'Zee-tho-fyle', by Martyn Cornell, an award-winning blog about beer now and then, founded in 2007
Two traditional breweries: a photo-essay
Compared to, say, Roger Putman, recently retired editor of Brewer & Distiller International magazine, who has visited more than 170 different breweries in his career, I’ve really not been to that many: fewer than 60, across four decades, albeit in six different countries. Pfff. Amateur status. But inexplicably, in 2014 I was welcomed into seven different brewhouses, of all sizes, that I had never been to before, from the massive new set-up at Guinness in Ireland to Twickenham Fine Ales’ current base, which may be bigger than its first home, but still produces less in a year than Brewhouse No 4 in Dublin makes in a day.
I take my camera with me around breweries, though I’m not, I cannot emphasise enough, a photographer in any sense except being the idiot pressing the shutter button. Very occasionally I get something that isn’t actually terrible. And since 2010 I’ve been using a camera that is fantastic at taking low-light shots, which helps enormously inside buildings. I have put a few of the pictures from my 2014 trips up on the blog to illustrate the pieces I wrote at the time, but two trips, to Shepherd Neame in Faversham and Hook Norton in Oxfordshire, never produced any words. So here is a small selection of snaps from two of Britain’s most traditional breweries:
Shepherd Neame brewery, Faversham
Entrance to the Shepherd Neame brewery in Faversham, Kent
An old radiator-style heat-exchange wort cooler, late 19th or early 20th century, discarded and lying around the Faversham brewery. The hot wort ran into the trough at the top and over the outside of the cooler, through which ran cold water, then poured into the trough at the bottom and ran away to the fermenting vesselLovely poster from the time of the Shepherd & Mares partnership at the Faversham brewery, circa 1849-1864, hanging in the Faversham brewery boardroomA poster for Shepherd Neame’s bottled beers from 1926, now also hanging in the company boardroom in Faversham
The 1914 mash tun at the Shepherd Neame brewery, refurbished 1949, still in useInside the 1914 mash tun at the Faversham brewery, showing the slotted floor plates
A copper lauter tun in the Shepherd Neame brewhouse, Faversham, with a copper in the background
Stained glass windows in the Shepherd Neame brewhouse. Spot the icons, including a bishop’s finger signpost, and the Shepherd & Mares trademark
Inside the Shepherd Neame sampling room, with slate tasting notes
Framed letter in the Shepherd Neame sample room introducing the brewery’s newest beer in 1958, Bishops Finger
Hook Norton brewery
The Hook Norton brewery, designed by the brewery architect William Bradford, who also designed Harvey’s brewery in Lewes and McMullen’s in Hertford, among many others. This is the ‘cliche shot’ of Hook Norton, the one everybody takes, but hey …
There’s a joke in here somewhere about a work of art fit for the Louvres …
Old grist mill at the Hook Norton breweryA notice on the wind trunk, a device for separating the plump malted grain from the dust and faulty, too-light grains before the malt was groundInside a mash tun at the Hook Norton brewery wth the plates up after cleaningDisused copper cooler at the top of the Hook Norton brewery. The hot, newly boiled wort would be pumped up into the shallow cooler, and the louvres opened for the steam to escape as the wort cooled down before it was run into the fermenting vessels below and the yeast pitched. Infections? Undoubtedly …Copper, Hook Norton brewery. This is one of the few I have seen in a “large” brewery that does not exhibit the “iceberg” effect, where most of the copper is hidden below the floor that the operator stands on to feed in hopsInside the (empty, obviously) copper at the Hook Norton brewery
10 thoughts on “Two traditional breweries: a photo-essay”
Oh, wow… that cooler at the top of the brewery.
Hook Norton need to clean it up and do a wildish sort of critter… coolship style?
Seconded. Memories of Cantillon there.
Fabulous articles with great photographs, Martyn ! My congratulations with those! I now regret terribly that I never took a good camara with me on my brewery visits.
Have you been to Harveys of Lewes yet ??
Yes, I’ve ticked off both Harvey’s and McMullens, so I have all three surviving William Bradford breweries under my belt.
Thanks for publishing some internal shots from Shepherd Neame and Hook Norton, enjoyed them.
I have stood outside both of these breweries, unable to enter. This is the next best thing – thank you!
Thanks Martyn, I have a question about the mash tun at Shepard’s, is that entirely made of wood? I can’t tell for sure from the picture. If so it seems rather late for still using wood. I am trying to find out how far back metal plates mash tuns go. Do you have an knowledge on that?
Thanks,
Frank Clark
The plates in the base of ther Sherps mash tun are certainly metal: the cast iron mash tun was patented by Jonathan Dickson in 1808, but many big brewers, including Bass, Allsopp and Barclay Perkins, were still using wooden mash tuns in 1889.
Very interesting article and great pictures. I’m particularly interested in how these traditional mash tuns supported their false bottoms, did they use a ledge around the edge of the vessel ?
[…] Martyn Cornell has a nice photo tour of the Shepherd Neame Brewery. And on YouTube there’s an interesting tour of the brewery. […]
Oh, wow… that cooler at the top of the brewery.
Hook Norton need to clean it up and do a wildish sort of critter… coolship style?
Seconded. Memories of Cantillon there.
Fabulous articles with great photographs, Martyn ! My congratulations with those! I now regret terribly that I never took a good camara with me on my brewery visits.
Have you been to Harveys of Lewes yet ??
Yes, I’ve ticked off both Harvey’s and McMullens, so I have all three surviving William Bradford breweries under my belt.
Thanks for publishing some internal shots from Shepherd Neame and Hook Norton, enjoyed them.
I have stood outside both of these breweries, unable to enter. This is the next best thing – thank you!
Thanks Martyn, I have a question about the mash tun at Shepard’s, is that entirely made of wood? I can’t tell for sure from the picture. If so it seems rather late for still using wood. I am trying to find out how far back metal plates mash tuns go. Do you have an knowledge on that?
Thanks,
Frank Clark
The plates in the base of ther Sherps mash tun are certainly metal: the cast iron mash tun was patented by Jonathan Dickson in 1808, but many big brewers, including Bass, Allsopp and Barclay Perkins, were still using wooden mash tuns in 1889.
Very interesting article and great pictures. I’m particularly interested in how these traditional mash tuns supported their false bottoms, did they use a ledge around the edge of the vessel ?
[…] Martyn Cornell has a nice photo tour of the Shepherd Neame Brewery. And on YouTube there’s an interesting tour of the brewery. […]