THE last true bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale will be produced next week.

Tyne Brewery, in Newcastle, will close on Friday, bringing an end to its city centre brewing.

The final ale run will include only 3,000 bottles, with commemorative labels.

The brewing process takes about four weeks and the special labels will read: "121 years of brewing history. Last bottles produced at Tyne Brewery, April 2005."

The specially-branded brew will not be available in the shops but will instead be given to loyal workers and their family members.

They are the last bottles in a brewing tradition that began in 1927.

The brewery has been slowly running down since S&N announced the site's closure last year.

The firm is moving to the Federation Brewery in Dunston, Gateshead. The move saw 180 redundancies across both sites.

Only 69 staff are left at the Newcastle site. From the end of this month, they will be armed with the task of stripping down the factory.

Up to 200 staff are already working at Dunston where they are test-brewing brown ale.

They hope to start bottling next Saturday.

A spokesman for S&N said the changeover has not affected supply.

He said: "When we push the button at Dunston thousands of bottles will come off the line. It will be a full production run supplying Newcastle Brown across the world.

As part of the new-look company, Tyne Brewery and Federation Brewery has merged and is now called Newcastle Federation Breweries.

The company also has a new-look £5,000 logo incorporating the Millennium Bridge and the River Tyne.