The Brewery

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Planning permission for the new brewery was granted in September 1995 and detailed design of the brewery began. This included the building works, brewing vessels, a new borehole and a new electrical power line.

The task of fabricating a custom-made brewery to the highest quality standards was given to a local Suffolk-based engineering firm while the brewery was designed to be capable of producing a wide range of top-class beers.

The brewery has been built to the highest possible specification and uses stainless steel brewing equipment clad in copper or douglas fir and high quality fixed pipework. An open plan design was specified so that visitors could easily see how beer is brewed.

The brewery has been laid out around a courtyard so that the production process is easy to follow - raw materials come in at the end and are milled, brewing takes place up one side of the quadrangle, the fermentation vessels are mainly at the top end, and cask filling, bottle filling and despatch take place along the fourth side. The adjoining medieval thatched barn is used for storage.

Building work started in early March 1996 and the opening date was fixed for 21st June - the longest day of the year and the Summer solstice.
On 5th June 1996 at 7.00pm the first brew was started and, later, as we sat in the courtyard of the brewery, the copper boiling and the first glorious malt odours drifting into the early evening air, all the work and planning was seen to have paid off. Ten days later four different beers were tested and approved by an eager band of builders, welders, electricians and plumbers, not to mention the Chairman, the Head Brewer and various colleagues and friends - tasters were not in short supply that day!