Phipps NBC

Phipps Northampton Brewery Company Ltd has a long and varied history of brewing real ale and stout. It is based in Northampton, England.

The company began in the South Northamptonshire town of Towcester where founder Pickering Phipps started brewing in 1801. A second brewery was opened on Bridge Street, Northampton in 1817. All production was moved to Northampton in 1901 following a fire which destroyed the original brewery.

Trading as P. Phipps & Co. under the chairmanship of Pickering Phipps II (1836–1890), the company grew to become the largest brewer in the Midlands by the end of the 19th century. The Phipps family was prominent in Northampton in the 19th and early 20th century; both Pickering I and II were mayors and the latter an MP. An area of the town to the east of the racecourse was developed by the family and is known as Phippsville.

Other regional brewers absorbed by Phipps included, Ratliffe and Jeffery of Northampton in 1899, Hipwell and Co. of Olney in 1920, T.Mannings of Northampton in 1933 and Campbell Praed of Wellingborough in 1954. In 1957, P. Phipps merged with neighbours, Northampton Brewery Co. Ltd. At this point, the company had 1131 tied houses (pubs), 711 from Phipps and 420 from NBC.

In 1960, London based brewer Watney Mann launched a successful bid for the company. The new owner's keg bitter, Red Barrel, was soon brewed in Northampton alongside the local beers. By 1968, all traditional draught bitters were axed and the company renamed Watney Mann (Midland). The general spread of keg bitter in the late 1960s, and in particular Watney's treatment of Northamptonshire drinkers, were key spurs to the formation of the Campaign for Real Ale in 1971. Since Phipps NBC had dominated its trading area, Watney's removal of all traditional hand pumps from its Midland pub estate led to CAMRA describing Northamptonshire as a real ale desert.

At the beginning of the 1970s, a partnership was formed between Watney Mann and Danish brewer Carlsberg Group with the aim of rebuilding the Phipps Bridge Street Brewery site into a modern lager plant. Watney Mann ale and stout brewing ended on 26 May 1974, and most of the original brewery was demolished. Above ground the relatively modern office block was retained as part of Carlsberg's brewery, renamed Jacobsen House. Below ground the giant Foundry Street well under the old Albion Brewery stables (which Phipps had enlarged to form the principal water source for the site) was incorporated into the new lager brewery.

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