MAXIM GUNS FOR A RAPID RETURN OF FIRE

A Brown ale war is brewing in North-East pubs, clubs and off-licences now that Double Maxim is on a comeback. Yet vast good will on the eve is going out to the rival of this, the country’s oldest brown ale, even from two big rivals that will now be double-checking their market share in the region.

No-one is happier, of course, than Sir Paul Nicholson, former chairman of Swallow Group, and brother Frank, the last managing director of Vaux, that Double Maxim (first brewed in 1901) will be on the shelves again through the enterprise of two former Vaux directors-Doug Trotman and Mark Anderson.

Sir Paul says; “It is delightful that a brand associated with Vaux is making a comeback like this and I wish the venture good luck. I am sure my great uncle Ernest somewhere up there now, who first introduced Double Maxim, will be liking down with pride.”

Some drinkers still loyal to Vaux say a healthy return of Double Maxim would disprove the argument once put up that Vaux lacked big enough brands to enable the brewery to survive at Sunderland. This was argued when the parent Swallow Group was about to be taken over – and was. The argument was one factor that prevented a management buyout of Vaux, which would have kept brewing alive in Sunderland.

Geoff Hodson, chief executive of Federation Brewery at Gateshead, who knows Mark Anderson and Doug Trotman well, believes the brown-ale market generally will benefit. “The more that bottled ales are talked about and enjoyed, the greater the category can achieve as a whole. We would welcome the opportunity at some point to manufacture Double Maxim for them.”

The revived Double Maxim is being brewed at Robinsons of Stockport.

Federation’s High Level brown ale, recently rebranded and strengthened from4.3 to 4.5 in alcoholic strength – against Newcastle Brown and Double Maxim’s 4.7 – is showing a 42pc jump in sales over eight-weeks, against a corresponding period last year.

At Newcastle Breweries, Elaine Reed says: “We wish the team behind Double Maxim well. But we expect Newcastle Brown to remain the one and only for a majority of brown-ale drinkers in the region.”