The West Berkshire Brewery is a microbrewery

Microbrewery

A microbrewery or craft brewer is a brewery which produces a limited amount of beer, and is associated by consumers with innovation and uniqueness....

 in Yattendon

Yattendon

Yattendon is a village and civil parish northeast of Newbury, Berkshire. The M4 motorway passes about south of the village.-Geography:Yattendon stretches from Everington in the west to the hamlet of Burnt Hill in the east and the woodland just east of Yattendon Court, including Mumgrove Copse,...

, Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Founded in 1995 by husband and wife Dave and Helen Maggs, the brewery grew out of its original brickworks

Brickworks

A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....

 shed in Frilsham

Frilsham

Frilsham is a village and civil parish, near Newbury, in the English county of Berkshire.It is a village near the Berkshire Downs, lying on a hill surrounded by woods and meadows. Neighbouring villages include Yattendon, Hermitage, Stanford Dingley and Hampstead Norreys. There are views over the...

 and now brews exclusively in Yattendon at a rate of 80 barrels

Barrel (unit)

A barrel is one of several units of volume, with dry barrels, fluid barrels , oil barrel, etc...

 per week.

History

The brewery was founded in the summer of 1995 in a dilapidated building behind The Pot Kiln in Frilsham (approximately 1.6 miles (2.6 km) from the Yattendon site). It was within the first year of operations that the brewery won their first award.

Expansion

By 2000, the business had outgrown the original site and so opened a second unit in Yattendon, thus increasing capacity

Capacity utilization

Capacity utilization is a concept in economics and managerial accounting which refers to the extent to which an enterprise or a nation actually uses its installed productive capacity...

 to 25 barrels per week. However, this proved insufficient and in 2006 more fermenter were installed, increasing yield by 220% (a total output of 80 barrels per week). With this, the Frilsham plant ceased operations in April 2007.

In 2005, the brewery acquired their first pub - the Rising Sun at Stockcross

Stockcross

Stockcross is a village in Berkshire, England.The village lies to the west of Newbury in the district of West Berkshire. Close to the cross-road in the middle of the village were the stocks hence the name Stock-Cross, which were removed in the early 1980s....

. In 2007, the pub secured the CAMRA West Berkshire Branch pub of the year award.

Awards

The company has received a number of SIBA

Siba

Siba or SIBA may refer to:Places:*Šiba, a village in Bardejov district of northeast Slovakia**Siba State, an erstwhile princely state in Punjab, in modern India.Siba was an independent territory directly ruled by Sibaia Clan Rulers up to 1947 and never annexed with British Government.It was simply...

 and CAMRA local beer festival awards.

Year	Beer Name	Prize	Category	Competition
1995	Good Old Boy	Overall Winner	Beer of the Festival	CAMRA White Horse Wantage Wantage is a market town and civil parish in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. The town is on Letcombe Brook, about south-west of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot....  Branch Beer Festival
1997	Dr Hexter's Healer	Runner Up	Beer of the Festival	CAMRA Northamptonshire Northamptonshire Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...  Branch Beer Festival
2002	Good Old Boy	Gold Medal	Best Bitter	SIBA Siba Siba or SIBA may refer to:Places:*Šiba, a village in Bardejov district of northeast Slovakia**Siba State, an erstwhile princely state in Punjab, in modern India.Siba was an independent territory directly ruled by Sibaia Clan Rulers up to 1947 and never annexed with British Government.It was simply...  South East South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...  Region Beer Competition
2002	Good Old Boy	Second Reserve Champion	Overall	SIBA South East Region Beer Competition
2002	Maggs Magnificent Mild	Gold Medal	Mild and Porter	SIBA South East Region Beer Competition
2002	Mr Chubb's Lunchtime Bitter	Silver Medal	Standard Bitter	SIBA South East Region Beer Competition
2002	Dr Hexter's Healer	Silver Medal	Strong Ale	SIBA South East Region Beer Competition
2003	Maggs Magnificent Mild	Gold Medal	Mild and Porter	SIBA National United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...  Beer Competition
2003	Full Circle	Silver Medal	Best Bitter	CAMRA Great British Beer Festival Great British Beer Festival The Great British Beer Festival is a yearly beer festival organised by the Campaign for Real Ale . It presents a selection of cask ales and other alcoholic drinks from the UK and beyond. The festival is also home to the Champion Beer of Britain awards...
2004	Maggs Magnificent Mild	Overall Winner	Beer of the Festival	Bracknell Bracknell Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...  Blues and Real Ale Festival
2005	Maggs Magnificent Mild	Gold Medal	Mild	CAMRA Reading Reading, Berkshire Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....  Branch Beer Festival
2005	Maggs Magnificent Mild	Third Place	Overall	CAMRA Reading Branch Beer Festival
2005	Maggs Magnificent Mild	Gold Medal	Mild	SIBA South East Region Beer Competition
2005	Maggs Magnificent Mild	Bronze Medal	Overall	SIBA South East Region Beer Competition
2005	Good Old Boy	Silver Medal	Best Bitter	SIBA South East Region Beer Competition
2005	Dr Hexter's Wedding Ale	Third Place	Best Bitter	Norwich Norwich Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom... Beer Festival
2006	Maggs Magnificent Mild	Silver Medal	Mild	SIBA National Beer Competition
2006	Maggs Magnificent Mild	Silver Medal	Mild	CAMRA Reading Branch Beer Festival
2006	Old Father Thames	Bronze Medal	Light Bitters	SIBA South East Region Beer Competition
2007	Skiff	Gold Medal	Standard Bitter	CAMRA Reading Branch Beer Festival
2007	Full Circle	Bronze Medal	Premium Biter	CAMRA Reading Branch Beer Festival
2007	Mash Tun	Bronze Medal	Best Bitter	CAMRA Reading Branch Beer Festival
2008	Dr Hexter's Healer	Gold Medal	Best Local Beer	CAMRA Reading Branch Beer Festival
2008	Mr Chubb's Lunchtime Bitter	Gold Medal	In Category	CAMRA Reading Branch Beer Festival
2008	Maggs Magnificent Mild	Silver Medal	In Category	CAMRA Reading Branch Beer Festival
2009	Dr Hexter's Healer	Gold Medal	Best Local Beer	CAMRA Reading Branch Beer Festival
2009	Dr Hexter's Healer	Gold Medal	In Category	CAMRA London and South East Regional competition
2009	Good Old Boy	Gold Medal	In Category	CAMRA London and South East Regional competition

External links

• West Berkshire Brewery
• The Campaign for Real Ale - West Berkshire Branch