Worthington Brewery - White Shield

White Shield

William Worthington's White Shield (5.6% ABV) is an India Pale Ale available in bottle conditioned form and occasionally in casks. It has won the CAMRA Champion Bottled Beer of Britain award seven times and won Gold at the International Beer Competition in 2003. Its former brewer Steve Wellington described it in 2011 as "pretty much unchanged since appearing first in 1829". Different yeasts are used for primary and secondary fermentation. Once packaged, it is matured in the bottle for a month before being sent out of distribution.

In 1829 Worthington launched East India Pale Ale, their first IPA. It was popular among British troops and civil servants in hot climates across the globe. It caught on in the United Kingdom after the railways revolutionised the beer distribution system. It was originally brewed using the Burton Union system. In the 1870s it gained the White Shield logo, and by the end of the nineteenth century took on this name with drinkers.

By the 1960s, White Shield was already a cult drink brewed in small quantities for a dedicated following; production in 1965 was just 15,000 barrels. It found renewed popularity in the early 1970s as the demand for real ale grew, but lost this position as cask ale became easier to find. Bass moved production from Burton to their Hope & Anchor brewery in Sheffield, followed by Cape Hill, Birmingham from 1992, before contracting production to King and Barnes of Sussex in 1998. Due to that brewery's closure, production moved to the Bass/Coors owned White Shield microbrewery in Burton upon Trent in 1999. In 2000, a total of 128,000 bottles were produced; this was forecast to grow to 256,000 by 2009. In 2010, production was moved to the newly constructed William Worthington's Brewery, a microbrewery based at the National Brewery Centre in Burton. It also produces other Worthington beers such as Red Shield and seasonal beers. In 2012, increasing demand saw White Shield production moved to the main Coors brewery in Burton.