Home page
Brewing awards
Our beer range
Our contact details
History of the brewery and brewing in Arundel
Latest news
Latest news
 

News

Left: 'It's only the beer talking.'  Here's something to shout about: our old ale is now available in bottles! Photo by pnrphoto.

This page is updated from time to time to keep you informed of developments. However, most of each working week is spent brewing and selling beer, and there are only so many times we want to tell you that – but do come back to see what's happening ...

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.