Black Country AGM 2026

Black County Breweries: Brewery History Society AGM and Visits, 5th and 6th June 2026

A Selection of photographs from the Society's AGM weekend at Bathams, Sarah Hughes and Holden's Brewery Ltd

Bathams 5th June 2026

Head Brewer Alice receives her coverted BHS Visits Certificate from Meetings Secretary Phil Wilson

Courtesy Ed Wray
Courtesy Ed Wray

Ed Wray writes:-

We started by the mill, which rather surprisingly is on the ground floor. Bagged malt from Crisp is milled into 50kg bags which are then hoisted to the top of the brewery.

The cast iron mash tun takes 600kg of malt (four quarters!). The beer recipes date from the 1960s and were made by Alice’s granddad. They use mains water. Liquor treatment is Bathams salt mix, which is really optimised for mild, though 95% of production is bitter.

They use six blocks of Ragus sugar per brew, No. 1 and No. 2 invert. The same wort is used for mild and bitter, but they have different sugars.

The 30brl copper is heated by a steam coil and direct fire.

Our tour guide, Head Brewer Alice Batham, briefly turned on the gas heater under the copper for us so we could get pictures!

Fuggles and Goldings hops are used - whole hops of course, the hops filter out the trub in the hop back designed by Alice's dad. There was a problem this year as some of the traditional low alpha acid Goldings offered by hop merchants were rather poor so some higher alpha batches were chosen, but then there were concerns that using less hops would mean there would not be enough for good trub filtration.

A paraflow heat exchanger was installed in the 80s.

The open wooden fermenters are plastic lined. The smallest one is used for mild. Parachutes are used to crop the yeast. Yeast is filtered through cheesecloth. Top heat is 72°F (22°C) and they chill to 55°F (13°C). The dual strain yeast originally came from Julia Hanson & Sons Ltd in Dudley. Beer goes into the racking tank with auxiliary finings and priming sugar the day before racking.

Bathams still use 36 gallon barrels for most of the Bitter and have some 54 gallon hogsheads too! 18 gallon kilderkins are used for the free trade and the mild goes in to 9 gallon firkins. The casks are dry hopped and the shive is placed loosely waiting for the isinglass addition before dispatch. The casks may be conditioned for a week in the pub, but will drop bright within six hours.

Finally we were back on the ground floor where we looked at the external and internal cask washer and Alice was presented with a coveted Brewery History Society certificate by Phil Wilson (above)

Clockwise from top left: Outside the brewery, parachute skimming, a mashing fork and the malt mill.

Bathams photographs courtesy of Mick Connors

Bathams photographs courtesy of Tony Fox-Griffith

The Lamp. (See: Matthew Smith, Queens Cross Brewery

The official business being conducted at the 2026 AGM, held in the Lamp Tavern

Courtesy Mick Connors
Courtesy Mick Connors
Courtesy Mick Connors
Courtesy Mick Connors

Sarah Hughes 5th June 2026

Phil Wilson writes:-

The BHS last visited in 2011 when we held our AGM at Banks's Brewery (Wolverhampton).

Most members will be aware of the well documented history of this Grade II-listed Victorian tower brewery, built around 1850.

Sarah Hughes became its owner in 1921 and continued brewing for about 30 years, during which time she developed the recipe for its famous strong mild ale, Dark Ruby Mild. Upon her death in 1951 her son, Alfred continued the operation for a short while until brewing ceased in 1957.

Some 30 years later, the mothballed brewery was restored by her grandson John Hughes who revived her recipes and started brewing again in 1987. During his tenure, the brewery and its ales gained notoriety, winning many medals and awards. John sadly passed away in 2025.

We were very fortunate to be shown around the brewery by Simon Massey, nephew of John Hughes and director of the brewery and the Beacon Hotel.

Little has changed since BHS last visited, the hotel still serves as the brewery tap, attracts an enthusiastic queue outside at 5.30pm each night, uses serving hatches rather than the traditional bar and the beer is presented in dimpled pint jugs!

The brewery itself was upgraded by John Hughes in the 1990’s and most of the original gravity-fed equipment is still in use today. A separate 10-barrel plant was installed in the early 90’s to supplement production. Total production per year is about 1,200 barrels with much of it selling directly through the Beacon Hotel and as guest ales elsewhere.

A visit to Sarah Hughes would not be complete without a chance to sample their Dark Ruby Mild (6% ABV), Surprise (5% ABV) and Pale Amber (4% ABV). All were exceptional and the friendly and welcoming atmosphere amongst the locals was a joy to behold.

Many thanks to our host Simon, for taking the time to show us around.

Sarah Hughes photographs courtesy of Mick Connors

Sarah Hughes photographs courtesy of Tony Fox-Griffith

Visit to Holden's Brewery Ltd – Park Inn, Woodsetton. 6th June 2026 by Chairman Susan Chisholm

Our group of 20 BHS members assembled in the bar of the Park Inn at just before 10:00. Some of us who had arrived early had looked around outside and puzzled on the large signage painted on an outside wall declaring Hopdens brewery. The large bottling facility was in a yard to the side of the brewery and pub premises.

Once everyone who had booked was confirmed as present our guide, Debbie Stewart, greeted us. Debbie is the regular tour guide and this was a scheduled tour – we did not meet the brewer or owner.

We started upstairs in the boardroom where Debbie gave us a brilliant outline of the history of the Black Country and of Holdens. She had previously worked for many years in the nearby Black Country Museum and her knowledge of the area and its history was immense. She explained that the Holden family had purchased the Park Inn, brewhouse and malt store in August 1915 during the first world war from Atkinsons. When it came to registering the business they were assigned the name Hopdens brewery seemingly an amalgam of hops associated with brewing and the ‘den’ from the name Holdens. Debbie outlined the industry of the Black Country during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – steel working, coal mining, metal working etc all requiring manual labour. The work force could often have an allowance of 20 to 24 pints of ale per day – this would have been quite a weak ale approximately 2.7% Alcohol and replaced the moisture lost during the strenuous working day. Debbie also spoke of the health issues created by the smog and water pollution from the heavy industry. Beer was safer to drink.

From the boardroom we were able to view the beer conditioning tanks below us before moving into the brewhouse. The malt store contained all bagged malt from Crisps – very pale barley malt, torrefied wheat, coloured malts and oats. There was no brewing, this being a Saturday but we were able to view the Porteous roller mill and wooden grist case followed by the copper masher and the now stainless steel wooden clad mash tun. A typical brew gives 36 barrels of finished beer. The ancient boiling copper is still used and is cleaned manually. Hops are vacuum packed Fuggle leaf hop for most brews with some aromatic US grown hops for special more modern beers.

We continued down the very step wooden stairs to the ground floor where the hop back stands next to the paraflow wort cooler. The cooled wort is then transferred to the open fermenting squares where the Holdens yeast is added. Rounding up our group and retrieving the stragglers we then proceeded to the cask and keg racking area before returning to the bar. Here we were treated to four ‘sticks’ or third pints of a range of Holdens beers staring with mild and working through Golden Glow to Special.

These great beers accompanied our lunch of cheese and onion roll, pork pie, black pudding and home made pickle. As well as this treat Debbie arranged a goody bag for each person – this contained a half pint beer mug and a bottles beer of a beer of our choice. Many of us, not surprisingly chose the Old Ale at 7.2%. All agreed that Debbie had been an excellent guide over the almost three hours and we had all learnt a lot about the Black Country and Holden's Brewery Ltd.

The Chairman presented Debbie with a certificate the thank her and Holden's Brewery Ltd and to mark our visit.

Holdens Brewery photographs courtesy of Mick Connors