St Austell Brewery

St Austell Brewery is a brewery founded in 1851 by Walter Hicks in St Austell, Cornwall, England.

St Austell Brewery
IndustryBrewing
Founded1851
FounderWalter Hicks
Headquarters
St Austell
,
England
Key people
ProductsBeer
Production output
100,000 barrels
Number of employees
250
Websitewww.staustellbrewery.co.uk
St Austell Brewery
An unopened bottle of the open-source "Free Beer" which was brewed by St. Austell in 2007.

History

Originally named Walter Hicks & Co: brewers and wine merchants, the brewery company was renamed St Austell Brewery and significantly expanded by Hicks' daughter Hester Parnall (1868-1939), who became a Director in 1911. She took over running the company on her father's death in 1916, and added nearly 80 pubs and hotels to the brewery's holdings, becoming known for "ruling the company with the grace of a duchess combined with the aplomb of a successful businessman".[1]

The brewery's flagship beer is Tribute Ale, which accounts for around 80% of sales.[2] Other popular ales include Proper Job, Tinner's Ale and Duchy Bitter.[3]

On 1 July 2016 St Austell Brewery acquired Bath Ales.[4] In March 2017 a multi-million pound investment in a new brewery and larger bottling and canning facilities at Bath Ales was announced. Chief executive, James Staughton, described the rationale of the investment as "We needed to de-risk the business away from the seasonality of Cornwall. The further east we go, the more we're focused on city centres and the less seasonal the business becomes."[5]

Beers

Tribute was created to commemorate the 1999 solar eclipse. It was originally a one-off special named Daylight Robbery,[6] but proved to be so popular it was reintroduced as Tribute and has since won several awards around the UK.[6]

St Austell Brewery signed a deal in 2008 with Healeys Cornish Cyder Farm, near Truro, to continue kegging and distributing Rattler cyder and Rattler pear cyder for five years.

St Austell Brewery also produce M&S Cornish IPA, which is bottle-conditioned and sold in Marks and Spencer stores.[7]

Other products include:[8]

  • Proper Job IPA (4.5% cask, 5.5% bottled) - also sold as M&S Cornish IPA at a strength of 5%
  • Black Prince (4%)
  • Trelawny (3.8%)
  • HSD (Hicks Special Draught) (5.0%)
  • Dartmoor Best Bitter (3.5%)
  • Korev Cornish Lager (4.8%)
  • Big Job IPA (7.2%)
  • Mena Dhu (Cornish Stout) (4.5%)

References
  1. B, Lizzie (22 December 2022). "Hester Parnall (1868-1939)". Women Who Meant Business. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  2. Wingett, Mark (3 May 2011). "St Austell to brew for 24 hours a day". Morningadvertiser.co.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  3. "St Austell". ratebeer.com. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  4. "St Austell Brewery completes purchase of Bath Ales". www.bathales.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  5. "St Austell to double capacity at Bath Ales with new brewery". Brewers Journal. 7 March 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  6. "About Tribute Ale | St Austell Brewery". Tributeale.co.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  7. "St Austell beer joins M&S range". Beer Today. 2 June 2008. Archived from the original on 19 November 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2009.
  8. "Draught Range". St Austell Brewery. Retrieved 15 July 2015.


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