Sharp’s Brewery to Close with Loss of Up to 40 jobs

 Cornish brewery Sharps will close in December with up to 40 redundancies at the site in Rock.

The closure of Sharp’s Brewery, which is famous for brewing Doom Bar ale, follows the conclusion of a consultation process that launched in February.

In a statement Molson Coors, which has owned the Sharp’s brand for the past 15 years, said that “every alternative has been fully considered”.

Sharps cask brands, including its flagship Doom Bar ale, Sea Fury and Atlantic Pale Ale, will now move to independent brewer Camerons, based in Durham.

A statement from Molson Coors reads: “Since acquiring the Sharp’s Brewery site in 2011, Molson Coors has invested more than £20 million in the brewery to expand capacity, upgrade equipment, support innovation and strengthen the Sharp’s portfolio.

“However, with market conditions continuing to evolve and changing consumer tastes leading to a challenged cask ale category, the Sharp’s brewery was no longer financially sustainable as part of Molson Coors’ national production network.

“The brewery will cease production in December, with Molson Coors exploring a sale of the premises.

CAMRA has reacted angrily to the announcement and is demanding new consumer laws and is calling for a ‘pasty-style’ guarantee, in law, to prevent the beers being marketed as Cornish.

Dave Pedlar, Cornwall CAMRA Chairman, said: “This is a betrayal of the founders of Sharp’s, the 40 people whose jobs are at risk, and the locals that have supported this business for decades.

“We’ve known for a while that the Sharp’s cask production was moving out of the Duchy, but Hartlepool is 417 miles away, which is as far from Rock as Brussels. We need ‘pasty-style’ consumer protection laws that stop Molson Coors from continuing to market these beers as Cornish.”

Since Molson Coors announced their intentions to close Sharp’s in February 2026, CAMRA have launched a new, UK wide campaign and ‘Beer in the UK’ report to raise awareness of the tactics of global brewers in the UK beer market. The campaign highlights misleading marketing practices, and how independent brewers struggle to get their beers onto bars.

Tom Stainer, CAMRA Chief Executive, said: “It’s entirely ridiculous that a beer named after a sandbank in the Camel Estuary, and marketed as a ‘Cornish original’, is now going to be made in Hartlepool. Once again, global brewers are closing breweries, trashing our reputation as a great brewing nation, and misleading ordinary drinkers.

“This is why we’ve launched our new campaign to expose ‘Big Beer’ in the UK, their misleading marketing tactics, and demand that the Competition and Markets Authority investigate how global corporations dominate the beer market. We need decisive action to deliver a fairer beer market for independent brewers and ordinary drinkers.”