The Brewery
Cheltenham's oldest working brewery - Open to the public - for sales, and just interest. Come and see what we're up to!
OPEN FOR SALES TO THE PUBLIC
Opening times - WEDNESDAY - All day ...THURSDAYS 1.00 - 6.00 ... SATURDAYS 9.00 to 1.00 - for other times please phone.
BREWING DAYS - usually Wednesday and Saturday
- we normally have at least four beers available, often more.
Battledown Brewery LLP The Keynsham Works, Keynsham Street, Cheltenham, GL52 6EJ
Tel: 07734 834 104 or (01242) 693409
NEWS..........................
May 2008: Battledown doubles in size! To keep up with demand and improve our shop and other customer facilities we have expanded into the unit next door and more than doubled our floor area.
March 2008: We install the 'new' old mill: In line with our plan to contantly improve our beers we have renovated and installed an old grist mill and now crush our own malt. This means that the grain is now crushed for each individual brew as part of the brewing day, meaning a fresher and more controllable taste.
October 2007: TESCO Drinks Awards - In a blind tasting competition of bottled beers from the South West, Battledown fought of most of the 30 competitors with its Cheltenham S.P.A (see below), being narrowly beaten to the top place by Butcombe Brewery
July 2007: Turncoat, our Porter, won best in category at the Cotswold Beer Festival at Postlip Hall.
December 2006:
2.
As
a celebration of this we launch a new bottled beer. Cheltenham
S.P.A., a Special Pale Ale, will be available from the brewery and many local
shops and outlets from mid november.
November 2006: Battledown Brewery is delighted to announce the appointment of Ben Jennison-Phillips as Head Brewer. Ben comes to Cheltenham, from Whittington Brewery in Newent Gloucestershire where he has been responsible for 'Cats Whiskers' (CAMRA's Beer of Gloucestershire 2004) and 'Nine Lives' among others. Brewery owner Roland Berry said that the past 12 months, since the launch of Battledown, life has been somewhat hectic and that Ben was a very welcome addition enabling him to devote more time to the marketing and development, while Ben continues brewing the existing three Battledown beers. Both Roland and Ben are hoping to increase the number of regular brews and start a schedule of seasonals for cask beers, but Ben's particular experience of bottled beers will pave the way for a major investment in that area.
- BUY DIRECT FROM THE BREWERY -
500ml bottles - Mini-Casks (9 pints) - Polypins (18 and 36 pints) - and for that bigger 'do' - FIRKINS (72 pints) - price list
Always phone first: 07734 834 104 to avoid disappointment, as our opening hours are somewhat erratic. We can usually be at the brewery within two minutes from your call.
Here are a couple of photos to show you what we did with this old engineering works.
... first the building now.
... and then what we had to start with
... can you see the difference?
The brewery is situated on the edge of Battledown, an area less than a mile east of Cheltenham's centre, that is steeped in history dating back to its Iron Age and Saxon origins.
Working from totally refurbished old premises in a quite backwater of Cheltenham, Battledown operates a 8-barrel traditional timber-clad brew-plant built to our own specifications using hot liquor tun, mash tun, kettle (or copper), valentine under-back, two closed top fermenters and three conditioning tanks.
We are lucky in that local Cheltenham water is ideally suited to the types of beer we will brew, explaining to an extent why there have over the years been so many successful breweries here.
The beers are brewed using, (I hardly need tell you), only the finest English ingredients, floor malted Maris Otter barley, and for hops First Gold, Fuggles, Golding and Challenger varieties. The full-mash brewing method is simple and totally traditional, using an absolute minimum of modern technology - the liquor heaters and wort pumps are electric, and that's about as high-tech as we get! The rest is human muscle-power and experience.
If you want to sound knowledgeable (or horribly boring) with your mates here's a bluffer's course in the brewing process. There is a glossary and some visual aids as well - wow!