Brewing remains ’ale and hearty at old site

Several beers have emerged using the old name and claiming authenticity, but now it seems a tiny company operating from a corner of the Oakwell site of the original Barnsley Brewery has come as close as possible to recreating the drink customers in the heyday of the late 1940s and 1950s would have tasted. They use a combination of information from the old brewery “ledgers” found languishing in a store room and the knowledge of some key staff members who worked at the original brewery.

Today’s Barnsley Bitter is brewed by the Oakwell Brewery but may not be quite perfect, as some of the information contained in the ledgers, a detailed diary of exactly what went into each brew, was written in industrial shorthand which has been difficult to decipher.

But the work to recreate a fully authentic brew has also debunked a myth about the famous pint; far from being a consistent drink with an unchanging taste, Barnsley Bitter would have varied subtly from brew to brew, depending on the staff involved and the specific ingredients they had available on the day.

Today’s brewers have also had to overcome a further hurdle because the water, or liquor in brewing terminology, has changed. Barnsley Bitter needs Pennine water to create its flavour but Yorkshire Water now operates a complex “grid” system to move water around the region which means the brewery can end up with that sourced from the River Ouse or other parts of the region.

But working with scientists they have solved the problem by developing a method to analyse water for its mineral content and to treat it so it takes on the characteristics of Pennine sourced supplies.

Head brewer Jonny Stancill said that although Oakwell Brewery had been producing beer under the Barnsley Bitter name since the mid-1990s, today’s product was the most original, replicating the same mix of ingredients and brewing processes used to create the final appearance and flavour.

He set about honing the process to recapture the taste of the post-war brew: “There were things they were not doing to the beer, which would have been done,” he said.

“I started introducing changes to make it closer to what it would have been, although the previous brewer had been doing and bloody good job and it was a good beer.

“I was given instruction to make more like the original and that is what I have tried to do,” he said.

That process appears to have been successful because the beer has picked up a series of awards and is now in demand at real ale events.

But Mr Stancill concedes that comparing today’s beers to those from decades ago is difficult. “I used to work for Stones and can’t really remember how that beer tasted now,” he said.

Although the brewery has been at Oakwell since the 1990s, those involved know little about the company which owns it. Few details of RBMBC are readily available and the brewery’s handful of staff have no real knowledge of who employs them, knowing only that the site was bought after standing empty for some years after John Smiths decided to close the distribution centre there after production stopped at the original brewery.

“No-one knows who they are. The only person who knows all the shareholders is the managing director and he won’t tell us. They keep paying our wages and keep allowing me to make the beers I want to, so I’m not really too bothered,” said Mr Stancill.

Although Barnsley Bitter is the outstanding favourite among customers, the range has been extended to include a mild, stronger “senior” brew and lagers.

Although the brewery has a distinctly Yorkshire heritage it is little known in the region. The company has more than 30 tied pubs, all outside Yorkshire, covering a geographical spread from Cumbria to Warwick. A new objective for Oakwell Brewery is to raise its profile locally – by supplying free houses.

The Barnsley Brewery site covers 26 acres in the shadow of the Oakwell football ground and is now occupied by many varied businesses, with the brewery occupying just a small area.

Many original buildings survive, though some are being demolished for regeneration, but a large underground storage area, of “aircraft hanger proportions”, originally used to keep beer still remains. A modern extension understood to have housed the brewery’s laboratories also remains and that is where the brewery’s records, vital to today’s Barnsley Bitter production, were found. It also houses the Chimneys bar, which was famously used by former staff who were invited back free of charge once a week to enjoy the beer they had previously brewed. The Oakwell Brewery’s output of about 100 barrels a week is dwarfed by the 5,000 barrels turned out by the Barnsley Brewery.

Aside from its beer, the business has another Yorkshire hallmark; thrift. In an era of soaring costs, the brewery aims to produce ales for sale at about £2 a pint.