NEWCASTLE Brown Ale is to be relaunched in Britain on draught later this year in a £2m campaign aimed at younger drinkers.

The beer, which has been sold chilled on draught in America for a number of years, has been seen as an “old man’s drink” in the UK, where it is generally sold warm in traditional pint bottles.

Details of the British relaunch are still under wraps, but it is believed to include the draft option, which is available at present in only a tiny number of pubs on Tyneside.

The move follows a $10m (£5.5m) marketing campaign including $4m advertising spend for draft Newcastle in America, aimed specifically at wealthier younger drinkers, including women. More than half of the output of the Newcastle brewery goes to America, where it is sold as a premium dark ale brand, with California its main market in trendy bars in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Clint Eastwood, who owns the Hog’s Breath Inn in Carmel, California, has reportedly said that Newcastle Brown Ale is his favourite brand.

The US campaign includes a partnership with supergroup Green Day during their two-month American concert tour over the summer, plus tie-ups with music magazines and a radio and poster campaign under the slogan “full-flavored yet easy to drink — the best of both worlds”.

The marketing spend is part of the strategy by Tony Froggatt, Scottish & Newcastle chief executive, to maximise the value of niche brands.

S&N Importers, the American subsidiary, has had 15 years of double-digit growth and now has $100m turnover, selling more than half a million hectolitres of Newcastle a year. Its target is to overtake the failing Bass as America’s largest imported dark ale, a target it expects to make in the next year. Independent American distributors say Bass has suffered since being taken over by the Belgian group Inbev, whose main brand in the US is Stella.

S&N sells 4.5 bottles of Newcastle per second in America, a market dominated by lager produced by domestic brewer Anheuser-Busch, whose Bud and Bud Lite sells 700 bottles per second.