Refurbishments create ‘brand new’ 200-year-old brewery
Surrey based Hogs Back Brewery has made sustainability integral to its business for many years with the growing, harvesting and packing of its hops on site, and the shift from plastic to returnable glass flagons. It has now literally ‘gone green’ by painting its brewhouse floor a bright lime hue.
Matching the green that features prominently in logos for Hogs Back and its flagship TEA, the eye-catching new floor in the fermentation and conditioning rooms is also functional: the sealant provides a non-permeable surface to improve flow to the drainage and maintain Hogs Back’s high hygiene standards.
The floor isn’t the only improvement to the brewery; after rotten timbers were discovered in the Grade II listed building, a new ceiling and walls have been fitted, and new drainage and insulation installed.
Managing director Rupert Thompson said: “With its luminous green floor, the brewhouse looks more sci-fi than Surrey but we rather like it and will enjoy showing it off when brewery tours start again in June.
“The other improvements were about making a virtue out of necessity: just as lockdown started and pubs closed last year, we found the rotten beams – a real ‘double whammy’ of bad luck for a brewer. However, we’re really pleased with the refurbishments, which have effectively given us a ‘brand new’, 200-year-old brewery!
“It really epitomises our ethos of combining brewing tradition with innovation, and puts us in great shape for a return to pre-pandemic levels of demand for our beers now that pubs are reopening.”
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Notes to editors
- Hogs Back Brewery was founded in 1992 in Tongham, in the heart of the traditional Surrey hop growing area.
- Its flagship brand TEA, or Traditional English Ale, is one of the leading regional ales in the South East. The first beer brewed by Hogs Back in 1992, TEA has won multiple awards including runner-up in CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain in 2000.
- The Hogs Back Brewery range includes a number of award-winning draught, bottled and canned beers, demonstrating its ability to combine brewing expertise and tradition with product innovation to create distinctive, memorable beers.
- Hogs Back’s traditional cloudy cider, Hazy Hog, launched in 2013, won a Bronze medal in the International Cider Challenge in 2019.
- Hogs Back planted a hop garden adjacent to its brewery in 2014, growing three hop varieties: Fuggles – used in its flagship TEA ale; Cascade – used in Hogstar lager; and Farnham White Bine.
- Hogs Back relocated its hop garden in 2019 and completed its first commercial harvest of this site in September 2020.
- While many pubs remain closed, Hogs Back continues to sell its beers through supermarkets and direct to customers, offering Drive Through and Click & Collect options at the brewery, or delivering direct to homes. Details on all options can be viewed on the website.
Issued on behalf of: Hogs Back Brewery
By: ShielPorter Communications
Further information:
ros@shielporter.com / 07841 694137
john@shielporter.com / 07734 054389