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Breweries — it’s beer and it’s brewed here
The 6x appeal of Wadworth’s Wadworth was no Johnny-come-lately, eager to make a few quid as beer tastes changed from murky porters to sparkling, golden pale ales. He already ran a small but successful brewery in Devizes in partnership with brother-in-law John Smith Bartholomew (whose descendant Charles is the current Chairman). Business was so good that they needed to expand and the splendid building he had built still stands proud at the northern end of town. If we can be romantic about such a hardheaded activity as brewing for a moment, then Wadworth’s is a rare survivor of a town centre brewery in an age when industrial parks and complexes are the normal homes for many of the beers we drink. When I visited Ridley’s equally heart-stopping vision of a Victorian brewery in early 2005, I felt the same thing — here was a living embodiment of our brewing heritage, but we all know what happened soon afterwards. Then there are the gee-gees, and we’re not talking Paddy Power. Wadworth’s shire horses are a common sight across Devizes as they deliver casks to pubs that feature their dark blue livery. ‘If you put your accountant’s hat on they are not a good idea,’ says the brewery’s Sales Director Fred West, ‘but on the other hand they are good PR and get the idea of Wadworth out and about. They also do lots of shows and are very popular in town.’
Beer delivered by horse-power from Wadworth’s Tradition is also served with the signwriting department, a brewery feature as rare as a glass of mild in a high street fun-pub. Paul Martin is in charge here, and, when I wonder how much actual signwriting work there is in a relatively small estate of 250+ pubs, he explains, ‘we do more than just inn signs. You have to have signs for loos, exits, restaurants etc.’ He takes great pride in the fact that all the work is done by eye. No Apple Macs lurk here. The trinity of traditional brewery skills is completed by the cooperage, which can be found in the brewery itself. Alastair Simms is the copper, a character who was once a vital and common part of a brewer’s business. In the years between 1900-1939, there were 600 coppers in the industry, but timber shortages and the advent of metal casks changed things. These days the number of coopers can be counted on two hands. Simms is a Geoffrey Boycott sort of Yorkshireman who wears a leather apron and learnt his trade at Theakston’s. His working area is decorated with hundreds of pump clips, which mark out his enthusiasm for beer. Ask him about them and you’ll get the reply: ‘I’ve had most of the beers as well.’ Coopering is an ancient mystery on a par with smithy work and horse-whispering, and Alastair uses old whisky barrels to make his casks, though by the time the wood has been steamed and cleaned nothing remains of its former use. Interestingly enough, head brewer Trevor Holmes used to put the brewery’s winter ale, Olde Timer, in whisky casks that had yet to undergo this scouring treatment. Given the current cult-like status of wood-aged beers, it can’t be long before this happens again.
A Geoffrey Boycott sort of Yorkshireman, Wadworth’s cooper Alastair Simms I tried a pint of 6X served from a wooden cask at one of Wadworth’s star pubs, the Ivy at Heddington, a small village north of Devizes and close to Roundway Down. It was absolutely beautiful, though I couldn’t really taste the difference when it came to trying a pint from a metal cask. It’s more of an aesthetic appeal, perhaps. The wooden casks at the Ivy looked attractive and brought your attention to the beer — no gimmicks needed here. So far so traditional, but Wadworth’s are not some historical relic pickled in aspic. Whizz-kids in striped shirts and thrusting PR types may be prominent by their absence. And yet… this is the brewery which has spent oodles of dosh on posters and media campaigns telling us about the saucy side of their flagship beer, 6x. Adverts, placed in newspapers, magazines and on billboard sites, have asked drinkers if they wanted Group 6x (four pints together) or a 6xchange (the beer in a female shaped goblet), while warning of the dangers of Unsafe6x (a pint about to spill over). It’s all very racy and eye-catching, though at times a bit like watching your dad put on a cravat and call everything ‘wicked’. 6x is the 4.3% bitter for which Wadworth’s are best known. For a start, along with the likes of Adnams Bitter, Ruddles County and Theakston’s Old Peculiar, it was one of the cult real ales of the 1970s and 1980s before the micro-brewery boom got going. Then there was the distribution deal they signed with Whitbread in the 1990s, which put the beer into pubs nationwide (not always in the best of condition I seem to remember). After Whitbread quit brewing and sold out to Interbrew, it wasn’t long before Wadworth’s took distribution back to Devizes. Unsuprisingly, the beer still remains at the heart of the brewery’s production. According to Trevor Holmes, ’80-90% of the cask-conditioned beer we produce is 6X, it is our flagship beer’. It’s not bad either. On the nose there’s an enticing resiny hop aroma, while the palate is swayed by a beefy, well-built hoppiness courtesy of Fuggles, a maltiness as biscuity as the ones you have with your afternoon tea, tangy citrus and a restrained sweetness, before a long and lingering finish. This is a rich and bold beer that is surprisingly complex for its strength. Much as I hate to bang on about tradition, they also brew their beer in the traditional way and it seems to work well. Raw materials are hoisted to the top where the whole process starts, aided by gravity. There are two cast iron mash tuns, one of which came from the long gone Somerset brewers Starkey & Knight, from which wort runs off to the coppers below. On brewing days the rich Horlicks-like aroma of the mash fills the top part of the building. In fact, one of the joys of visiting such a brewery is coming face to face with all the various aromas that make up beer. The hop store at Wadworth’s is home to bags of Fuggles, Goldings, Saaz and Styrian Goldings, all imparting a mingling aroma of tropical fruit and rich heady muskiness. Down into the fermenting vessels room, the yeast gives off a fresh banana-like nose. On the bottom floor of the brewery you will come across the 2-and-a-half barrel Pint-Sized brewery, which is where Holmes produces short-run beers such as the Pint-Sized Mild. ‘The kit originally came from the Farmer’s Arms in Lower Apperley,’ he recalls, ‘which was a brewpub we bought. After we continued to run it for three years we brought it here.’ As this suggests, there is life beyond 6x. The favourite beer in the pubs around Devizes is Henry’s Original IPA, which, despite the IPA in the name, is a 3.6% session beer. Until I visited the town I had never tried it, but it was incredibly impressive. When brewers pack plenty of flavour into such a low-gravity beer, it’s obvious that they know what they are doing. A multi-layered nose offers a frisky whisk of Andrews Liver Salts, crunchy biscuity malt and generous hoppiness. The palate is Tango-ed by tart citrus hoppiness and beautifully balanced by more of that biscuity malt. The finish is dry and lovingly bitter. Sometimes, as we go in search of more innovative beers it’s easy to forget that the basic things in beer-life are the best. One of the newer beers in the Wadworth canon is the old Gibbs Mew favourite, Bishop’s Tipple, which since the demise of the Wiltshire brewers in the late 1990s, had led a fairly itinerant existence. The beer is 6.5% in bottle and 5.5% in cask and there are plans for it to available throughout the year. Given the success of the likes of Old Speckled Hen, there seems a market for stronger beers at the bar. ‘Yes I think so,’ agrees Holmes, ‘there is the idea of savouring rather than swilling going round. Less of something that is stronger.’ Wadworth’s is an intriguing brewery. It is a place that I love to visit and their beers are excellent, magnificent Wiltshire ales with a good malt character balanced by fruity, earthy and spicy hoppiness, ideal representives of a county which hasn’t lost its rural roots. With the shire horses, cooper and signwriting department, as well as a bevy of wonderful rural and market town pubs across eight counties, including one in Devizes that is home to a miniature rifle league, they are an ideal romantics’ view of what a brewery should be. A definite case of 6x appeal, if ever there was one. History 1885 1919 1929 Mid-1970s 1976 1981 1990s 1998 1999 2001 2003 Printed in Beers of the World February/March 2006 |
