A quick county tour of the small craft breweries of Cheshire, with links to their own sites and a few notes on their real ales and where to find them. For details of their real ales in bottle form, click here.

Beartown Brewery

Found in Cheshire in the free trade and at their own outlets: the Beartown Tap in Congleton, the AP Club in Holmes Chapel and also at the Navigation in Stockport.
Brewery visits can be booked by contacting as per the details in the Good Beer Guide. The brewery are once again looking to expand their tied estate. Further pubs are being looked at but as yet no firm news is available as to where these pubs will be.
The first of Beartown's own outlets are;
The Navigation - Stockport. This pub won the CAMRA Regional Pub of The Year award for Greater Manchester and is a reflection of the hard work that licensee and staff have put into getting this pub to the standard it is today. Needless to say, sales of all the Beartown beers are doing very well.
The Beartown Tap - Congleton. This pub won the CAMRA Regional Pub of The Year Award for Merseyside, Cheshire & North Wales and again is a reflection of the effort the licensee and staff have put into making the brewery tap the place it is today. TThe pub regularly has one real cider plus one or two guest beers on along side a selection of beers from the Beartown range. Sales at the Tap still continue to grow and meet expectations.
The AP Club - Holmes Chapel. The fourth handpump that was installed to dispense a guest beer has been a success, sales of the guest have gone well. Sales of the three Beartown beers are also selling very well. Trade is still on the increase especially Friday nights and weekends.
Cheshire Ring - Hyde

Beartown have been looking at bottling some of their beers. Sales of the bottle conditioned beer will initially be limited to within it's tied estate with a view to it being sold in supermarkets. Sales of the full range of beers from the brewery are growing very well both in the tied estate and the open market.

The brewery are looking to introduce more guest ales into their pubs on a regular basis and are currently looking for breweries to do swaps with. Any brewery that is interested should contact the head brewer, Ian Burns, on Phone 01477 537274 or Fax 01477 535439. Further information on Beartown can always be found on the brewery web site www.beartownbrewery.co.uk

Betwixt

Based on the Wirral, and not strictly in Cheshire, but we aren't going to be precious about it, especialy where decent beers is concerned! Cask beers can be found in the free trade around the Wirral. Bottles can be bought at Farmers' markets around the NorthWest and htere is a home delivery service. See their website for more details.

Bollington Brewing Company

Almost 80 years since brewing ceased at the Heavers Brothers site in Bollington, brewing has been revived by the team at the Vale Inn. The new brewery has been set up by Lee Wainwright and is based close to his pub, the Vale Inn. It launched in July 2008 with First Brew (4.2%), a golden coloured, slightly hoppy bitter which now has a permanent name; White Nancy (named after a local landmark). This was followed by Bollington Nights (3.9%). Their 3rd brew is Ginger Brew (4%). The regular range comprises 7 real ales, plus of course, seasonal special brews. All of these beers are availablle as Real Ale in a Bottle.

At the Champion Beer of Cheshire Competition held recently at the Nantwich Beer Festival not only did Bollington win the top prize of ‘Champion Beer of Cheshire’ with Bollington Best, but also took second place with Oat Mill Stout. This is a remarkable achievement for a new operation and the first time that a brewer has won two of the top three spots.

The brewing business is showing healthy growth, with take away options and a move into the free trade. Beer Boxes are available in 9, 18 or 36 pint sizes and will last up to seven days. The beer is supplied ‘bright’ with no need for settling. They will also be doing fined beers, which will last up to two months but need to be settled and kept cool. Ideally orders should be in advance but it is always worth phoning to see if there is one ready in stock.
For more modest needs, 4 pint Carry Kegs are always available at the Vale.

www.bollingtonbrewing.co.uk

Borough Arms

The first brewery in Crewe since the demise of Woolf's brewery in 1923.
The two barrel brewplant, ex Townhouse, has been modified to suit the premises.
For those of you who would like to try some of the brewery's beers, check your Good Beer Guide before you travel to visit the pub and note the opening times.
***recommenced its brew-pub operation in October 2008. The first three beers are
Leaves on the line; an Autumn Ale at 4.7% abv
Gold; a light session Ale (4.0% abv)
Befuggled; a strong light Ale (5.0%)

Of course there are always 4 or 5 guest beers from other brewers available at the bar.
www.borougharmscrewe.co.uk

Brimstage

Based at an old farm dairy at Brimstage on the Wirral, this is not strictly in Cheshire, but who's counting?
The beers include Sandpiper Pale (3.4%),Trapper's Hat Bitter (3.8%), Oystercatcher Stout (4.4%), Rhode Island Red Bitter (4%) and Scarecrow Bitter (4.2%).

www.brimstagebrewery.com 0151 342 1181

Coach House

A new series of single varietal hop beers began in July with Cascade Blonde. Incredibly, the hops are used in the brewing kettle, late hops are also added, the beer is then dry hopped and yet more hops are added in the fermenting vessel!
New beers are anticipated at 6 to 8 week intervals, with Bramling Cross appearing in September.

Coach House hold the 2001 award for Champion Beer of Cheshire, with Postlethwaite. This coveted prize was won at the Macclesfield Beer Festival.

Former head brewer at Greenall Whitley, Neil Chantrell was responsible for creating such delights as Greenalls Original. When Greenalls ceased brewing in 1991 he and three other ex employees purchased some of the brewing plant that they were scrapping, and Coach House rose like a phoenix from the ashes of Greenalls Brewery.
www.coach-house-brewing.co.uk

Dunham Massey

Dunham Massey Brewing Company is a small family run craft brewery located on National Trust land in the town of Dunham Massey, just outside the Cheshire boundary and set up in late 2006 in October 2007 John Costello brewed his first batch of Big Tree Bitter (3.9%) and Deer Beer (4.5%). And it wasn't too long until these were joined with Dunham Massey's other regular beer, Stamford Bitter (4.2%), and the seasonal ale, Dunham Massey Winter Warmer (6.6%).

More news from one of our new craft brewers, Dunham Massey. A 4.2%, 'Stout' is now available. It is described as a creamy, full bodied, all English, dry stout, with a classic bitter, burnt, dark roast flavour. Cask conditioned Stout has been distributed to a few pubs already with the remainder of the brew being made available at the brewery shop in bottle conditioned (Real Ale in a Bottle) form. First reports are that this is a terrific beer.
They also have a Cheshire IPA said to be inspired by the traditional English India Pale Ales with a gravity of 4.7%, light and hoppy, finished with Fuggles and Goldings
What is more, this inventive micro-brewery also have the Little Bollington Ale in bottles and a Milk Stout.

Further accolades; Chocolate Cherry Mild (3.8%) was voted Beer of the Festival at a recent Essex CAMRA Beer Festival, being praised as "an excellent full flavoured mild." This follows a Bronze Award for the same beer at Stockport Beer Festival. John's success has resulted in a request from the organizers of the Great British Beer Festival in August for his Chocolate Cherry Mild on draught and two bottled-conditioned beers (Deer Beer and Dark Mild) for the Real Ale in a Bottle outlet. This is almost unheard of for such a newly-established Brewery. John has produced a further new beer; Little Bollington Ale (3.7%).
Dunham Massey continue to add new beers to their portfolio including Cheshire IPA (4.7), Stout (4.2) and Milk Stout(4). Two mild ales are available in the form of Dunham Light and Dunham Dark, while a seasonal special Treacle Treat has also been seen.

Real ale in a bottle is also available from the brewery shop.

www.dunhammasseybrewing.co.uk

Khean Brewing, Congleton

The Khean Brewing Co was set up by Ken Newsome, local CAMRA member and beer enthusiast using a five-barrel plant in an industrial unit off Royle Street in the centre of Congleton. The name was a combination of "Ken" and his wife's initials. Some of the beers were reviewed by our enthusiastic memebrs as follows;

Premium Bitter was a 4.4% golden beer using Maris Otter malt and a little pale crystal malt, with the distinctive bitterness from Challenger hops, that reminded one of a wheat beer.

All Rounder, a 3.9% standard bitter. Hoppier than the bitter, very clear, pale gold and good.

Leg Spinner a 4.4% ABV with quite a bitter taste to it, again, it's a light straw coloured beer, reminiscent of a few Cotleigh beers.

Seamer was a 4.5% chestnut malty bitter.

Jingle Bails, a winter ale.

Khean Brewing began to bottle its beers, starting with the 4.2% Caught Behind stout. It was bottle conditioned, too. I was able to try some at a Holly Tree Farm tasting event where it was very well received. Beartown Off Licence on the Bromley Farm estate in Congleton were selling Jingle Bails and Caught Behind.

Khean Brewing ceased operating in September 2004, with the plant, the recipes, the established outlets and Ken himself (as consultant) all passing to the newly-formed Woodlands Brewing Company of Wrenbury. As you can see, the beer names were all charmingly connected with our national summer game. Given our boys' triumph over the Aussies in 2005, it is a pity Ken was never able to produce a smoked beer and call it The Ashes.

Northern puts the Soul back into Halton's Brewing Heritage
Halton is believed to have lost its last "proper" brewery way back in 1906 when Thomas Jones's Navigation Brewery ceased brewing. This was located at the Navigation pub - now owned by Wolverhampton and Dudley following their takeover of Marstons.
It wasn't until 1973 that Bass built a "mega-keggery" at Preston Brook following their decision to concentrate their brewing operations on a few massive keg breweries. This managed to survive 18 years before rationalisation caught up with it. Since then, Halton has managed to miss out on the microbrewery revolution … until now.

Northern Brewing Ltd was set up in the Runcorn Old Town close to the station, run by Colin Stubbs. The plant has a capacity of 5 barrels and was formerly used by the now defunct Orchard Brewery of Barnsley.
There are two ranges - a "Northern Soul" (one of Colin's interests) themed range for the guest beer market and a more traditional range (mild, bitter, best bitter etc) aimed at regular accounts and sold under the Stubbs banner. Colin's preference is for light, hoppy and bitter beers so expect these characteristics to be a trademark of his beers. He also has access to Orchard recipes and expects to revive at least one of these.
Colin was keen to ensure the product is right before selling it into trade so we can't provide a list of outlets yet - however, you can expect to see the beers in the usual free trade outlets. We would be happy to hear of sightings of the beers from this exciting new venture.

We hear that the two latest beers are Soul Rider (4%) and Twist & Stout. This latter was brewed as a special but is expected to become a regular. The operation moved to Blakemere Craft Centre in 2005.

Northern Brewery continues to expand its range of specials with a series named after famous dogs! There have also been some other one-off beers. Macclesfield Beer Festival 2008 also produced a prize for Northern who took 2nd for Hit and Run (4.5%). Northern beers are available from their shop at Blakemere Craft Centre and on-line via their website www.norbrew.co.uk .

Paradise Brewery

Now in the sole ownership of John Wood, brewing has mover, we believe, to the Three Rivers site in Stockport. We understand much of the production is in bottled format, being sold at farmers' markets under the Old Creamery label. Beers are Old Creamery Mild (3.6%), Farmer's Favourite (4%), Dabbers (5%) and Nantwich Ale (5.6%).

Sarah's Hop House, Warrington
Sarah's Hophouse Brewery, 131 High Street, Golborne, Warrington WA3 3TG 01942 728202

Sarah's Hophouse has apparently closed. The premises were up for sale, but apparently, not the brewery plant. We understood that production was planned to continue elsewhere, and we await further news.

Spitting Feathers
This operation began in June 2005, with the beers appearing in pubs in Chester, comprising Thirst Quencher (3.9%), Special Ale (4.2%), Old Wavertonian (4.4%) a stout and Basket Case, a winter ale at 4.8%. Sightings have included Old Harker's Arms, Telford's Warehouse, the Plough at Christleton, and the Nag's Head at Lavister. Spitting Feathers have opened their first pub; the Brewery Tap; in Bridge Street, Chester. It sells a range of no fewer than four of their own beers plus guest three beers and a real cider in what sounds like superb surroundings; a “must visit”. Contact details are Telephone 01244 332052, website www.spittingfeathers.org or E-mail info@spittingfeathers.org

Station House

A new operation in Ellesmere Port. Station House beers can now be bought at their shop, adjoining the brewery at Lady Heyes Craft Centre. The plans for opening a micro-brewery started in 2004 when the brewer Barrie Davidson and his wife Hazel decided to open a micro-brewery. Barrie left his job as a Community Regeneration Officer with a local authority and decided to attend a practical brewing course at BREWLAB, University of Sunderland.

Barrie and Hazel's plans were to open a brewery in the area where they lived and persisted in trying many sites to locate their brewery. Consequently the name "Station House" comes from original plans to open a brewery at a redundant railway station in Frodsham. The brewery produces a range of core beers, seasonal and monthly specials, all named by the brewer, however starting in January 2008 there will be a competition to name a beer for each village in the Frodsham Forward area (Helsby, Manley, Frodsham, Alvanley and Norley). These beers will become core beers from the brewery.

1st Lite 3.8% A robust, full flavoured, pale bitter beer, with grapefruit and varying citrus tones, and 'stay in the mouth' after taste. Made with Halcyon malt and late hopped with three American hops.
3 Score 4.5% An amber bronze, malt beer, fruity tang and long after taste. A three hop signature beer with raisin after taste.
Aonach 4.9%. A typical Scottish style 80/- beer. Dark amber in colour, late hopped with New Zealand hops.
Buzzin' 4.3% Bronze medal winner for Best Bitter 2007 Great British Beer Festival. Golden fruity bitter with a hint of honey. A single hop beer with good hop flavours and a dry finish. Named after the brewer's wife Hazel.
Froda's Ale 4.2% A traditional tawny bitter, with hoppy and slight liquorice taste. Named after Froda, Saxon leader of Frodsham.
Lady O' the Stream 3.9% A light golden beer. Fruity, fragrant and citrus. A three-hop variety to savour.
Lammastide 5% An English wheat beer with distinct elderflower aromas.
MynzaMild 3.9% A mahogany mild, with fruity aftertaste.
Night Mail 4.7% A dry, jet black stout using roasted barley, oat malt and three hop addition. Sharp with mellowing aftertaste.
Ode 2 Joy 4.1% A flavoursome - like music 'refreshing' beer. Blonde in colour with tingling tastes of orange and lemon.
Splash 3.9% A blonde, refreshing, summer beer. Crisp & citrus with hoppy flavours. Dry hopped with Cascade. Enjoy!
Wintafest 5.5% A winter warmer beer. Dark and malty with citrus fruit, raisin and spice flavours and rich, hoppy aromas. A beer to share on cold winter nights.

0151-373-5422, website www.stationhousebrewery.co.uk or Email zemroch@clara.co.uk

Storm Brewing
Recently celebrated their 10th anniversary. Very much a part of the Macclesfield scene, with a loyal folowing and a range of fantastic beers. Owners and brewers Hugh Thompson and Dave Stebbings operate from premises nestling below the Silk Road flyover, housed in a former pub, the Mechanics Arms, which closed in 1937. The space available means that local bands use the building for rehearsals, and there is a remarkably quirky hospitality room. Hugh & Dave are stalwarts of the local music scene, as members of Dazed and Confused.

Hugh & Dave produce an impressive portfolio of traditional beers with Ale Force (1040) being the biggest seller. The range also extends to Beth's Bitter (1035), Best Bollington (1036), Desert Storm (1038), Bitter Experience (1038), Windgather (1042) Storm Damage (1045) and Silk of Amnesia (1045).
Dave reports that the Chancellor's cut in beer duty for small brewers proved highly beneficial, saving £10 a cask and releasing funds for both brewery development and more aggressive pricing.

Two new fermenting vessels are now on stream and have increased brewing capacity to 15 barrels a week. A new beer, 'Hurricane Hubert' commemorates the full time start of Hugh Thompson. At 4.5% it is darker in colour and uses only Golding hops. This is the first time that Storm have used Goldings. A new summer beer will be lighter, and is likely to be called "Summer Daze".
Bottling of Storm's real ale has begun, by Leek Brewery, with the first batch being Silk of Amnesia. Dave and Hugh would be happy to hear of outlets for their bottled range.

The AB150 brew has proved very successful as did the Xmas special, "Looks like rain, Dear". The range of bottle-conditioned beers are all accredited by CAMRA as real ale in a bottle and Storm has joined the labelling scheme. Unfortunately for armchair drinkers, bottling is a low priority, as the boys can sell most of their production readily in the free trade.

WC Brewing

The cricket-themed ale Caught Short did very well recently. It won beer of the festival at the 2008 Chester Autumn Beer Festival and was runner up in the Champion Beer of Cheshire voting at the Nantwich festival. Sportingly, they say that they can't complain at missing out
on that one as the winning Northern porter was top notch!! WC then completed a hat trick by then winning beer of the festival at the Carlton Tavern in Handbridge with Bee's Wheeze, a beer brewed with local Cheshire Honey, specially commissioned by the landlord. www.wcbrewery.com

Wincle

A new brewery in Wincle opened in summer 2008. While Wincle is in Cheshire, the brewery is located on a farm just over the border in Staffordshire. The first Wincle beers have now appeared in Cheshire and Staffordshire pubs – including the Crag Inn, Wincle.
01260 226166

Woodlands Brewing Company

Woodlands Brewing Company was set up in Wrenbury (close to the former Paradise Brewery) by John Skeaping.
Using the brewing plant acquired from Congleton's Khean Brewing, John originally kept the range of Khean beers, before developing a new beer range, beginning with Woodlands Bitter. When this was first test-brewed it proved so popular that one pub sold a nine gallon cask in two hours!

John bought Woodlands Farm near Wrenbury a year and a half ago and discovered a spring in a peat field. Tests revealed that the water was rich in minerals and once John had been put in touch with Ken, trial brews were made. Woodlands Bitter is said to have some of the qualities of Bass, a beer that John used to take great care of in the cellar when he ran a free house.

Khean's founder, Ken Newsome has been acting as a consultant to the new operation. Ken decided to close down his one-man operation in Congleton. Although it had been profitable and had produced some delightful beers, the workload was very high for one person.

Woodlands Brewing take great care to look after all the old Khean Brewing outlets but plans to expand the operation. Output is likely to double.

More information on the beer range and a history of the operation can be found on their website. Cases of their real ales in bottle can be ordered on-line. Woodlands Brewery Company can also be reached by E-mail woodlandsbrewery@aol.com or by telephoning 01270-780730.

Woodlands Brewing are expanding their range of Cheshire-brewed real ales. It now includes the following;

The beers may be found at various times at some of the following pubs;

Woodlands have had enormous success with Midnight Stout and so far there are three pubs who have taken this in place of Guinness. It was tasted at the Congleton Leisure Centre Beer Festival and was superb.

Woodlands are on the lookout for more pubs to add to their first outlet, the Globe in Nantwich.

Champion Beer of Cheshire

The competition was held in September 2008 at Nantwich Beer Festival

Champion : Northern Brewing’s Deep Dark Secret – a delicious porter
Runner-up : WC Caught Short

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No mention of micro-brewers could be made without reference to the last two Budgets, and the introduction of a new sliding scale of beer duty. The Chancellor originally imparted more spin than Muttiah Muralitharan in suggesting that we would all be paying 14p a pint less in our village pubs in time for the World Cup. The reality is very different. Little or none of this duty savinghas been passed on to the drinker. All it has done is level up the playing field a little. Bigger brewers have economies of scale, and can undercut the little man. So now our microbrewers and family-owned regional brewers are now able to sell a bit more competitively, invest in new equipment, maybe acquire the odd pub or two as regular outlets and perhaps employ more staff. Good luck to them.
If only Gordon would consider an across-the-board reduction in duty, to put a stop to cross-Channel smuggling!

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What goes around comes around ….
10 years ago life was simple. We had Greenalls and Allied (Tetleys) with a smattering of other nationals,
regionals and free trade outlets. This is how it had been for many a long year, bar some improved choice due to the odd pub being sold off.
However, the infamous "Beer Orders" put paid to this stability. While, initially, some relief was provided by guest beers, it soon became apparent that the pressure was on for brewers to divest themselves of their tied estate or give up brewing altogether.
Greenalls were the first to make a move, getting out of brewing in 1991 to concentrate on their pub estate. As traditional tenancies moved over to long-term leases, they developed the pub franchise concept. Eventually, in 1998, this business was floated off as a separate company, Inn Partnership financed by Japanese bank Nomura.
In 1999, Allied decided to concentrate on its brewing operation Carlsberg-Tetley and sell its pubs to Punch. Punch had been formed some years earlier to purchase the Bass tenancies and was also financed by Nomura.
By 2001, Greenalls lost the plot altogether and sold the managed pubs to the last national brewery and pub owner, Scottish and Newcastle.
These ownership changes did have some advantage as the new owners "churned" their estates occasionally
disposing of pubs to independent brewers rather than other PubCos.
In 2002, Inn Partnership sold out to Pubmaster - a group formed out of the Brent Walker empire which then owned Camerons and Tolly Cobbold. They subsequently gained a presence in our area through their takeover of the Vaux estate.
The final chapter of this saga was played out at the end of 2003. Scottish and Newcastle finally sold its pubs and concentrate on what it does best; brewing(!) The pubs were sold to Spirit - a group which just happened to be formed by the disposal of Punch's managed estate ! Shortly after Punch agreed terms to takeover Pubmaster.
So Punch now hold the bulk of Greenalls and Allied's tenanted pubs and Spirit have the managed ones !
Confused? You will be!
So where do we stand now ? From an area dominated by Allied and Greenalls, we now have one dominated by Punch and its sibling Spirit.
Are we better off ? I suppose that depends as ever as to what has happed to your local. There are fewer Regional brewers around. The PubCos continue to peddle the inferior wares of the international brewers - primarily
ScottishCourage, Carlsberg-Tetley, Coors and Interbrew. Regional brewery beers from across the country tend to be widely available on the PubCo's guest lists and micro-brewers continue to struggle in a restricted market.
Despite the rationalisation of pub ownership, the situation is far from stable with estates continuing to be "churned", bigger PubCos swallowing smaller ones and also attempting to grab successful free trade outlets. Stability has gone and choice is as much under threat as ever. CAMRA's job has become harder than ever.