Black Sheep Brewery
Coordinates: 54 ° 13 ′ 30.2 " N , 1 ° 39 ′ 28.6" W.
The Black Sheep Brewery is a brewery in Masham , North Yorkshire , England. The brewery came into being after the traditional Theakston brewery from 1823 was bought by Scottish & Newcastle in 1987 . The Theakston heir and director of the brewery since 1969, Paul Theakston, decided after a short time to leave the group and to brew again at the historic location.
The Black Sheep Brewery is now one of the most successful independent breweries in the United Kingdom, thanks to its sponsorship a fixture in Yorkshire's cultural and sports landscape, and through individual campaigns such as the collaboration with Monty Python in the production of a Holy Grail Ale, even beyond the borders of the Landes and the beer drinking scene.
beer
The brewery started with a bitter , but has now specialized in a wider range of real ales , brewing them in Yorkshire Square kettles with Maris Otter barley. Black Sheep is thus a pioneer of the trend to produce traditional beers of high quality and thus to create a market segment in which they avoid direct competition from multinational corporations.
The beer expert Michael Jackson described the bitter when it was introduced in 1992 as remarkably smooth and firm, very dry, with a hint of fruit acid in the finish . The special has the same characteristics, but more pronounced aromas, at the beginning more malt taste, then rosy hops towards the finish . Compared to the Theakston beers, Black Sheep would have more malt and hops taste, would taste less of yeast and fruit. The brewery itself is based on traditional Yorkshire beer, which on the one hand is comparatively bitter, but on the other hand sets a counterweight to the aroma due to the creamy head. Since the traditional beer in Yorkshire was primarily intended to quench the thirst of factory workers after work, it has a comparatively low alcohol content of between 3.8 and 4.4%. The Riggwelter comes to 5.9%.
marketing
The company is very humorous, with constant reference to the company name. The website offers “Ewe Tube Videos” (“Ewe”, spoken similarly to “you”, is the Yorkshire expression for a ewe), the brewery bar is called “Baa… r” and is reminiscent of the bleating of the animals.
sorts
- Riggwelter
- The strongest beer from the producer with 5.9% alcohol by volume. The name goes back to the traditional expression for an overturned sheep.
- Golden Sheep
- 4.7 vol% alcohol, reminiscent of citrus fruits.
- Black Sheep Ale
- Standard ale with 4.4% alcohol by volume, one of the best-selling beers in England according to the manufacturer. It is also available from many supermarket chains.
- Yorkshire Square Ale
- 5.0 vol% alcohol, is produced using a special fermentation technique. The label shows a sheep with a square black body.
- All creatures
- 4.0 vol% alcohol, a light, refreshing beer. Named in honor of the Yorkshire-based veterinarian and writer James Herriot , whose works were filmed under the title All Creatures Great and Small (published in German as Der Doktor und das liebe Vieh ).
- Holy Grail
- 4.7 vol% alcohol. The “Gr” is crossed out on the label so that it can also be spoken “Holy Ale”.
history
In the 160-year-old Theakstons family brewery, the 1980s were mainly characterized by disputes within the family. After Theakstons had been sold to the large corporation Scottish & Newcastle, Paul Theakston worked in the group for another year, only to leave him in 1988. After some thought, he sold his stake in Theakstons and began using this money to start his own brewery. The brewery moved into the Lightfoot’s brewery, another local beer that had also been sold and had therefore stopped brewing in Masham. The Victorian brewery is in the center of Masham, the same place where Theakstons is; the two breweries were only separated by an old stone wall. Theakston bought equipment from other Yorkshire breweries that had closed down. Production started in 1992. The attempt to revive the Lightfoot brand name failed. The Theakston Brewery had bought it before, so it belonged to Scottish & Newcastle in 1992. Although they no longer used the brand, they were not ready to sell the rights. The name Black Sheep (dt .: Black Sheep ) was the one to indicate the regionally distributed sheep farms, often with breeds such as Scottish blackface or other partially black sheep. On the other hand, because Theakston positioned itself as the "Black Sheep of the Family" as a direct competitor to the 170-year-old former family company.
Theakston discovered a niche in the market and was able to fill it successfully. While ale was the dominant beer in Great Britain until the 1970s, a trend towards lager began to develop in the 1970s and 1980s . Lager became the dominant beer in fine dining; as well as at parties and many events. Ale, on the other hand, sank into a market niche in a few years as beer for middle-aged men in classic pubs. While the imported lager could cover all market segments from discount beer to designer brands, ale was only considered beer for the lower market segment. Theakston managed to successfully target the upper market segment with traditional brewing methods and innovative marketing and landed there as the first ale in the 1990s. He thus pioneering a trend that has now led to dozens of similar breweries and many more micro breweries with local responsibility, and the United Kingdom to campaign for Real Ale ( Campaign for Real Ale called into being).
While the brewery focuses on the regional market and, like a number of similar new breweries, makes around 60% of sales in Yorkshire, it also had an international success: Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale , 30th birthday in 1999 and in collaboration with Monty Creating Python was particularly successful in the US market. Since then, the brewery has been on a steady course of expansion, which found expression in 2006 in the construction of a completely new brewery.
The first test taster of the beer was the local Anglican vicar , who said that he was mainly responsible for the black sheep in the community. In the meantime, even the Archbishop of York brought Black Sheep and Holy Grail as gifts for Pope Benedict XVI. With.
While the brewing industry has experienced tremendous upheavals in the last 20 years, which have led many traditional companies to give up their business or to the portfolio of a handful of large corporations, Black Sheep is now one of the largest independent breweries in the British Isles. This makes Black Sheep one of the few breweries in the UK that can consistently increase sales in a steadily declining market environment. Among other things, the brewery has intensive local marketing, which is intended to emphasize the down-to-earth attitude and roots of the company: Black Sheep sponsors various local events, as well as setting up a Yorkshire Brewery Trail analogous to the Scottish Whiskey Trails. The visitor center in the brewery is now a standard attraction in all major travel guides. There is also a black sheep fan club and other activities such as a black sheep rowing club, The Flock . As a typical Yorkshire beer, the brewery has now made it into fiction. The original Theakston brewery is now family-owned again: In 2004 the brothers Nick, Simon, Tim and Edward Theakston bought the brewery back from Scottish & Newcastle.
See also
Web links
- Brewery website
Individual evidence
- ^ Roger Protz: The Britain's New Independents ( October 5, 2009 memento in the Internet Archive ) in: All About Beer Magazine , July 1999
- ↑ a b c d e Ian Armitage: Black Sheep Brewery: A traditional country brewery ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Food & Drink Digital, January 29, 2009
- ↑ Geoffrey Lancaster, Paul Reynolds: Marketing: the one-semester introduction Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002, ISBN 0750643811 , p. 90
- ^ A b Michael Jackson: Paul Theakston is brewing again in Masham - Michael Jackson hears what the vicar thinks of the new beer. in: The Independent of October 24, 1992
- ^ A b c Sally Howard: Yorkshire Beer Guide
- ↑ a b Tom Holman: A Yorkshire Miscellany frances lincoln ltd, 2008, ISBN 0711228655 , p. 146
- ↑ Peter Lawrence: The Change Game: How Today's Global Trends Are Shaping Tomorrow's Companies Kogan Page Publishers, 2004, ISBN 0749442697 , pp. 129-131
- ↑ Archbishop of York: Archbishop of York presents gifts from Yorkshire to the Pope as part of the Christian Unity Prayer Celebrations , January 29, 2009 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ The Flock ( Memento from August 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Elen Sentier: Owl Woman Lulu.com, 2008, ISBN 1411646274 , p. 54
