The Market Tavern

 21 Market Street, Atherstone: 

Offers a range of traditional ales to include: -

Best Bitter 3.9%

An easy drinking golden brown session beer flavoured with first gold hops, with a soft malty flavour and a gentle bitterness that becomes more assertive in the aftertaste.

Lady Godiva 4.2%

An exciting full-bodied cascading blonde pleasing to the palate.  An aromatic golden ale, with honey and malt on the nose.  On the tongue a slightly sweet, biscuity maltiness is balanced by the rounded bitterness of the hops.  The honeyed sweetness of the palate surrenders to a lingering bitterness in the finish.

Golden Bear 4.9%

Strength with bite derived fromthe first gold hops.  An assertive golden brown beer characterised by a long lasting slightly resiny bitterness.  The finish is fruity and warming with hints of spice and orange.

Churchyard Bob 4.9%

A full flavoured and aromatic beer with a deep brown hue.  Notes of grain and chocolate on the nose develop into a lovely roasty richness on the palate.  The finish is sweet and fruity with a light edge of bitterness.

Kingmaker 5.5%

A regal bitter whose subtlety belies its strength.  A rich fruity Christmas cake of a beer, ruddy brown in colour, to be treated with caution!  A grainy spirity aroma leads on to a palate with overtones of whisky, orange and dark chocolate.  A warming alcoholic finish.

The Warwickshire Beer Company

David Rawstorne (Brewer) has made significant progress in rejuvenating the beers of the Warwickshire Beer Company, which supplies the Market Taverns in Atherstone & Southam, as well as major sales into the free trade.

Paul Jenkins is also a recent experienced recruit, with 30 years at Whitbread and 10 years with Greene King. 

After a degree in biochemistry, David joined brewing giant Allied in 1970, based initially at Ansells in Aston.  He became a full time brewer at Aston after completing an MSc in brewing science.  He had the unfortunate experience of being at Ansells when it closed in the early 1980s, after which he moved onto the sales side as an area manager.

David's return to brewing ocurred around 1984, when Allied set up the Holt, Plant & Deakin brewery in the Black Country, whose first home was the New Inn at Langley near Oldbury.  Drinkers with a few grey hairs will remember the splendid 4.4% Entire, the flagship HPB brew which was crafted by David.

Entire attracted an ever-growing fan club, ultimately to be disappointed when Allied - by then Allied Domecq - closed down HPD and instead became interested in the Firkin brewpub chain.  When they took this over, David looked after around 20 of the brewpubs.  But Allied inevitably lost interest in the Firkins, selling the pubs to Bass which resulted in the creation of Punch Taverns.  This led to David finally parting company with Allied at the end of 1990s.

A new challenge awaited David at brewpub classic The Old Swan (Ma Pardoes) near Dudley.  Having met Ma Pardoe in his student days, David was instrumental in resurrecting the brewery, which had been closed for 12 years.  Three months of work were required to clean and restore the brewery to service, after which David set about brewing Pardoes Original to the satisfaction of the locals.  This was followed by Pardoes Entire - sounds familiar? - brought back to life for Black Country drinkers.

After spending 18 months at Enville brewery near Stourbridge, David finally made the jump to Warwickshire Beer Company, joining in December 2007 to replace former brewer Neil Hunt.  At present his mission is to improve the quality and consistency of the four core WBC products: Best Bitter, Lady Godiva, Golden Bear and Kingmaker - and if present signs are anything to go by he's doing an excellent job.

Bottling is also seen as a growth area, with around six different beers already having been produced in bottle.  WBC beers can be seen in local Asdas, and Threshers also carry a couple through the SIBA scheme.