The one and only !!!

Newcastle Brown is the world's best known brown ale and an icon of the North East of England. The brand is owned by Heineken and produced at their John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England.

It was launched in 1927 by Colonel Jim Porter after three years of development. The merger of Newcastle Breweries with Scottish Brewers afforded the beer national distribution, and United Kingdom sales peaked by the early 1970s. The brand underwent a resurgence in the late 1980s-early 1990s with a cult revival in student unions. By the late 1990s the beer was the most widely distributed alcoholic product in the UK. By the 2000s, the majority of sales were in the United States, where the beer has proven extremely popular, although it still sells 100 million bottles annually in the UK. In 2005, brewing was moved from Newcastle upon Tyne to Dunston on the other side of the River Tyne, and in 2010 moved entirely to Tadcaster, North Yorkshire.

Newcastle Brown Ale is perceived in the UK as a working man's beer, with a long association with heavy industry, the traditional economic staple of the North East of England. Ironically, in export markets it is seen as a trendy, premium import and is predominantly drunk by the young. It was one of the first beers to be distributed in a clear glass bottle, and it is most readily associated with this form of dispense in the UK, being very rarely seen on draught.

The brand was the kit sponsor of Newcastle United football club between 1995 and 2000, during which time the team challenged for the Premier League title and appeared at Wembley four times.

Newcastle Brown Ale was originally created by Lt. Colonel James ('Jim') Herbert Porter (b. 1892, Burton upon Trent), a third generation brewer at Newcastle Breweries, in 1927. Col. Porter had served in the North Staffordshire Regiment in the First World War earning his DSO with Bar before moving to Newcastle. Porter had refined the recipe for Newcastle Brown Ale alongside chemist Archie Jones over a period of three years. When Porter actually completed the beer he believed it to be a failure, as he had actually been attempted to recreate Bass ale. The original beer had an original gravity of 1060º and was 6.25 ABV, and it sold at a premium price of 9 shillings for a dozen pint bottles. The day after the beer's release, police begged the brewery to lower the strength of the beer, as the prison cells were full. When first exhibited, Newcastle Brown Ale swept the board at the prestigious 1928 International Brewery Awards. The gold medals from these awards are still featured on the label. Thirty years later Col. Jim Porter became managing director of Newcastle Breweries, Ltd, and was awarded a CBE. He died in Newcastle in 1973. His father was John Herbert Porter, who together his grandfather, James ran James Porter & Son, the brewery in Burton upon Trent that bought Robinson & Sons brewery in Burton in 1889.

Newcastle Brown Ale went into production at Tyne Brewery in 1927, with Newcastle Breweries having occupied the site since 1890, with brewing on the site dating back to 1868.

The blue star logo was introduced to the Newcastle Brown Ale bottle in 1928, the year after the beer was launched. The five points of the star represent the five founding breweries of Newcastle. One of these, John Barras, is now commemorated in the pub chain of the same name.

Rival brewer Vaux of Sunderland quickly developed Double Maxim to compete.

Newcastle Brown Ale became a brand of Scottish & Newcastle after the merger of Scottish Brewers with Newcastle Breweries in 1960 where it became a flagship brand alongside McEwan's Export and Younger's Tartan Special.

By 1997 Scottish and Newcastle claimed that it was the most widely distributed alcoholic product in both pubs and off licences in the country.

Scottish and Newcastle announced closure of the Tyne Brewery on 22 April 2004, in order to consolidate the brewing of beer and ale in the Federation Brewery site in Dunston, Gateshead, which was to pass to S&N with their £7.2m purchase of the Federation Brewery. This was despite investing £16.5 million in a new bottling plant at the Tyne Brewery in 1999. The purchase and consolidation at Dunston created the new brewing company, Newcastle Federation Breweries.

The last production run of Brown Ale came off the Tyne Brewery line in May 2005. Pre-production trial brews were conducted at Dunston to ensure there was no change in its distinctive taste after the move.

The Tyne Brewery site was bought by a consortium of Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council and the regional development agency One NorthEast, as part of the wider Newcastle Science City project. Demolition of the former brewery began on 8 March 2007. The triggering of the controlled demolition of the former Barrack Road bottling plant opposite St James' Park was ceremonially performed by Sir Bobby Robson on 23 June 2008.

Bottling of Newcastle Brown Ale moved to the John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, in 2007.

Heineken bought Scottish & Newcastle in a joint deal with Carlsberg in 2008.

On 13 October 2009 it was announced by Scottish & Newcastle that it planned to close the Dunston brewery in 2010, moving production of Brown Ale to the John Smiths Brewery in Tadcaster also. The company cited the general fall in the market for beer, over-capacity in its plants in general, and the fact that the Dunston site was currently operating at just 60% capacity, despite the fact that sales of Newcastle Brown Ale had never been higher. The plan to close the brewery by the end of May 2010 was confirmed on 21 April 2010.