ONE of only a handful of brewsters – female brewers – producing real ale in the UK, Pam Honeyman has experienced huge success in less than a year in the business.

Mrs Honeyman, 39, launched Monty’s Brewery in the mid-Wales town of Montgomery in January, the first since the Eagle Brewery closed more than 20 years ago.

Her distinctively-named beers, Sunshine, Moonrise, Mojo, Desert Rats, Monty’s Midnight stout and Maple, are being supped in local pubs, supermarkets and delis. They’re also featured at food and drink festivals throughout Wales and parts of England.

The micro brewery at Montgomery’s Castle Works employs two full time workers and one part-time alongside Mrs Honeyman. Such has been the brewery’s success, she is already having to invest in more equipment, including her own bottling plant.

For the full article go to:  dailypost.co.uk

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Celebrating success from the left are Wood's staff Andrew Pinnock, Jo Varcoe, Chris Underwood, Edward Wood, Paul Benson, Andrew Willer, Nick Phillips

Staff at south Shropshire’s Wood Brewery are celebrating achieving a hat-trick of major competition successes.

The Wistanstow village brewery was one of two winners in the ‘best sponsorship’ category of the SIBA (Society for Independent Brewers) national awards for the brewing industry in London.

Wood’s took the highly commended award for creating ‘Triple A – Air Ambulance Ale’ to raise money through donating a percentage of the sales price of every pint to the Midlands Air Ambulance, which is celebrating 18 years of operations.

Wood’s Managing Director Edward Wood received the award from Oliver Hartley of Award sponsor Croxsons.

Edward said: “We’re delighted for ourselves, for the Air Ambulance, and for all the people who are showing their support for the charity by buying Triple A. Sales are going very well indeed and if the trend continues, we should be handing over a four-figure sum when the sponsorship ends after the end of the year.”

The Wood family have special cause to support the Air Ambulance charity. In August, three months after the brewery sponsorship began, Edward’s 15-year-old son Jonathan had to be air-lifted to Stoke for emergency brain surgery after sustaining a serious head injury while playing cricket in Shrewsbury. He has made a full recovery as a result.

The SIBA sponsorship award came hard on the heels of Wood’s being chosen as one of just 15 finalists from a starting selection of 100 in one of the most fiercely contested brewing contests in Britain, the Sainsbury’s Beer Competition. Wood’s shipped more than 30,000 bottles of their blonde Shropshire Lass beer to Sainsbury as a result of reaching the final.

“Sainsbury’s was an excellent boost for business in the very difficult recessionary conditions that the country is going through, and it’s got the name of Shropshire Lass very widely known,” he said.

In early summer, Wood’s took one of the top awards at the Heart of England Fine Foods Diamond Awards which celebrated the best of regional produce across the West Midlands. The brewery took home the Special Diamond Award for Excel which was sponsored by Advantage West Midlands. Judges commented that the brewery “regularly develops special products linked to the local community” and was “totally committed to reducing waste and energy”. The panel unanimously felt that this company was outstanding on corporate social responsibility and the way in which it used this to successfully market the company.

Said Edward: “The SIBA award is the icing on the cake of a very special summer for us. It’s a reward for the hard work of all the brewery’s staff and we’re looking forward to more success next year too, because we’ll be celebrating 30 years of brewing then.”

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Sue (Head Brewster) and John (second in command) from The Waen Brewery in Penstrowed, Mid Wales are off to The Stranger’s Bar on today to pull the first pint of their ale. 

Having sampled a pint of The First of The Summer Waen at a charity event, Lembit Opik requested that casks be put in to The Stranger’s Bar at The House of Commons.

Sue and John are making the trip from their rural home to the big city to serve customers a pint or two of their finest real ale.  They are just about to take delivery at the brewery of new conditioning vessels enabling them to fill polypins and party containers on demand.  It will also allow easier customer sampling!  www.thewaenbrewery.co.uk

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A Shropshire micro-brewery has stepped up to save one of the UK’s most historic pubs — where beer was served directly from casks and money paid into a row of jam jars.

The Grade II listed Sun Inn at Leintwardine, near Ludlow, Herefordshire, was run by Flossie Lane for 74 years, until her death in June.

The pub was expected to fetch up to £300,000 at auction in August, but this was delayed to allow locals to raise funding to buy it.

The Morning Advertiser reported that the pub had been saved by a group of locals at the start of September, but more details on the consortium have emerged.

Gary Seymour, who runs the Fiddler’s Elbow chip shop next to the pub, has teamed up with Nick Davis of Cleobury Mortimer-based Hobsons Brewery to buy the pub and secure its future. Hobsons is home to many award-winning beers, including 2007’s Champion Beer of Britain, Hobsons Mild.

The pair have now exchanged contracts through agents Jackson International, and completion is scheduled for 6 November.

Seymour told the Shropshire Star: “We are delighted to be able to retain the pub’s character. Clearly we need to get it on more of an economical foothold but without spoiling what is clearly a unique pub.”

The pub, a large 18th-century cottage, went on the market following Lane’s death, at 94, in June.

Taken from:  Morning Advertiser

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In 2010 Wye Valley Brewery will celebrate their 25^th year of brewing, but for now it is toasting record sales.

Said Vernon Amor MD of Wye Valley, ‘Cask ale is the star performer in the UK beer market and pubs which offer excellent cask ales are riding the current economic climate far better than those which aren’t.’

Amor continues, ‘We have grown like for like sales by 24% so far this year. It’s all about quality and provenance, people nowadays are interested in where their food and drink is made, what goes in to it and how far it has to travel before it reaches them.

At Wye Valley Brewery we use top quality locally grown hops and have recently teamed up with a local farmer to grow our own Herefordshire barley. We are looking forward to growing a true ‘Herefordshire beer’ for our silver anniversary next year.’

Next year will see major investment to increase capacity and create many local jobs. Wye Valley Brewery currently employs 30 local people and produces over 4.3 millions pints of beer annually.

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Article from The Shropshire Star

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Salopian Brewing Co Ltd, Darwins Origin 4.3%

SIBA Wales & West Beer Competition 2009

GOLD Champion

The results of the Wales & West beer competition were announced this evening at The Barrels pub in Hereford.  All gold winners from this competition will go through to the SIBA National Competition in the new year.

Congratulations to all winners.

Overall Champion of the Competition

Sponsored by Charles Faram

The full set of results and photos can be found at SIBA National & Regional Beer Competitions

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Two new brewsters (female brewers) are showing their stuff at The Welsh Food Festival at Glansevern near Welshpool. Sue Hayward (Waen Brewery) and Pam Honeyman (Monty’s Brewery) are both new to brewing this year, and enjoying rapid growth!

Within 15 miles of each other both are enjoying great popularity with their beers going to The House of Commons Stranger’s bar after the recess! www.thewaenbrewery.co.uk www.montysbrewery.co.uk

The Waen Brewery is based in Penstrowed Powys and is run by husband and wife team Sue and John and their two children Hermia and Oscar ( mean bottlers and fermenter scrubbers!) The brewery has been trading since the beginning of May and has been overwhelmed with public demand for their bottle and cask conditoned ales.

Monty’s is run by Pam Honeyman and based in Montgomery, they started trading this year and has beers in many local pubs and has just started producing Monty’s Sunshine in bottles. They will both be at The Welsh Food Festival for the first weekend in September.

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The man who guided the destinies of the Morgan car for almost fifty years, H.F.S. Morgan, was born at Morton Jeffries Rectory, Herefordshire in 1881. His father was the Reverend Prebendary H G Morgan at Stoke Lacy. The first Morgan, built 100 years ago spent much of its time in Stoke Lacy, the home of Wye Valley Brewery.

Morgan Centenary Ale, 4.4% abv, is the second beer that Wye Valley Brewery has brewed in association with Morgan. Both companies have a link with Stoke Lacy, and they both use a blend of traditional craftsmanship and modern production techniques to produce qualities that go beyond the ordinary.

Morgan Centenary Ale, is available in cask throughout August as a part of Wye Valley’s monthly beer offering. The beer is described by Head Brewer Jimmy Swan as ‘a chestnut coloured ale, with a distinctive nutty, biscuity flavour and crisp hop character’.

Said Matthew Parkin, from the Morgan Motor Co, “Morgan are delighted to be associated with Wye Valley Brewery and Centenary Ale.  Both of our roots lead to the small village of Stoke Lacy, and our dedication to quality and traditional practices with a thoroughly modern twist make our joint venture much more than just a brand name on a bottle.  We will be celebrating our Centenary in style at Cheltenham Racecourse on 1^st and 2^nd August with plenty of Centenary Ale on tap and a host of entertainments for the whole family.  We’ll be raising a glass to the next 100 years.”

Morgan Centenary Ale is also available in bottle.

Wye Valley Brewery has further strengthened their relationship with Morgan with the opening of their new pub in Malvern. Once called the Cavalry Arms, Wye Valley Brewery has reopened the pub and renamed it The Morgan.

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