In the UK, a tied house (as opposed to a free house) is a pub
that
is owned or controlled by a brewery. The brewery usually acts as a
landlord while the tenant takes responsibility for the actual
running
of the pub. (Ironically, this individual is traditionally known as
"the
pub landlord".)
In practice, the brewery will use its stronger bargaining position
to
influence several aspects of policy and management. Most importantly,
the tenant will be required to sell the brewery's beer in exclusion
of competing brands. This tactic is responsible for the
ubiquity of
tied houses.
At the start of the twentieth century British magistrates
were using
the licensing system to reduce the number of pubs across
the country.
The resulting shortage meant that breweries had to buy pubs or find
themselves locked out of the market. By 1915 tied houses accounted for
95% of pub licences.
Since 1989 a law has granted tenants the right to stock "guest
beers" which goes a little way towards helping independent
breweries,
however most beer is still produced by the large consolidated
corporations.
sources:
Beer and Britannia, Peter Haydon,
2001
CAMRA website www.camra.org.uk