Ruddles Brewery (G. Ruddle & Co) was a brewery in

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

, England. The brand is now owned by Greene King 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 James Watney (18 December 1800–16 March 1884) was an English brewer and landowner who resided at Haling Park, Croydon, and Beddington, Surrey. He was born to Daniel Watney (1771–1831) of Mitcham, Surrey and Mary Galpin (1771–183 ...

, and then Grolsch 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 specialties, known as protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), and traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG), promote and protect nam ...

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 narrating as Hubert, brother of Sir Henry Rawlinson of

Rawlinson End ''Rawlinson End'' was a series of thirteen 15-20 minute radio broadcasts, created and performed by Vivian Stanshall (formerly of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) for BBC Radio 1 between 1975 and 1991. The early sessions, recorded between 1977 and 197 ...

played by Mel Smith and a

cross-dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...

Dawn French Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian, presenter and writer. French is known for writing and starring on the BBC comedy sketch show ''French and Saunders'' with her best friend and comedy partner, Jennifer Saunde ...

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

References

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