To mark its 40th birthday, Uley brewery has created a 10-strong series of one-off brews with Cheeky Swine debuting this month.
The 4.8 per cent ABV red ale brewed with Maris Otter and Munich malts with Progress, Aurora and Pilgrim hops has a spicy flavour with a floral finish and is the latest in the run anniversary brews which started in March with Hog’s Wallop (5.2 per cent), a pale ale brewed with Olicana and Cascade English hops.
In April it was Hetty Pegler’s Porter (4.2 per cent) hopped mainly with East Kent Goldings. The May brew was Gilt Edge (4.5 per cent) a copper beer with Bramling Cross and Cascade hops.
For June it was Cross Breed (4 per cent) a collaboration with hop merchant Charles Faram, brewed solely with a nameless experimental hop. In July Guilty Pleasure, a copper, fruity beer brewed with Bramling Cross hops, (4.5 per cent) debuted.
August saw Boarbeer of Seville (4 per cent) an amber, golden beer flavoured with a hint of Seville oranges and Admiral hops.
September saw the return of the seasonal Severn Boar, a rich 6 per cent fruity beer brewed with Bramling Cross hops.
The Harvest Special in October was a 4 per cent beer brewed with green hops from a Faram farm, harvested and used within hours of picking. This year it was with English Cascade. A robust brew with a distinctive resinous hoppy finish.
For December the Christmas special will be Pigor Mortis, a 6 per cent dark ruby beer brewed with Challenger and EKG hops with a fruity port-like finish.
Uley’s roots stretch back to the early 1980s when Chas Wright was the Theakston salesman in South West England and, when working in Gloucestershire, often visited pubs in Uley.
Here he spotted Prices' defunct, Victorian, tower brewery built in 1833 to slake the thirst of the wool mill workers. Sadly, in the 1900s King Cotton killed the trade, and the mill workers were unemployed which caused poverty and the end of mass-produced wool and brewing in Uley.
Chas saw an opportunity to reopen the brewery, but it was just a shell. In 1984 Chas and Bill Doggett decided to buy the site and designed a tower brewery. With limited cash and the help of local engineers who were cask beer enthusiasts, a brewery was built on a shoestring with the mash tun coming from Mendip brewery. The engineers fabricated two stainless Yorkshire square fermenting vessels and a stainless copper fired by a gas burner which had to be constructed in the space where it is now.
Despite the Heath Robinson construction Bill brewed excellent beers and his first, UB40 (Uley Brewery 4 per cent), was delivered to pubs on 1 March 1985.
After a few years Bill decided to move on, so Chas employed Mel Griffiths as head brewer. As the brewery became successful more staff were needed and in 1995 Ken Lush (above) joined to assist Mel.
In 2002 Mel developed a heart condition, so Ken took over as head brewer, assisted by Tim Ingram and Jeremy Hunt. Today Uley is brewing to its 10-barrel capacity, but with no possibility of expansion as the building is listed.
During Covid the brewery was saved by MD Martin Brooks, who took over from Chas when he retired in 2018. Martin had the presence of mind to order monthly deliveries of five-litre mini pins before lockdown. Uley kept going by selling beer via local shops and the brewery yard.
Chris Arrowsmith is the Uley brewery liaison officer
