Hobson's Brewery & Co Ltd

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Hobson's Brewery & Co Ltd, The Brewery, Cleobury Industrial Estate, Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire.

Brewing commenced 1993.

In 1996 they moved to the Newhouse Brewery, Tenbury Road.


John Howard writes:-

Founded in 1993 by the Davis family, over the past 26 years Hobsons have grown to become a leading brewer in Shropshire and one of the most sustainable breweries in the UK. The success of the brewery and its many awards has been down to a strong culture of supporting the region, its people and its resources.

Hobsons Brewery was started by founder Nick Davis and his Dad Jim. They decided they would start a brewery in the late eighties when Jim was running a pub in Somerset. Nick was a qualified licensed property surveyor working for several of the West Country Breweries and decided that there were better ways to enjoy life and beer than do 1,000 miles a week traveling around the country.

Hobsons started during Easter 1993 as a family business, after four months searching for premises, plant and machinery and time spent researching local tastes.

The first brew – words of Nick The first brew was thrown; it didn’t actually make it to the copper, a result of a failed Mash Tun design. Needless to say, after a sleepless night Brew 2 was a success. The first sale able batch of Hobsons Best was sold to a handful of local pubs including the Kings Arms, which still sells it today. Hobsons currently brew 180 – 200 barrels of beer a week, have 5 core cask ales, plus 2 core beers in keg. They also have monthly special brews to match the time of year, such as Green Hop which is brewed in September using freshly picked hops.

Our Sustainable thinking ... Ground source heat pumps, GAIA Wind Turbine, Rainwater Harvesting...

At Hobsons they don't just follow others when it comes to sustainability and also create innovative solutions where there were originally barriers. When they were told there were no technologies to simultaneously heat our bottle conditioning room and cool our barrel store utilising a ground source heat pump system they designed their own solution.

For the past five years they have created an imaginative yet environmentally efficient system that recovers heat from the cold store return. Four boreholes were sunk providing a constant 11°C of water that is then compressed for heat or cooling or both, it is so effective that we now heat the offices using the same system.

To enhance the efficiency of the ground source heat pump they installed an 11kw GAIA Wind turbine, a pretty twin blade design that powers about a third of the brewery's requirements. When the turbine is used to power the compressors that provide heating/cooling from the boreholes a super-efficient system is created. They have installed a rainwater harvesting system to capture surplus rainwater from the extensive roofs of the barrel and bottle store and utilise this grey water for vehicle washing, general wash-down, hand wash and toilet flushing. As well as large-scale technologies they have also embraced small changes that all contribute to sustaining the environment. Amongst these changes are the introduction of light weight beer bottles that have reduced the packaging waste. Hops - Hobsons are fortunate to have hops yards just seven miles down the road from the brewery. Living so close to primary ingredients has helped form strong relationships with the growers to source the finest hops varieties to brew the beers.

Hobsons Brewery Tap – onsite brewery taproom In April 2014 they opened a new facility at the brewery to host brewery trips and special events. The vision was to create an enhanced visitor experience at Hobsons Brewery and Cleobury Mortimer, by developing a sustainable space working in collaboration with local partners.

The project received £50,000 worth of funding from Defra's Rural Development Programme for England and was officially opened on 2nd April 2014 by Rural Affairs Minister Dan Rogerson. The multifaceted facility has been constructed by local tradesmen using locally sourced materials; the building has been constructed with Gabions utilising local Cleehill stone, offering high levels of insulation and low energy use. Sustainable technologies including a ground source heating system have also been installed to minimise energy use.

5 years later in 2019, the space formerly known as the tasting room has blossomed into Hobsons Brewery Tap.

Beers:-

  • Mild (OG 1034 ABV 3.2%)
  • Twisted Spire (OG 1036 ABV 3.6%)
  • Best (OG 1038.5 ABV 3.8%)
  • Old Prickly (OG 1042 ABV 4.2%)
  • Town Crier (OG 1044 ABV 4.5%)