Boddingtons is a golden bitter with a light, creamy texture and a malty
flavour. Despite being served through lager-style pumps, it's quite flat and
tastes relatively good (which is fortunate as it seems to be the only vaguely
proper beer in several venues I frequent). It's not bad from a can, either.
It was first brewed in 1778 by the Strangeways Brewery, which was built just
outside Manchester's city boundaries of the day to avoid a tax levied by
the Manchester Grammar School on grain grinding. It gained its current name
in 1852 when Henry Boddington became the sole owner of the brewery, having
become a partner in 1832. It was taken over by Whitbread in 1989, who were
subsequently bought out by Interbrew in 2001; in 2005, Interbrew closed
the Strangeways brewery, and the brewing of the cask version of Boddingtons was
contracted out to Hydes Brewery. The keg version is brewed in Interbrew's
breweries in Preston, South Wales and Glasgow, which is a slightly
unfortunate state of affairs for a beer advertised as the cream of
Manchester , but such is life in the world of mass-market beer. Of the
Strangeways brewery, only the landmark chimney sporting the brand name remains.
Its current logo, introduced in the 1970s, features a cask drawn in
white, black and yellow, with a pair of bees sitting on it. At first
glance, their presence seems pretty incongruous; what association with bees
does Boddingtons have? When I noticed them, I only knew of one other
beer with bees in its logo, whose defining ingredient is,
logically enough, honey. But Boddingtons is in no way nectar-tinged, so
that's no explanation. As it turns out, the floor of Manchester Town Hall is
a mosaic of bees, and the city's coat of arms is topped with them; they
became a symbol of the city during the Industrial Revolution, when it was
considered a hive of industry . The bee motif is also present on the
city's bins and other street furniture. Given its strong ties to
the city, the design is not as strange as it initially appeared.
That said, I prefer to think of it as a homage to the Poddington Peas…
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