A Trip around Southwick Brewery near Portsmouth
A Trip around Southwick Brewery near Portsmouth
By Tim O’Rourke
(Reproduced from Brewery History Society Newsletter, September 2023)
Hidden behind the Golden Lion pub in the picturesque Hampshire village of Southwick, just north of Portsmouth, is an original Victorian brewery in pristine condition. With 12-barrel capacity, the beer was sold directly from the fermentation vessels in the tap room or racked in cask for sale in local pubs.
The brewery dates to 1844 and produced beer until 1957 when Dick Olding, the last brewer retired, aged 81. A memorial brew was made in 1985 but the brewery has been mothballed since then.
The neighbouring Southwick House, played host to Generals Montgomery and Eisenhower while planning Operation Overlord, with the American troops billeted locally. It would be great to think that Southwick beer may have fortified the troops ahead of the D-Day landings.
Southwick probably represents the best example of a complete 19th century brewery in England and is preserved by the current owner and English Heritage. It would be wonderful to bring it back to life but would involve a lot of work and investment to make the wooden vessels watertight and to remove the rust from the mild steel vessels and plates, let alone making it compliant with current food and health and safety regulations.
Locally grown and malted barley was delivered in sacks and hauled to the second floor of the building for milling. The grist was mixed with steam heated liquor in the mash tun and after a 90 minute stand, ran off under gravity to the underback. Originally the bed was run dry before being rehydrated and mixed by the paddles. This was performed three times to maximise extract recovery. The process was later streamlined by the addition of a sparge arm, allowing continuous run off.
Wort from the underback was pumped directly to the coal fired copper which was boiled for 70 minutes after the addition of hops. After boiling it was transferred to a mild steel hop back and then into a wooden open coolship where it would have stood overnight to cool. The coolship was later replaced with an aluminium milk cooler allowing faster wort cooling and reducing microbial risk.
Cool wort was collected in one of a pair of wooden fermentation vessels. Boards would have been used to contain the yeast head and skimmed down the wooden chute on completion of fermentation. Beer would be served fresh directly from the fermentation vessel in the bar below.
Tim O’Rourke