Wye Valley Brewery has become one of the UK’s leading advocates of brewing beer as sustainably as possible. With a near-40-year heritage of being a popular choice among drinkers, the family business remains centred on delivering quality brews that have not cracked the carbon ceiling in doing so. Abbie Gadd, Head of Sales & Marketing, and Gareth Bateman, Head Brewer, discuss the company’s ‘go greener’ approach and its future ambitions. Report by Andy Probert.
Adefining characteristic of Wye Valley Brewery is that sustainability is front and centre in the brewing process –for every pull of a pint, a clink of glasses, or contentment at finishing one of their drinks. Admittedly, a drinker may have other things on their minds when contemplating a glass of their Nightjar, 1985 or the Hopfather. But for Head Brewer Gareth Bateman, the journey to that liquid heaven is the satisfaction of knowing that the path is paved with green – in an environmental way. And for vindication on the investment of being sustainable? Wye Valley Brewery’s flagship cask beers, HPA and Butty Bach, are in the top ten UK cask beers based on volume sold to on-trade.
Wye Valley Brewery always had the mark of excellent quality, even during the days when founder Peter Amor, an ex-Guinness brewer, started brewing his own beers at the back of The Barrels pub in Hereford in 1985. As the brewing side outgrew its original 18th Century coaching inn home, attaining a cult following among drinkers in the process, Peter’s son Vernon joined, and the family business moved to a nine-acre former cider mill in Stoke Lacy in 2002.
Now employing 70 people, the business operates a high-tech brewery that pro -
duces the best cask, keg and bottled beers, with over 51,000 brewers’ barrels sold to trade customers in the last 12 months.
With product quality matched by excellent customer service, it is no surprise that Wye Valley Brewery beers are served in more than 1,200 pubs and bars in the West Midlands and South Wales. From humble beginnings of producing ten brewers’ barrels a week, it has risen to an average of 1,000 barrels per week, equiva lent to 14.8 million pints per year.
In response to intense competition from other new ‘disruptive’ brewery beer brands, Wye Valley Brewery underwent a corporate rebrand in 2015 and gained its second wind. “The brewery has gone from strength to strength, with us doubling our turnover in the last seven years,” confirmed Abbie Gadd, Head of Sales & Marketing.
“As well as streamlining our core cask range, we also wanted to create excitement with our limited-edition guest ales and also our decision in 2016 to start producing keg beers. With the launch of our award-winning lager, 1985, and more recently, our keg stout, Nightjar, we are appealing to a wider audience of drinkers. And our continued growth has far exceeded our expectations.”
Heart of operations
At the core of the business is a commitment to innovation, investment and sustainability that have been ploughed into the Brewhouse.
We are supported by a fantastic team of talented people who are passionate about what they do and what the business stands for
“ “
“Every project we approach is with a view to being as sustainable as possible,” said Head Brewer Gareth Bateman. The portfolio includes five core cask beers, three core kegged beers and seasonal favourites.
With the installation of a new brewhouse in 2013, the world’s first thermal fluid heating system for wort boiling was introduced, resulting in a 45% reduction in CO2 emissions. “Being green isn’t just about ticking boxes; it’s a commitment to brewing beers, caring for our community and looking after the land, so it remains beautiful for generations to come,” a sentiment that Wye Valley Brewery’s Managing Director Vernon Amor passionately believes in.
Further investments include moving from a centralised steam boiler to smaller individual heaters that could be locally installed near the cask-washing, wort and bottling areas. Installation of a 350kwh solar panel system, covering an area equivalent of six tennis courts, generates 41% of the brewery’s total electricity consumed annually.
Steam created during the brewing process is recovered to heat water for cask washing and sterilising; water to packaged-beer ratio is below 4:1, while centralising cask racking, cold storage and distribution has reduced vehicle movements on-site by 80%.
It has replaced its glycol cooling system with a low GWP refrigerant R454B and added an air cooler. When ambient temperatures drop low enough, the brew team uses fans and a big radiator to cool the glycol rather than using power-hungry compressors on the chiller. “In the summer, if we generate an excess of solar energy, the chiller set point drops by 2 degrees to store the energy,” said Mr Bateman.
The company has also replaced bio-LPG forklift trucks with electric, changing its CO2 supply to a sustainable source – produced locally from anaerobic digestion plants –with plans for generated waste sludge to be sent for biogas production.
Over 60% of hops are sourced within ten miles of the brewery, with spent grain and hops shared with local farmers to use for animal feed and compost. Any excess yeast is offered to local farmers for pig feed.
Around 90% of its beer is sold in casks or kegs, which are then recycled. Wye Valley Brewery still uses some casks from when the brewery began in 1985.
Aiming high
Further investment has flowed in the last two years, with the installation of five new 80BBL conditioning tanks, each holding the equivalent of 23,000 pints; two 10BBL conditioning tanks and a new hot liquor tank.
This gives the brewery greater capacity, particularly for its plans for its award-winning lager, 1985, and other popular keg beers Fandango and Nightjar.
A new bottling, canning and packaging line is being installed, ready for commissioning in mid-2023. This will offer bigger retail opportunities. “While considered a large regional brewery, Wye Valley Brewery is highly agile and responds quickly to customer demands,” said Mr Bateman.
Ms Gadd added: “We are supported by a fantastic team of talented people who are passionate about what they do and what the business stands for. And we are immensely proud to be an official Living Wage Employer, as accredited by the Living Wage Foundation in recognition of our choice to pay our staff more than the National Minimum Wage.”
Wye Valley Brewery has recently completed a rebrand of its popular keg stout, the relaunched Nightjar. Its ambition is for Nightjar, a reference to the nocturnal bird that nests in the Wye Valley, to become the British keg stout brand of choice.
Nightjar is based on the original Dorothy Goodbody’s Wholesome Stout cask recipe dating back to 1985 when Mr Amor first began brewing. The lookback is as much a look forward to how Wye Valley Brewery stands out as a modern brewhouse for the ages. n
Installation of a 350kwh solar panel system, covering an area equivalent of six tennis courts, generates 41% of the brewery’s total electricity consumed annually
