The last true bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale will be brewed next week.

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

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

The brewing process takes around 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 to be brewed in a long tradition which began in 1927.

The brewery has been slowly running down since S and 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.

Just 69 staff are left at the Newcastle site. From the end of May 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 broon ale.

They hope to start bottling on Saturday, May 28.

A spokesman for S and N said the change over 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.

"Over the weeks and months we have been able to make sure we do not go spare. We have build up a stock in warehouses. "

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

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