Worthington White Shield - The Great Survivor (Worhtingtons White Shield)

Member Name: grahamt

Product:	Worhtingtons White Shield
Date:	26/08/01 (211 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One of the last surviving examples of a unique beer

Disadvantages: Not easily obtainable

That White Shield is still available today is in itself remarkable. Few beers have had such a chequered history. Over the years it has been passed around a succession of breweries like an unloved and ancient relative that no one knows what to do with.

White Shield is unquestionably one of the all-time great beers. In 2000 it was voted the Champion Bottle Conditioned Beer of the Year at CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival.

A bottle conditioned beer still has yeast in the beer and so needs to be allowed to rest before serving so as to allow the yeast to settle to the bottom. The yeast allows the beer to continue to develop in the bottle, long after it leaves the brewery. This means, of course that it has a finite shelf-life although this is actually quite long. However, it does also mean that the bottles should be served according to date.

Far too often unskilled bar staff would simply put new bottles in front of old in order to re-stock shelves. Eventually you might get to a very old bottle at the back of the shelf. It this point it is pot-luck whether it remains drinkable. It is for this reason that Shepherd Neame changed their excellent Spitfire from bottle conditioned to brewery filtered.

As a bottle conditioned ale it always suffered from the ignorance of casual bar staff who would tip it carelessly into a glass and then wonder why customers complained about cloudy beer.

First produced in the early 19th century, it has at last returned to its spiritual home, Burton-on Trent.

White Shield is a superb example of the style of beer called India Pale Ale. These beers were produced in the 19th century to export to India for the troops then enforcing Britain’s rule. The long and arduous journey in the hold of the ships, being rocked about, passing through all sorts of temperature variations, spelled death to most beers. They would arrive totally undrinkable.

India Pale Ale avo
ided this fate by virtue of its incredible alcoholic strength, usually in the region of 7% abv and also because of the phenomenally high hop rate. These days, in consideration of drink-drive laws, the strength is much reduced although White Shield still weighs in at a considerable 5.6% abv.

Originally it was brewed at the Worthington Brewery in Burton-on-Trent. Worthington was bought out by Bass in 1927 and the brewery was closed. Production moved to the Bass brewery.

The style of beer lost favour in the 70s and 80s in face of the attack from bland offerings such as Budweiser, that found favour with young and un-adventurous drinkers.

In 1992 Bass decided to try one last time to increase the popularity of White Shield. However, they stopped producing it in Burton, moving it first to one of their breweries in Sheffield and then to Mitchell and Butler’s in Birmingham. By 1997 they had finally accepted the inevitability that it would never ever be a volume beer. They announced that production would end.

There was uproar from its dedicated fans. Bass bowed to pressure and licenced King and Barnes in Horsham to continue production of White Shield on their behalf. The story doesn’t end there though.

In 2000, King and Barnes was bought by Hall and Woodhouse of Blandford St Mary in Dorset. Hall and Woodhouse closed the Horsham brewery and expressed no interest in continuing the production of White Shield. However, it is to their credit that they agreed to ensure an orderly transfer of production to a new brewer.

So, now it is brewed by the specialist Museum Brewing Co at the Bass Museum, now owned by the giant Belgian Interbrew Group since they bought the Bass empire recently. It is to be hoped that it has found its final resting place, at least for the foreseeable future.

White Shield is produced from Halcyon barley, grown in Norfolk and from Northdown and Challenger hops. The original
Bass yeast (actually two different yeast strains) is used to ferment the malt.

It is a glorious golden colour typical of the style and, whilst nowhere near as staggeringly hoppy as its forebears, it is still distinctly so. You need to love this style of beer otherwise you will probably find it just too much. I love it.

But, I suppose the question that should be asked is, is it still the same to day as it was. Well, I first drank White Shield some 40 years ago. I know memory is a very imperfect thing. Not only that but our sense of taste changes dramatically over the years.

I can’t help thinking that it doesn’t taste as “strong” as it used to. I can’t be sure but I believe that the strength was higher than the current 5.6%. Certainly it used to be served in much smaller bottles that the present day 500ml. That was almost always a sign that you shouldn’t drink too much of it.

Be that as it may, it is still a wonderful ale and worthy of continuing its existence into the 21st century.

It is available in Safeways supermarkets.

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