Year Established: 2013
City/Town: Malmesbury
County: Whilshire
Tours: No
Click and Collect: No
Sell Merchandise: No
About
A love of good beer and a love of Malmesbury and its heritage come together in Malmesbury Brewery. But where did this all come from?
the initial spark
We wanted to start a business in Malmesbury, but in the beginning the choice of what to start doing seemed strangely difficult. All sorts of crazy ideas came and went, but none of them seemed very exciting. Could you really get enthusiastic about loft insulation, for example? And what would that have to do with Malmesbury and its history? It didn’t take long to scratch that from our list of ideas!
However a few years ago, whilst driving to a family holiday in Dorset, we were struck by a bolt of inspiration. We passed the Hall & Woodhouse brewery near Blandford Forum whilst discussing business ideas, and suddenly it was clear! We love good beer, we love Malmesbury and its history, and there’s a great history of brewing in Malmesbury. The only question was, what had taken us so long to realise this was what we should do?!
getting up and running
The majority of the years since our decision to start a microbrewery has been spent on identifying premises. We have considered things of all shapes and sizes, and got quite far with a number of possibilities in Malmesbury town centre, Tetbury and Kemble. However the requirements for a brewery are quite precise – we need quite a lot of space, good access, rather meaty electricity and drainage connections, and so on. These requirements have meant we have had to look a little further afield, with success eventually coming with a unit outside Royal Wootton Bassett. Further away than we wanted, but at least we could finally start thinking about brewing beer!
We’ve also spent many months sourcing our equipment. After being let down by our initial equipment supplier, we had a moment of serendipity when the very same day we learned that the award-winning Bristol Beer Factory guys were upgrading their equipment. A few hurried phone calls and meetings later, and we were back on our feet – with bigger and better equipment than we had originally ordered!
During the install we have used local resources wherever possible, for everything from the electrics to the building works, from accountancy advice to stationery supplies. And then, on 22 October 2013, we brewed our first beer. And wow, did it smell good!Delivery
Malmesbury Brewery beers are available via mail order, please click here for details.
