Return to John Smith's Tadcaster Brewery Co. Ltd
In 1758 innkeeper David Backhouse and local postmaster John Hartley built a brewhouse where the Angel and White Horse is situated today on Tadcaster High Street
This aerial view shows John Smith occupies the left hand two thirds of the site to the south while Sam Smith is on the right. Note the roadway leading to Sam’s bisecting John’s operations.
Samuel Smith was a Leeds butcher and cattle dealer. In 1847 he bought B&H for his eldest son John who was aged 23.
John Smith died suddenly in 1879 with no children and left the business to his brothers William and Samuel.
William bought Samuel's share and then willed his business to nephews Frank and Henry Riley
William embarked on a £130,000 160 quarter brewery next door which was completed in 1883
The buildings are now Grade II listed
Looking back across the original Leeds to York road.
A public road bisects the John Smiths site
The distinctive brewery stack and some conical fermenters
An unusual view of the iconic stone brewery chimney
No sign of any Heineken logos
Entrance to the office block
Other descendents of the original Sam Smith would carry on the business just down the road towards York
Cornerstone laid by William Smith
Cornerstone laid by Frank Riley, William's nephew. He would later change his name to Riley Smith
John Smiths was the UK's leading ale brand in 2008 with sales of around 2.4mhL
A drawing by Scamell and Colyer showing the design of the 160 quarter brewery.
Muntons wagon delivering malt
Details of malt discharge
A modern Steels masher will do ten 17.5 tonne mashes daily.
The Briggs 10m lauter tun in the foreground dates from 1985 with a Steinecker unit from 1996 behind
Two 1100 hL coppers and a single whirlpool
Another view of the lauter tuns
The brewhouse is located in the old fermenting room which housed 57 x 196brl slate squares.
Two Yorkshire slate squares have been preserved
Sadly visitors do not see them
Detail showing the top floor of the square
The yeast head emerges through the hole and yeast separates on the top floor, wort drains back below through 'organ pipes'
Modern conical bottomed vessels
More recent vessels are fully piped
Old vessels connect with flexible hoses
More conicals, 11 vessels were relocated from Websters at Halifax
Powder dosing tanks for filtration
One of three 400bph Seitz Orion beer filters
A typical pipe array in a modern brewery
Full cans of John Smiths Bitter
View across the can line conveyors
The two 50,000bph bottling lines are by SIG Simonazzi and prominent brand posters
Automated Guided Vehicle are used throughout the packaging hall
AGV going about its business
The cardboard boxes contain bottle caps from Pelliconi in Italy
Imogen will be 16 now and might like to reissue her poster against corona virus!
View across the canning line which will fill 1500 a minute without widgets
KHS Contikeg rotary keg washer and racker will fill 1000 50L kegs an hour
Dynamo System is a French widget
The on site effluent plant managed by Veolia
The on site nitrogen generator by Air Products
Quality Improvement Manager Alistair Dickson changes a cask