Holderness is one of Yorkshire's least populated areas. Its seaside towns of Hornsea and Withernsea play second or even third fiddle to the likes of Bridlington, Filey, Scarborough and Whitby, but the soil that lies between the eastern side of Hull and the coast has long ensured substantial yields for its farmers.

However, no matter what quantity is grown per acre if the price is not right, the pressure is on and it has led to Matthew Hodgson and the whole of the family at Great Newsome Farm and Hall Farm, Halsham, to turn to the bottle. But fear not. This is not some downward spiral of a farming dynasty that is now into its fifth generation, instead it is a fledgling business that first began germinating in 2000, was shelved for six years and finally came to fruition in the past year with Matthew at the helm.

"Commodity prices were so low from 2000 right through to 2006, and £60 per tonne and less for grain was a bit hard to take," says Matthew. "We had and still have pigs and that side of the business was going okay but it wasn't going to support all three families – myself, my wife Donna and our two boys Harry and James; my brother Jonathan and his wife Rachel, and my parents Laurence and Doreen.

"We were a bit exposed and further bad harvests or cereal price dives would have made it difficult for us to support ourselves through the year. But we don't believe in just sitting and moaning about problems. We realise we're privileged to live here so we got our finger out to do something about it."

In the Hodgson family's case that meant turning to drink in a business style. "We had first looked at starting up a brewery in 2000. We had a feasibility study put together by a consultant but the figures didn't stack up. The cost of converting the building alone was phenomenal and at the time we didn't think there was a big enough market to supply the beer."

Six years, a great deal of market research and a couple of successful grant applications later, through DEFRA's Rural Enterprise Grant and the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's Growing Routes programme, and the Hodgsons made the move from farmers to farmers-cum-brewers.

"During that time we found that quite a few publicans had moved in to Holderness, probably because it was a little cheaper up here than down South. Many of them were keen on real ales. This was also at just the time when food miles were in the news and there was a big push going on for local produce.

"We looked at our location and although we're isolated on this spit of land which is Holderness we thought we had an advantage in being able to supply the beer to pubs in this area at a reasonable price. We wouldn't have to haul it miles and everyone had said that a locally produced beer would be a good idea.

"We converted other buildings to what the consultant had originally considered, and they were less expensive to convert. We now have the capacity to brew 720 gallons per week and are Holderness's only brewer."

The family had no prior knowledge of brewing and Holderness is not as noted for growing malting barley as the Wolds nearby, but as real ale fans, they knew that what was vital was taste.

Doreen believes the brewery has an adoring public already, and she should know as she operates as the selling arm.

"I thoroughly enjoy drinking real ale and Laurence and myself have been members of CAMRA for more years than I care to remember. People are more interested than ever in where their food and drink is coming from and we make a point of letting people know all about our ales.

"I just love talking to people about what we're doing. Matthew doesn't produce bland beers. He has the knack of brewing several beers each with quite different characteristics."

Laurence is enjoying the new business too. "It's a totally different entity to grain. When we first started dealing with the licensed trade we had heard about the horror stories, people telling us that we'd never get paid, but 99 per cent are genuine hard-working people and we have had no problems at all."

As much as farming has been through some tough times the Hodgsons have moved into a territory that is presently going through a great degree of turbulence.

More pubs than ever are closing or are up for sale. Laurence has seen that first hand in Holderness. The village of Halsham, where the family live, lost its pub and both pubs in Burton Pidsea are presently closed.

"It's a concern but the pub clientele we're dealing with seems to be doing really well. There are very few pure drinking pubs left in rural areas."

The Hodgsons have five beers in their range at the moment which incorporate local names, dialects and features into their ale titles such as Sleck Dust (3.8 per cent), Pricky Back Otchan (4.2 per cent) and Stoney Binks (4.1 per cent) – and they recently launched into the bottled beer market with two of the range.

A couple of months ago they won an award for their branding which features Jem, the brewery's Springer Spaniel, keeping watch over their ales. They have come a long way in a short space of time but Matthew is all for keeping his feet on the ground. He doesn't see the brewery taking over from the farming operation, which runs to some 700 acres and 4,000 pigs on-farm at any one time under a bed-and-breakfast contract arrangement for a Suffolk- based pig business. Typically, now that they have gone into the brewing business, commodity prices have risen.

They grow 160 acres of oil seed rape, 40 of vining peas for the first time this year, 40 of barley, with the rest down to wheat.

"Cereal-wise the barley is a lot better than last year and so far the wheat yields are better than the last couple of years. We adopted a new system for oil seed rape and we're very happy with the yields of that too."

Apart from massively increased costs that all farms are suffering everything seems to be looking up for the go-ahead Hodgsons.

When someone normally talks of de-stressing after finishing their day's work you'd expect a drink to be involved. Not so with Matthew. "I de-stress by getting into a tractor for an hour or so. It brings me back down to earth. At the end of the day we still live on a farm. The reason why we have done what we have done is for it to remain that way."

www.greatnewsome brewery.co.uk