The Firkin Brewery was a chain of pubs in the United Kingdom. The original UK chain is now defunct, but a number of

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

s operate under the Firkin name in other countries. The chain took its name from the firkin, an old English unit of volume.

History

The chain was established in 1979 by David Bruce as Bruce's Brewery, the Firkin Brewery grew as a chain of mostly

brewpub Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, ne ...

s offering

cask ale Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for ale that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous ca ...

. It was acquired by Midsummer Leisure in 1988, Stakis Leisure in 1990 and then by

Allied Domecq Allied Domecq PLC was a multinational company, headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom, that operated spirits, wine, and quick service restaurant businesses. It was once a FTSE 100 Index constituent and the world's second-largest spirits gro ...

in 1991; by 1995 the chain had 44 pubs, 19 of which brewed beer on site. In 1999,

Punch Taverns Punch Pubs & Co is a pub and bar operator in the United Kingdom, with around 1,300 leased pubs. It is headquartered in the traditional brewing centre of Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange as a consti ...

bought the entire chain and the rights to the Firkin brand, and then sold 110 of the pubs to

Bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, leaving 60 Firkin pubs under Punch ownership. The brewery side of the chain was wound up, and in March 2001 Punch announced that the Firkin brand was to be discontinued. After several corporate restructurings, most of the Bass sites ended up in the Mitchells and Butlers pub company formed in 2003. Many have been rebranded as O'Neill's, Scream, or Goose pubs; the Scream and Goose sites were among those sold to

Stonegate Pub Company Stonegate Pub Company Ltd is the largest pub company in the UK, operating around 4,800 managed, leased and tenanted pubs. It is owned by TDR Capital. The head office is based in Solihull, England, and the company is registered in the George Town, ...

in 2010. Some of the

-owned Firkins were rebranded as Mr Q's or Bar Room Bar pubs. A small handful of establishments still retain the Firkin branding, distinctive because they all followed the same naming convention. The format was generally ''The ---- and Firkin'', where ---- was a word, beginning with either "F" or "Ph", which had some connection to the pub building or to the local area. The Firkin Brewery also gave out T-shirts for anyone who managed at least 12 pubs in the Firkin Crawl. A "passport", issued by the Brewery, would be filled with a stamp from each pub visited, and public transport directions to the nearest pub in the crawl would also be in the "passport". Although there was no stipulation in the rules that the 12 pubs had to be completed on the same day, this was often the goal of participants.

Firkin pubs outside the UK

North America

Firkin pubs in Canada and the United States operate under the Firkin Group of Pubs franchise, a chain of English theme pubs founded in

southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a Region, primary region of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, with approximately 13.5 million people, approximately 36% o ...

in 1987. The naming scheme for the pubs is similar to that of the UK chain (for example, "The Crown and Firkin", in

Whitby, Ontario Whitby is a town in Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham Region in Ontario, Canada. Whitby is located in Southern Ontario east of Ajax, Ontario, Ajax and west of Oshawa, on the north shore of Lake Ontario and is home to the headquarters of D ...

), and many Firkin Group pubs in fact share their names with former UK Firkin Brewery pubs. In the United States, the franchise pubs are named with "Firkin" first, as in "The Firkin & Fox" as opposed to "The Fox & Firkin". The pub chain once credited itself as being the "largest and fastest growing" group of pubs in North America. Lately the claim is "largest & most dominant chain of traditional English pubs" in North America. About 10 pubs have closed out of the about 25 pubs that have opened since 2005. New pubs have opened about every 6 months, keeping the overall number of open pubs around 15. Typically the demographic ranges from parents with children during the day to an older drinking crowd in the evenings and late night.

Australia

A number of independent English-style pubs in Australia use "Firkin" in their names, such as the Firkin and Hound in Alice Springs.fox hound alice springs british at firkinhound.com

References

{{Reflist

External links

Firkin Group Of Pubs home page (US and Canada)

Pub Reviews at PubJury.com
1979 establishments in England Defunct breweries of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1979 Food and drink companies established in 1979 Food and drink companies disestablished in 2001 Pub chains Defunct restaurant chains Restaurants established in 1979 Restaurants disestablished in 2001 2001 disestablishments in England Defunct restaurants in the United Kingdom