Brewery

REVIVING A RICH BREWING HERITAGE

Established in 2004 the Westerham Brewery Company is proud to bring brewing back to the historic town of Westerham. With a rich brewing heritage, Westerham can once again be proud of locally brewed, top quality craft beers.

Producing exceptional craft beer for the local market, we support the initiative to reduce food miles in the supply chain. Many ‘national brands’ are transported long distances and suffer from poor storage and handling.

Westerham Brewery Company has revived many of the much-loved flavours of the old Black Eagle Brewery, which closed in 1965 following the catastrophic consolidation by the ‘Big Brewers’ in the 1950’s and 1960's.

WATER

The local water, which percolates through the Lower Greensand Ridge to the north of Westerham, is excellent for brewing pale bitter beers for which Westerham was once famous. The Vale of Holmesdale has over the years supported many breweries on account of the water including at one time two breweries in Westerham, the Swan and the Black Eagle. We have drilled down our own borehole 90m into the Hythe beds of the Lower Greensand.

MALT

We use only the finest English winter malting barley. Our malts are supplied by Crisp Malting of Fakenham in Norfolk and our coloured malts are produced by Simpsons Malt.  Our beers contain up to seven different malts to produce a wide range of beer styles and colours.

HOPS

We are mad about hops, specifically Kent hops. Why be a small brewery in Kent and not use the wonderful hops grown by our valiant hop growers. We have developed a particularly close working relationship with Ian Strang who farms the Scotney Castle Estate in Lamberhurst and the Finchcocks’ hop gardens in Goudhurst. 80% of the hops we use are grown in Kent and we use 9 different Kent hops in the Spirit of Kent. Our suppliers are Lupofresh (Finchcocks’ and Scotney), English Hops (C&R Edmed) and Charles Faram (Non Kent hops), Steiner Hops (USA and European Hops) and Yakima Chief (USA).

YEAST

We have re-cultured the yeast from the Black Eagle Brewery. After the takeover first by Taylor Walker in 1948 and the subsequent takeover of Taylor Walker by Ind Coope in 1959, the head brewer deposited freeze dried samples of their yeasts with the National Collection of Yeast Cultures, no doubt sensing that it might be lost forever. Now, 50 years later, we have revived these yeast cultures. Westerham Brewery has acquired the sole rights to these yeast strains from Carlsberg UK.

With water from the same aquifer that served the old brewery, the same yeast strains and some of the old recipes, we hope to capture the essence of what made Westerham’s ales famous.

Ethical and green issues are very important to us. To that end we have embarked on the following initiatives:

  • Instigating land spreading of our effluent on the land nearby to replace trucking it away
  • Reducing water usage in the Brewery to under 3.8 : 1 ratio
  • Our brewer's grains are consumed by the Jersey cows next door at Park Farm
  • Removing all plastic waste from our products and replacing with recyclable items

MISSION STATEMENT

  • To produce the finest craft beers we can
  • To be as good a supplier to our customers as we can
  • To be as good a customer to our suppliers as we can
  • To be honest in all our dealings with our customers and suppliers
  • To deal with all our customers without prejudice or discrimination
  • To promote the Benefits of moderate beer consumption
  • To educate visitors about the risks of alcohol abuse and to promote a culture of moderation
  • To enable our staff to be the best version of themselves that they can
  • To make our Brewery the best that it can be

DEVELOPMENT OF OUR TAP ROOM

Development of the Tap Room and shop was supported by Funding from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development

Project Name: Internal Modifications to Existing Retail Space to create a year-round attraction for Tourists

Project Reference: 116130

The project involved:

  • Design and Architectural Services Separation of Production from the New Tap Room with a glazed wall
  • Installation of a new bar with fixtures and bar equipment
  • Provision of new furniture for visitors
  • New gantry to the new Tasting Room to facilitate tours of the Brewery
  • Paving of the Beer Garden