| 2011 |
Nov |
The
year may not yet be over, but in financial terms 2011 is already
our best year ever. On seasonal note, we have changed the
name of Autumn Old Ale – it is now simply 'Old Ale'
– and given it a new pumpclip. This is our first ever
square pumpclip design and features a roaring fire in a brick
hearth – the perfect setting for a pint of this mellow
ale. |
|
Oct |
We
have reviewed our pumpclips and fine-tuned those for Sussex
Gold and Castle Bitter. The approach is 'evolution rather
than revolution', so the overall design has been retained
while adjusting the colours to make our point of sale branding
stand out more effectively on the bar. Next in line are the
designs for Autumn Old Ale and Old Scrooge. |
|
Sep |
Our
expanded cool store now houses two new 20 barrel stainless
steel conditioning tanks, which have been plumbed in and are
already in service. |
|
Jul |
Following
the report in January, we are pleased to report that we now
have a much expanded cool store, which trebles our cold storage
capacity. |
| |
Jul |
In
case you're wondering what's happened to draught ASB, it has
been renamed Special Bitter. (Contacts in the trade told us
that some customers didn't know what it was..) The bottled
version retains the ASB name, since that has established itself
in the supermarket trade and is selling well. By the way,
ASB stands for 'Arundel Special Bitter', so the new name isn't
really that revolutionary! |
|
Jul |
With
summer under way, we have launched a new pumpclip for our
seasonal beer Summer Daze, which is going into local branches
of Wetherspoons for July and August. |
|
Jul |
Now
that 2010 is behind us and all the counting has been done,
we are delighted to report that it turns out to have been
our best year yet in terms of production and sales –
and already 2011 looks as if it could beat it. |
| |
Jun |
Following
the renaming of our Sussex Mild to Black Stallion, supported
by a striking new pump clip, this award-winning beer is attracting
more interest at the bar, and sales are up. |
|
Jan |
When
you improve one thing in a brewery, you just move the bottleneck
down the line! Now that we have doubled our brewing capacity,
we need to do something about our cold store – expansion
work is due to start in February. |
|
Jan |
Having
supplied lots of our seasonal 'Old Scrooge' to Wetherspoons
in December, this popular chain has now ordered supplies of
Trident for January to March, with Prize Fighter to follow
for its spring beer festival. |
| 2010 |
Dec |
Our
bottled beers are now appearing in taller 'slimline' bottles,
which weigh less and are generally a 'good thing' for the
environment. They certainly require less fuel to make ...
and probably squeeze an extra mile per gallon out of a fully
loaded dray as well! |
|
Oct |
July
turned out to be our best ever month for sales but, to cope
more efficiently with demand, we have just installed a brand
new 20 barrel brew plant in our second industrial unit. This
is now in full production and is already making brewing a
bit easier, but the big relief is to have the kit working
once instead of twice per day. Various 'tweaks' will follow
to get the best out of the equipment, but this gleaming mass
of stainless steel certainly looks the business. |
|
Jul |
Summer
is now with us and we're working flat out to meet the demand,
which has necessitated regular evening as well as daytime
brewing. We have doubled the size of the brewery 's premises
by taking over the unit next door and have knocked the two
buildings together, prior to some exciting developments which
we hope to announce in the autumn. Watch this space –
and thanks for drinking so much of our beer! |
|
Feb |
We
have now made some revisions to our beer range. Old Knucker
ceases to be a 'core' beer and is replaced by the popular Trident,
formerly a 'seasonal' ale. We toyed with the idea of reducing
the strength of Old Knucker, but decided in the end to keep
it true to type as a strong old ale, so it remains at 5.5%.
In the seasonal range, Autumn Fall has been withdrawn and is
now replaced by Autumn Old Ale, which proved very popular on
its first outing last year when it sold out rapidly. |
| 2009 |
Dec |
We
are delighted to report that this December was our best ever,
with sales records breaking all records. Thank you for your
support and for drinking our beers! |
|
Dec |
Since
you are reading a brewery website, we presume that you are interested
in the 'fruits of the grain' and may prefer our version of this
traditional Christmas song to the original which, to judge
by the words, was written at a time when most of the nation
laboured under the yoke of the feudal system. You are welcome
to use our words provided that you comply with our our copyright
conditions, which are stated at the end of the lyrics. Obviously,
we encourage our customers to drink responsibly and trust them
to have the sense to realise (pace Health and Safety)
that only a complete madman would drink in the manner suggested
here. That being said, have fun singing the new words, and have
a great Christmas! |
|
Jun |
SIBA
placed a big order with us for its 3rd South East of England
Beer Festival – where our Sussex Mild went on to win another
two awards. |
|
May |
Following
on from the brewery's success at SIBA's
national beer festival in March, and tying in with Camra's
annual mild promotion, we sold 3 brews of Sussex Mild –
a very pleasing result for this historic, though rather threatened,
beer style. |
|
Apr |
This
was a month of great rejoicing in the brewery, for sales and
production volumes exceeded all previous records by a sizeable
margin – encouraged, no doubt, by some nice spring weather.
(Four or five more months of the same might be helpful after
two wet summers!) |
|
Mar |
Following
on from our success at The Hop Farm last August (see below),
Stronghold and Sussex Mild went into the finals of SIBA's National
Brewing Competition, held at Stratford-Upon-Avon. Sussex Mild
was again a big success, winning the Gold Award in the Mild
category, and the Silver Award in the Champion Beer of the Year
competition. |
|
|
The
recipe for Sussex Giant, one of our seasonal
beers, was improved by the addition of caramalt, with the
result being well received at this month's Sussex Beer Festival
in Hove. Interestingly, the grist for this strong pale ale now
resembles that of a 19th century India Pale Ale – although
it's not quite so strong; the old IPAs started at 6% alcohol
by volume (ABV). |
| 2008 |
Oct |
Arundel
Brewery has just been featured in a very complimentary article
on the centre pages of Tesco's monthly Foodie magazine.
Click here to
see what Tesco's said about us (and to see director Jeremy Owen's
best Cheshire cat smile!) |
|
Aug |
We
are delighted with our achievements at SIBA's annual beer festival
at The Hop Farm in Kent, where we won three awards in a single
day – a gold medal each for Stronghold and Sussex Mild
in the Premium Bitter and Mild categories, with Sussex Mild
then winning 'Champion of the Festival'. What a great result
for an endangered beer style! |
|
Jul |
We
have just updated our Outlets page and are pleased to report
that the spread of Arundel Ales is extending, especially for
our bottled beers, which are now available in a wide area bounded
by Guildford, Gosport and Eastbourne. |
|
Apr |
We
have just received the press release for winning first prize
in the Tesco Drinks Awards with bottled ASB – click here
for details. |
| |
|
Hot
on the heels of the great news from Tesco's, we have also been
informed that we are one of the finalists in a similar competition
being run by Sainsbury's, whose buyer has just ordered 40,000
bottles of Prize Fighter (see next entry). |
|
|
The
response to our new seasonal beer, Prize Fighter, has been so
positive that we have added it to our bottled beer range. Details
now appear on our Bottled
Beers page. |
|
|
We
have now installed a 20 barrel brew length mash tun, which doubles
our capacity, along with a new grist case and pre-masher. Although
a small news item, this will have a big impact on our production
– which is just as well in view of our recent successes! |
|
Feb |
We
now have everything in place to launch our new seasonal beers,
with the first new brews (Prize Fighter and Sussex Giant) appearing
from March. Such is the demand for our six core beers that we
have had to limit the seasonals to 2 or 3 per month, but –
taking the core range into account – that still gives
our customers a choice of at least 8 different beers every month,
or 22 different beers throughout the year. Click here
to view our re-vamped 'Seasonal Beers' page. |
| 2007 |
Dec |
Further
to the entry in March, our six new seasonal beers have now been
devised and are ready for the mash tun – we are just waiting
for the final artwork and promotional materials to be completed,
so it won't be long now! |
|
Oct |
We
are delighted to announce that our beers have just won two more
awards – a bronze medal from SIBA for Sussex Mild, and
first prize in the Tesco Drinks Awards (South Eastern Region)
for bottled ASB. Director Jeremy Owen says, 'I can't seem to
stop smiling'. For further details, click here. |
|
Sep |
'The
beer necessities': excuse the pun, but etc. magazine
is to blame, since this was the title of their recent article
about brewing in Sussex. Click here
to see what Johnny Morgan had to say about local beer and Arundel
Brewery in particular. (Note that this link opens in a new window
or tab.) |
|
|
We
haven't finished counting yet, but it looks as if August will
prove to be our busiest month since 1992 – a real record-breaker! |
|
Aug |
We
have just taken delivery of this rather attractive 'flier' for
our bottled beers (see below). However, our proof reader let
slip a spelling mistake on the reverse, to be corrected in the
second edition, so could these first editions become collectors'
items? The staff have been told not to go auctioning them on
eBay ... |
| |
|
 |
 |
| Above:
The front and back of the new flier to promote
our bottled beers, which are finding favour in local off
licences, bars, cafés, etc. Discerning customers
are seeking out locally sourced food and drink, which
travel a fraction of the 'food miles' of many nationally
produced brands. |
|
|
Jul |
Our
Sussex Gold, which usually does very well during the summer,
is still selling as fast we can brew it, despite this year's
unseasonal rain. The moral is obvious: 'If you can't enjoy summer
itself, you can at least enjoy the taste of summer'. Use our
Outlets page to find the nearest pub or off licence that stocks
our beers. |
|
Jun |
This
month, we supplied Waverley TBS – the UK's leading independent
drinks wholesaler – with 675 firkins of Castle, beating
the record we set in October 2004 by 72 casks. We're still brewing
flat out for our free trade, with a promotion coming along for
Wetherspoons. Phew! |
|
|
We
have just received this delightful tribute from Ted Smith, the
foreman of Ewell
St. Mary's Morris Men:'I guess I've been drinking milds
for nigh on 40 years - Young's Best Malt Ale and Fuller's Hock
were my first living in SW London and King & Barnes's Sussex
Mild when 'in the country' - and feel yours must now take the
accolade of Finest Southern Mild - great stuff!' We won't argue
with a chap who's put 40 years into his research! |
|
May |
For
many years, Camra has made May its 'Make Mine Mild' month, so
it's good to see that its monthly newspaper, Beer, highly
recommends our Sussex Mild in its list of 'Champion Milds to
try in May'. If you want to sample some, the nearest mild outlet
to the brewery is The
Maypole Inn at Yapton. |
|
Mar |
We
are planning to launch six new draught seasonal beers from late
summer onwards, and are currently working on the recipes. Keep
an eye on this page for further news. |
|
|
This
site is chosen as 'Website of the Week' at beertoday:
'The Arundel Brewery, in West Sussex, has its new website up
and running, and very tidy, easy to navigate and informative
it is too. Everything a good microbrewery website should be.' |
|
Feb |
Our
'Outlets' page is updated with all shops and supermarkets which
sell our bottled beers, and a 'Location Finder' is added to
help customers find Arundel Ales near where they live. |
|
|
|
Our
new website is completed at the start of the month, nearly four
weeks ahead of schedule. |
|
|
Jan |
Production
for the Christmas and New Year period shows an increase of
15 per cent over last year. |
| |
|
Our
new website is launched with planned completion for the end
of February 2007. |
| 2006 |
Dec |
Old
Knucker, a classic English old ale, becomes our third bottled
beer. The name derives from the Sussex legend of 'Knucker' the
dragon, who was reputed to live in a dark pool near lonely Lyminster
church. See our Beers
pages for further details. |
