The return of Watney's Red Barrel?

November 30, 2007: Those of a nervous disposition need not fear. A version of the dreaded Red Barrel is being brewed again in the North East, but to a recipe claimed to be for the original cask version of the bitter, brewed in the 1950s.

According to The Journal, Newcastle, the Bull Lane Brewery at the Clarendon Hotel, Sunderland is producing the beer from a recipe given by a customer who says he was Watneys' brewer in 1953.

As it contains 5% roasted barley and has porter yeast it is darker than the Red Barrel many would remember, so head brewer and licensee John Taylor has called it Black Barrel.

“We’ve altered it slightly and used an ale yeast which works very well, and we kept the same Goldings hops, plus everything else – even the pH of the water is exactly as the recipe," Mr Taylor told The Journal.

"Some of my older customers remember Watneys Red Barrel as being much the same colour as Cameron’s Strongarm — ruby red. I think Watneys may have changed it in the Sixties from a darker, porter-style beer."

Read the full story — an excellent article by Alastair Gilmour which also tells the story of the Bull Lane Brewery — by clicking here.

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