Ruddles Brewery (G. Ruddle & Co) was a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

Rutland Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town. Rutland has a ...

, England. The brand is now owned by

Greene King Greene King is a British pub and brewing company founded in 1799, currently based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. The company also owns brands including Hungry Horse and Farmhouse Inns, as well as other pubs, restaurants and hotels. It was listed o ...

who still brew beers under the Ruddles name in Suffolk, although the current recipes are not those used at the original brewery. The brewery, established in 1858 in Langham,

, was bought by George Ruddle in 1912. Langham remained the home of the brewery until its closure in 1999. The company lost its independence in 1986 and passed into the ownership of Watneys, and then

Grolsch Koninklijke Grolsch N.V. (; "Royal Grolsch"), known simply as Grolsch, is a Dutch brewery founded in 1615 by Willem Neerfeldt in Groenlo. In 1895, the Family de Groen, de Groen family bought the brewery. They had started their own brewery in Ensc ...

in 1992. The value of the brewery and brands had dropped to £4.8m when it was sold to Morland & Co in 1997. Morlands moved production to Abingdon only for that site to be closed by Greene King which took over Morlands in 2000. The local Langham well water was said to give the beer a unique character and quality which enhanced the brewery's reputation. The difficulty in reproducing elsewhere the taste of the beers has led to the premier beer being jocularly referred to as "Ruddles Counterfeit". In 1996, Rutland bitter was the third of British beers to have achieved

Protected Geographical Indication Three European Union schemes of geographical indications and Traditional food, traditional specialties, known as protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG), promote ...

status; this followed an application by Grolsch Ruddles. Since Greene King closed the Langham brewery, they cannot take advantage of the registration. However, in 2010 former Ruddles head brewer Tony Davis revived Rutland Bitter, brewed at his Grainstore Brewery in Oakham, Rutland. A television commercial for Ruddles in 1993 featured the last appearance of

Vivian Stanshall Vivian Stanshall (born Victor Anthony Stanshall; 21 March 1943 – 5 March 1995) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his exploration of the British uppe ...

narrating as Hubert, brother of Sir Henry Rawlinson of Rawlinson End played by Mel Smith and a

cross-dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express onesel ...

Dawn French Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian and writer. She is known for writing and starring on the BBC sketch comedy series '' French and Saunders'' (1987–2007) with her best friend and comedy partner Jennifer Sa ...

. In 1996, Ruddles Best won the gold medal in the ordinary bitter category at the first

World Beer Cup The World Beer Cup is an international beer competition organized by the Brewers Association, a trade group A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organizatio ...

. Ruddles Best took silver in the bitter category at the Champion Beer of Britain in 1997. Greene King have now inverted the horseshoe emblem on Ruddles branding. Ruddles also are part of Aldi's ‘Inspired Cuisine' line with their beer in the Beef filled Yorkshire Pudding.

Beers

* Ruddles County * Ruddles Best * Ruddles Organic * Ruddles Rhubarb

In popular culture

Being regarded as one of England's cheapest beers, it is used as a reference in the HBO series ''

Veep ''Veep'' is an American political satire comedy television series that aired on HBO from April 22, 2012, to May 12, 2019. The series was created by Armando Iannucci. The series follows Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the fictional Vice Pres ...

''.

References

Companies established in 1858 Defunct breweries of the United Kingdom 1858 establishments in England {{beer-stub