The Robin Hood ran out of Draught Bass at 2pm on April 1. Landlord Jim Pratt at the pub on Victoria Street had loyally supported National Bass Day by ordering a barrel of this historic ale and saw it disappear down local throats at a rate of knots.

Bass Day is now an annual event when lovers of the beer hope to get the message to its owners, AB InBev, that it needs promoting with a little love and care.

Draught Bass used to be the biggest-selling premium ale in the country, accounting for 800,000 barrels a year. That’s now down to a meagre 30,000 barrels as its owners have no interest in this style of beer and put all their muscle behind global lager brands.

To underscore the point, Heineken, Britain’s biggest brewer and pub retailer, has announced a “multi-million pound launch” of a Spanish lager, Cruzcampo. It already produces its own lager along with Moretti and Amstel here and also brews Kronenbourg 1664 in a deal with its owners, Carlsberg.

Most of these brands are produced at a giant brewery in Manchester or another plant in Tadcaster in Yorkshire. Drinkers may think they’re getting genuine Continental lagers but the truth is somewhat different.

Kronenbourg 1664 in France is 5.5 per cent alcohol and five per cent here. Morreti is promoted as l’Autenica, but it’s hardly authentic when it’s produced in the UK rather than Italy.

The most shocking difference is Stella Artois, which is 5.2 per cent in Belgium, its country of origin, and 4.6 per cent here. The owner, AB InBev, says it lowered the strength of the British version to encourage “responsible drinking”.

It could have added that it saves millions of pounds in excise duty by lowering the level of alcohol.

It says the beer is “born of 600 years of brewing tradition in the Belgian town of Leuven”. That’s comforting, as Belgium is acclaimed for the quality of its beers. The only problem is that the Stella consumed here is brewed in Magor, south Wales.

The version of Cruzcampo that Heineken is about to launch here is 4.4 per cent while the beer brewed in Sevilla is 4.8 per cent. Four degrees of alcohol makes a substantial difference to the taste of a beer and, again, makes big savings in excise duty.

Other lager brands that fly under false colours include Carlsberg, brewed not in Denmark but in Northampton, Carling, originally Canadian but made in Burton-on-Trent, and Foster’s, which is brewed in Manchester, where Mr Dundee can safely sup free from attack by crocodiles.

Just about the only major lager brand that is a genuine import is Peroni, owned by the Japanese brewer Asahi but still brewed in Italy.

The biggest lulu of the lot is Madri, launched with great fanfares in 2020. Madri is an affectionate term for people who live in Madrid so clearly the beer is made in the Spanish capital.

But even though Madri carries the label Excepcional it’s not only unexceptional at 4.6 per cent but isn’t brewed in Madrid or anywhere else is Spain. It was developed by Molson Coors, a Canadian and American conglomerate based in the former Bass breweries in Burton-on-Trent. Hasta la Vista, as they say in Staffordshire.

Back on the Draught Bass front, since Bass left brewing in 2000 to run Holiday Inns, the beer has been owned by AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewer and owner of, among others, Budweiser and Stella.

Its lack of interest in ale can be seen by its offer to sell the brand, along with Boddington’s and Flowers, for £12 million. If you happen to have £12 million in a sock, be warned: you don’t get the famous Bass Red Triangle trademark, which the company uses to sell a keg version of the beer in the United States.

Draught Bass is brewed for AB InBev by Marston’s in Burton and they make a good fist of it. Drink and support it when you can and avoid fake fizzy lagers.