Thornbridge Brewery

Hello to all of my tremendous followers, a very happy Hump Day to you all, the weekend is edging nearer and nearer!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me so far as I’ve started back at work, I am happily been blogging away over the past two weeks and preparing so many fantastic posts for all of you to see.

Today’s post is on an exquisite brewery called Thornbridge Brewery!

History

Thornbridge Brewery is a terrific brewery which is located in the Peak District near to the beautiful town of Bakewell.

The story of this brewery began in 2005 when the founders Jim Harrison and Simon Webster recruited two young brewers to brew on a second-hand 10-barrel kit in the grounds of Thornbridge Hall.

Originally the brewery was located within the outbuildings in the gorgeous gardens of Thornbridge Hall.

In 2004 all of the outbuildings were renovated to prepare for the installation of the new brewery.

The first beer that was in production at the brewery was Lord Marples, which is a 4.0% Classic Bitter, due to an increase in demand this beer became one of the brewery’s core range ale selection.

After the brewery had found their first beer, the next task was to create a traditional IPA and with success, a year later in 2005 Jaipur was born.

Jaipur is one of the most popular beers that is brewed at Thornbridge, I will admit it’s not particularly my favourite ale, I just don’t find the taste appealing sadly!

Due to Jaipur becoming so popular, even more, popular than Lord Marples Bitter, Thornbridge had to make the decision of upgrading their brewery plant, which did mean the premises to be relocated!

Then, in 2009 a new state of the art brewery was built at Riverside in Bakewell to meet the demand for customers and clients.

11 years on, brewing still takes place at the former Thornbridge Hall Brewery which allows the brewery to try out and experiment with new brews.

The main factor is also to provide support and assist with the operations from the main brewery in Bakewell.

This is the new brewery outlet and this is again another brewery I haven’t been to, I would like to travel to Thornbridge Hall and to see if I could get the chance to have a look at the original brewery, I think this would be an amazing experience.

If any of my followers have visited Thornbridge Brewery I would love to hear your experiences and what you adored about the building.

This brewery is also famous for using the unique brewing technique to age some of there beers in wooden barrels, this is becoming popular through the brewing industry and is supported by using techniques from the whisky industry.

Thornbridge Brewery Beers

Core Range

Jaipur – 5.9% ABV – A traditional IPA: Jaipur’s hoppiness builds in the mouth and bursts with powerful citrus fruit flavours. A deliciously drinkable IPA.

Green Mountain – 4.3% ABV – Hazy Session IPA: A hugely aromatic and juicy beer which is complexed with many hops.

Lukas – 4.2% ABV – Helles Lager: A straw blonde, full-bodied and yet sparkling light! Clean, crisp and satisfying.

Florida Weisse – 4.5% ABV – Hazy Raspberry Sour – A hazy and refreshing fruit sour that is bracingly tart. This beer pours with a pinkish hue and is brimming with flavours of raspberries, this is certainly a beautiful beer!

Yelamu – 7.4% ABV – Hazy Double IPA: Expect a ferociously full-flavoured beer with a juicy body and well-balanced character.

Pink Grapefruit Halcyon – 7.4% ABV – Pink Grapefruit IPA – An award-winning imperial IPA to create a huge fruit bomb with a delicately bitter finish.

AM: PM – 4.5% ABV – Session IPA – Bags of tropical fruit aromas, pineapple, tangerine, guava and passionfruit are balanced with a chewy honeyed malt character. I actually tried this beer last week and I must say I absolutely loved it!

The Wednesday – 4.0% ABV – Pale Ale – The Wednesday is the official beer of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, A light, citrusy and easy drinking pale ale, a perfect beer for a match day.

Market Porter – 4.5% ABV – A smooth creamy porter which has a hint of coffee on the finish.

Crackendale – 5.2% ABV – This beer explodes with a fantastic tropical fruit aroma, giving way to guava and ripe citrus which burst through on the palate.

Zero Five – 0.5% ABV – A low alcohol pale ale with a beautiful bouquet of lemon, peach and apricot.

Tzara – 4.8% ABV – A Koln Style Beer which is fermented like an ale but matured like a lager, crisp and refreshing!

Brother Rabbit – 4.0% ABV – Brother Rabbit pours lemon zest in colour with a clean and hoppy aroma. A slight bitterness on the finish, making this a great session beer.

Lord Marples – 4.0% ABV – Named after the aspiring Marples of Thornbridge Hall, tastes of honey and caramel with a long bitter finish.

Astryd – 3.8% ABV – A juicy hazy pale ale with tropical fruit finishes such as guava and mango.

To save turning this post into a 2’000 word brewery exploration post, I have provided a link below of the seasonal beers which are available throughout different times within the year!

Seasonal Beers

All in all, though, I think the core range of ales that are provided do look and sound fantastic, as I mentioned earlier Jaipur is not my type of beer, but I do adore the tasting notes of Florida Weisse, I’ve never tried this beer before, but I certainly would like to give it a sample!

Ending

Thornbridge Brewery is in my eyes an amazing brewery that has gone above and beyond, from starting off small to now being one of the biggest breweries within the county of Derbyshire.

This brewery will continue to grow and I do believe there are going to be even more new beer recipes within the future.

I would highly recommend you all to try some of the Thornbridge Brewery beers as they are just fantastic and the passion that has been thrown into the brewing is immense, you’ll certainly be guaranteed with a gorgeous pint!

Cheers

The Cask Connoisseur