm at Winnersh... probably under the Triangle now...
 
Sad day

I lived 7 years in Reading - well Caversham actually - and used to work student leave in the brewery when it was central Reading. It was one of the perenial favourites for casual work the work centre gave you. If you arrived early (bad idea) your job was to either stack endless bottles into endless crates, or - even worse - look at endless clean bottles on a conveyor belt and pick out the cracked ones zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


HOWEVER, arrive late - good idea - and you were placed on the "ullage". This was a large bath outside which we filled with underfilled or out of date bottled or canned beer. So all day we cracked open cans or flipped bottle tops. It then went back into the system to boost the alcohol level (sometimes along with vomit/fags/chewing gum!!) If there was a birthday boy he was dunked under the beer!


Naturally not all the beer made it to the ullage as it was perfectly drinkable - so we were "tired and emotional" throughout the day and resorted to fights sending spinning cans over the crates, or boobytrapped "party sevens" with just the slightest nick in the top used as a football..

Every now and again a mystery car would arrive, a stranger would get out, say "OK?" and load a few crates into his car.

I travelled home by bus each evening soaked and reeking of beer and very merry.

Happy days!!
 
Sad day

I lived 7 years in Reading - well Caversham actually - and used to work student leave in the brewery when it was central Reading. It was one of the perenial favourites for casual work the work centre gave you. If you arrived early (bad idea) your job was to either stack endless bottles into endless crates, or - even worse - look at endless clean bottles on a conveyor belt and pick out the cracked ones zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


HOWEVER, arrive late - good idea - and you were placed on the "ullage". This was a large bath outside which we filled with underfilled or out of date bottled or canned beer. So all day we cracked open cans or flipped bottle tops. It then went back into the system to boost the alcohol level (sometimes along with vomit/fags/chewing gum!!) If there was a birthday boy he was dunked under the beer!


Naturally not all the beer made it to the ullage as it was perfectly drinkable - so we were "tired and emotional" throughout the day and resorted to fights sending spinning cans over the crates, or boobytrapped "party sevens" with just the slightest nick in the top used as a football..

Every now and again a mystery car would arrive, a stranger would get out, say "OK?" and load a few crates into his car.

I travelled home by bus each evening soaked and reeking of beer and very merry.

Happy days!!

:clap :clap :clap :thumb
 
It's no loss to me 'cos I've not been able to touch Courage Directors for donkey's years since over-indulging :barf

Oh no - I've just googled Directors and it's now brewed by Well & Youngs who are just up the road from me :(
 
It's all part of a giant conspiracy to de-pong Reading, the Whitley Wood whiff went a couple of years ago when the old sewage works were closed and all shit processing moved to some fancy new enclosed system that is fart-powered. So when the Costco windmill is running full tilt it doesn't waft malty pongs over the poor sods stuck in the traffic jams caused by the endless, and mindless, alterations to junction 11.
 
I used to work for Courage's Reading as a contractor in the 80's & 90's.
Installing various machinery and equipment. My father also helped install the large Vats etc in the 80's.
I particularly remember the staff shop and restaurant were always good value.
Last time I worked there was installing the Fosters production line.
 


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