We've got a real treat for you from Hobsons brewery in Shropshire. Hobsons don't deliver beyond an hours drive from the brewery based in Cleobury Mortimer in South Shropshire but they made an exception for us as Steve learned all about the brewing process at Hobsons prior to taking on the Blue Bell Inn!

Hobsons Town Crier 4.5%abv from Hobsons Brewery in Shropshire is a classic from this distinctive craft brewer. An elegant, straw coloured bitter. The hint of sweetness is complemented by subtle hop flavours, leading to a dry finish. Brewed using Maris Otter pale Ale malt, Hobson's yeast and finished with Worcestershire Goldings and Herefordshire Progress hops.

Hobsons Brewery Established 1993, here's how Hobsons describe themselves...

Operating from a small brewery in the heart of the English countryside, Hobsons has developed a reputation for producing distinctive, high-quality ales that can compete on even terms with the many national and multinational products already sold in pubs and bars.

Hobsons Brewery, founded in 1993 by father and son Jim and Nick Davis, turns out 75 barrels a week of real ale distributed to pubs within a 45-mile radius of Cleobury. Housed in an old farmyard granary it was started out of their interest in home brewing and also because of Jim's experience as a licensee.

Late 1992 it was decided to look into the opportunities of finding a reasonably priced unit or building to rent, after months of searching South Shropshire the only suitable site was found in Cleobury Mortimer. It was thought that as keen ale drinkers there was a need to meet the regional demand for a product that would sit on the bar along side national brands and others, predominantly including Banks's bitter.

As with most new ventures the investment was limited, consequently a lot of plant was second hand, most of which were adapted and modified to become a 10-12 barrel plant. For instance, one of the original Stainless Fermenters was a lipstick mixing tank in its former life, a lot of the other vessels came from the Carriage Works at Severn Valley Railway where they had mothballed a brewery some years earlier.

Brewing commenced on Easter Saturday 1993, unfortunately this was binned after 5 hours, proof that installing second hand gear is not always as easy as it seems. The second brew on Easter Sunday worked well after some major rethinks during Saturday night. On the whole this little brewery provided us with reasonable beer, long hours, hot sultry summer days and freezing winter times. The aim was always to prove to ourselves that we could produce a consistently interesting low gravity product, apart from being hobby home brewers none of us had any experience prior to this rash move.

Hobsons Best Bitter was generally being fairly well received, production was up to capacity, the hot days were getting longer, cooling of wort and products were always problematic, we knew that sooner or later the beer would be detrimentally affected. It was time to seek out larger and more appropriate premises. Those of you, and there are quite a few, who have visited during the past years will see that we currently occupy an old brick built granary, where the summer days do not have the same effect but the winter ones are mightily chilling. On moving in 1995 we were able to double our production to 70 barrels weekly, also allowing us to double the brewlength.

At all times we have been focused, some may say bloody-minded, about continually wanting to produce a hoppy bitter which will only be sold within the region, 1 hours drive from the brewery. It would be fair to say that our trading relationship with beer wholesalers is limited, verging on the non-existent. Beer is delivered by our own “red”vehicles, sometimes on our way home, usually on a set delivery day and occasionally at weekends.

Again, we find ourselves requiring more brewing capacity, with Best Bitter demand outstripping supply, currently providing the Brewery with 70% of its income.

In late 2001 a red brick second brewery was constructed next to the original, all Best Bitter production is continued at the “old” brewery, while Town Crier and Old Henry is produced at the “state of the art” brick one. Since splitting the production areas we have seen a continual growth in the sales of Town Crier. The national press continued to tell us that sales of Mild nationally were on the floor and that major brewers were pulling these product lines, we took this as an opportunity to develop our own Mild, dark, nutty and 3.2% ABV, this has proved popular in the most unexpected outlets and now out sells Old Henry.

To provide greater national and regional coverage we have installed a bottling plant and commenced packaging both Old Henry and Town Crier, these are chill filtered and reseeded, allowing a controlled secondary fermentation resulting in as bottled life of one year. In addition to these two, we brew and bottle Steam No9 for Severn Valley Railway, but call it Manor Ale, the same label design as that used by the Royal Mail on their 42p stamp.

Within this locality we see a bright future for the independent brewer, there are plenty of Freehouses to sell quality beer to, however the continual onslaught of the PubCo purchasing the same Freehouses is of concern. The Shrophire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire area is blessed by having a drinking public who still wish to frequent fine pubs that sell good beer, general consumption in this area is far above regions like the South-West, ask many a Cornish brewer.