It’s been a grim year for breweries, especially those owned by giant global producers. In short order, Heineken announced the closure of the Caledonian brewery in Edinburgh while the new conglomerate, Carlsberg Marston’s (CMBC), pulled down the shutters at Jennings in Cockermouth, Cumbria and sold the Eagle brewery in Bedford to Spanish lager maker Estrella Damm.

The American/Canadian giant Molson Coors dumped from a great height on Britain’s brewing heritage by closing the National Brewery Centre in Burton-on-Trent. MC owns a large number of properties in Burton but chose to move its head office to the site of the brewery centre with its fine collection of historic artefacts.

The final blow came last month when Asahi, owners of Fuller’s brewery in Chiswick, West London, abruptly closed the subsidiary Dark Star plant in Sussex. This caused particular anger and anguish as Dark Star has been an influential small brewery.

It started life in the cellar of the Evening Star pub in Brighton before moving to a new site in Partridge Green where it won praise and prizes for such beers as Original, American Pale Ale and Hophead.

Heineken, CMBC and Asahi all sing from the same dismal hymn sheet: the breweries have to close because they are under capacity and would need major investment to make them fit for purpose.

The truth is somewhat different. If the breweries are under capacity, it’s because their owners fail to promote their brands. Caledonian’s portfolio includes Deuchar’s IPA, a former Champion Beer of Britain with sales stretching as far as Cornwall.

Drinkers have been saddened by its fall from grace, with changes of recipe and different malts and hops. Now it will be packed off to Greene King’s Belhaven brewery in Dunbar, with yet more changes to its flavour and character.

Heineken says it has spent “millions” developing a new lager called Silver and yet it couldn’t find a fraction of that sum to invest at Caledonian. And so we lose a brewery with not only fine beers but also a plant with a unique fashion of brewing, with its coppers heated by direct flame.

The difference in attitude between the once independent Marston’s and its new role as junior partner in CMBC is significant. In November 2009 brewing at Jennings was halted when it was devastated by the Cumbrian floods.

The boss of Marston’s Stephen Oliver, phoned the manager of Jennings, Gaynor Green, and assured her brewing would start again without delay. The company spent £1m repairing the flood damage and mash tuns and coppers were back in action by February 2010.

Back then Marston’s was committed to brewing ale. Today CMBC, with Carlsberg pulling the strings, puts all its emphasis on lager production. The Eagle brewery in Bedford was bought from Charles Wells in 2017 and since then has made a variety of ales, including Young’s, McEwans and the former Wells’s beers Eagle Bitter and Bombardier. Now the plant will produce just lager and another ale brewery has been lost.

The closure of Dark Star is a classic case of mismanagement. Before Fuller’s brewing division was bought by Asahi in 2019, the Chiswick head office made the fateful decision to move the bulk of the production of the main Dark Star brand, Hophead, from Sussex to London. If Dark Star is no longer brewing to full capacity, it’s because it had its flagship beer taken away from it.

I am fascinated and horrified in equal measure by the way giant national and global brewers operate. Their aim is more than just maximising profits. They want to dominate markets with their “liquids” – they never talk about beer – and they do this by cutting costs to the bone. A company the size of AB InBev, which produces a third of all the beer consumed in the world, can buy the raw ingredients used in beer at discounts from suppliers that smaller brewers can only dream of.

They sell their “liquids” at cheaper prices than their competitors and chalk up enormous volumes for their main brands – Budweiser and Stella Artois in the case of AB InBev. If brewing is all about volumes then it stands to reason the global giants have little or no interest in small run beers, ale in particular.

And so it’s farewell to Caledonian, Jennings and ale brewing at the Eagle brewery. For good measure, throw the National Brewery Centre in the skip as that has nothing to do with Molson Coors’ Carling lager.

This traducing of the country’s proud brewing heritage must not go unchallenged. It’s more important than ever to support independent breweries concerned with quality as well as profit.

Think local, drink local. Let that be your new year’s resolution.