THE rise of Cains brewery came in tandem with an upturn in its home city’s own fortunes.

Bought out by the Dusanj brothers, Sudarghara and Ajmail, from Danish owners as a struggling investment in 2002, the following year saw the city’s Capital of Culture nomination.

Meanwhile, the Dusanjs – with a mix of business savvy, enthusiasm and confidence in the ability of the local workforce – began to shape a new brand with some dynamic new beers which took the brewing industry by storm.

They were aware of how important Liverpool was as a brand known throughout the modern world and wasted no time in pushing its name while promoting the beer.

Cains looked to build to a crest of a wave that peaked with their ambitious purchase of the Honeycombe Leisure and its portfolio of 109 pubs, a perfect collective stage to bring the burgeoning Cains empire to the drinker nationwide.

With hindsight, however, it couldn’t have come at the dawn of a worse time, with a triple whammy of catastro-phic proportions: the credit crunch, the public smoking ban and the kneejerk reac-tion of an abstemious PM and chancellor to use binge drinking hysteria as an excuse to lop another four pence on draught beer.

All those who have got to know the brothers and warmed to their enthusiasm for their adopted city will be hoping it will still be them pulling the pints in any last chance saloon.

READ the Post’s Mike Chapple At the Bar in today’s Day Six