Marston’s Brewery (Part 3)

You may well remember in Part 2 of my Marston’s Brewery adventure, I talked about The Parkside Brewery based in Wolverhampton which features beers from Bank’s, Mansfield and Thwaites.

Well, today I am venturing even further into my journey of Marston’s Brewery, this post is going to be purely focused on The Jennings Brewery which is based at Cockermouth, on the outskirts of The Lake District.

History

Jennings Brewery was founded in the village Lorton (Cockermouth) in 1828 by John Jennings, son of William Jennings who was a maltster by trade.

The brewery first operated in buildings next to the present Lorton Village Hall, however, research confirms evidence shows that the village hall used to be an original Malthouse.

Then, due to demand, the brewery had outgrown its home-brewed origins in Lorton, there was a larger need for maltings and a building to require more fermenting vessels.

The best decision was for the business to move to the town of Cockermouth in the Castle Brewery ground, Jennings moved to its new location in 1874.

The main advantages of this move were:

A larger population

There were plenty more pubs in the town, which for the brewery it brought a fantastic opportunity to make money.

There was an enormous amount of well water which was being supplied at the Castle Brewery site, this is where Jennings Brewery is situated today.

The Castle has had a huge supply of well water since the Norman times.

By 1887 Jennings Brewery had a sufficient amount of 3 maltings and 16 licensed outlets, in my eyes I think this is an amazing achievement for a small family fun business, which now is growing even bigger.

Back in the day like most breweries, Jennings Brewery also used the addition of Shire Horses to transport beers across the town.

You can see in this historic picture below how barrels of beer were loaded onto shire horse drays:

Just look and think to yourself, there were no lorries back in the old brewery days, the only two transport methods which were used, are steam and shire horses.

I sometimes wish I could see this happen today because in my eyes it looks absolutely amazing.

Hard work though!

Moving forward to 2005, saw the acquisition of Jennings Brewery to Marston’s PLC.

This saw amazing benefits for the brewery based in Cockermouth, which included investment in the brewery and also to grow the volume of beers.

Still to this very day the brewery use Lakeland water for brewing which comes directly from the well on-site at the brewery.

The Head Brewer and his team use a marvellous range of brewing methods to produce and brew a selection of Lakeland Real Ales.

Jennings Brewery Beers

In this section of my article, I am going to provide you with tasting notes and pictures of the pump clips which are brewed at this brilliant brewery.

Atomic Theory 3.8% ABV

A Straw coloured beer with a citrus and pine aroma, refreshingly hoppy leaving a full-bodied taste.

Cumberland Ale 4.0% ABV

This is Jennings No.1 golden beer, this is definitely one beer that you should try. It has a unique deep refreshing flavour. Deep, golden colour with a fruity, hoppy and spicy aroma and a balanced, crisp, bitter taste.

Fine Line 4.0% ABV

A fantastic Hoppy Beer with a vibrant tropical fruit and citrus notes using New World and Antipodean hops. A light golden colour with a zesty, hoppy aroma and a crisp, refreshing tropical fruit taste. This beer is only available in craft keg only.

Night Vision 3.5% ABV

This name tricked me at first because I thought it was a stout but it isn’t (sadly) in fact it’s an amber colour beer with a malty, biscuit, roast aroma and a malty hoppy taste.

What an almighty line up of traditional and classic real ales that are proudly brewed by this amazing brewery.

I am just really disappointed that Jennings haven’t produced a stout or copper coloured ale, but this doesn’t stop someone like myself to try a different style of beer, the Cumberland Ale does sound very tempting, this is my recommendation to my fantastic beer galore followers.

Ending

I absolutely adore this brewery, especially how small the business started to now being owned by Burton’s top-selling Cask Ale business Marston’s.

In all fairness, I do think Jennings will go even further and potentially in the future produce a wider range of cask ales which will hopefully also include Stouts, that would be pretty awesome.

I’ve never been to Cockermouth before, however, it’s on my list of places to go to and when I do arrive, I’ll definitely be trying out some of the fantastic pubs which provide Jennings Beers.

I also recommend to all my followers that they try their beers as well because in all honesty you really don’t know what you’re missing out on.

This has been Part 3 into my journey of Marston’s Brewery, I hope you have enjoyed reading my article.

If you have any questions, please do leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them as best as I can.

Part 4 will be coming to your screens very soon!

But for now, take care and stay safe!

Luke x