Greene King Brewery and Archive - BHS Visit, 11 April 2025
Greene King Brewery and Archive - BHS Visit, 11 April 2025
Report by Phil Wilson
Twenty BHS members made the trip to Bury St Edmunds for a fascinating tour of the brewery and a chance to have an in-depth look at their archive, kindly hosted by Susan Chisholm.
Our first port of call was of course the roof! 100 steps took us there - the sheer size of the brewery is impressive and its dominant place on the Bury St Edmunds skyline shows how important the brewery has been for centuries to this market town. The Westgate brewhouse dates from 1939, built on the same principles as earlier Victorian gravity-fed tower breweries. The principal water source, extracted from chalk wells, has not changed since brewing began in the town.
Our tour descended through each stage of the brewing process until we reached two areas of particular interest, the 30-barrel St Edmunds microbrewery opened in 2013 in which craft beers are produced and new brews can be trialled. At full capacity the microbrewery can produce up to 8 brews each week. Our tour finished with a look at the three wooden oak vats (100-barrel capacity each) in which Greene King’s Old 5X is stored for about 2 years. Each vat is sealed under a wooden lid and covered in a layer of marl. This is done to prevent bacteria infecting the contents. The resultant beer is 12% although a weaker 6% bottled beer is produced by blending Old 5X with Best Pale Ale. During our tasting session we were very fortunate to get the chance to sample Old 5X – a rare treat!
Within the next few years, Greene King will be undergoing a significant modernisation programme when they relocate their brewing operation to a new site in Suffolk Park, next to their current distribution centre. The new £40m development has recently been given the green light by local planners. There is considerable discussion underway to decide what will happen to the Westgate site, some of which is listed, and other GK property in the town where the brewery has been operating in some form since 1799.
Across the road from the brewery, and next to the Regency Theatre is No.6 Westgate Street, home to the Greene King Archive. This is a considerable repository of historical brewing-related material and objects, and we were very fortunate to be given full access to all the rooms and their contents. At this stage the first task for the archivist has been to prepare a catalogue of everything held. This covers the whole range of items associated with the current or past breweries, from photographs, bottles, recipe books, correspondence and accounts, beer labels and mats, signage and items from the brewery’s fire brigade!
Some in our party had asked to see certain collections, e.g. Morland, Hardy & Hanson, etc and we were very grateful to Susan for laying out various items of interest and pointing us to areas of the archive to browse at our leisure. The sheer size of the collection means that there is considerable work to be done for some time to come.
Phil Wilson
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