THE BREWERY

The Nottingham Brewery is situated at the back of the Plough Inn in Radford a suburb of Nottingham. It is a ten barrel plant that was formerly installed in a Firkin pub in Romford. The brewery is run by partners Philip Darby and Niven Balfour who originally entered the commercial brewing scene in the early nineties with their Bramcote Brewery which was set up in a double garage at the rear of Philip's brother's house. The brewery was an immediate success led by its flagship brew Hemlock,named after the famous Hemlock Stone just round the corner from the brewery

Unfortunately the local council decided that a residential area was not suitable for a commercial brewing operation, albeit a small scale one, so they refused to renew the temporary planning permission that they had originally granted.This meant Philip and Niven were forced to move. In doing so they joined forces with East Midlands pub group Tynemill who took a 50% share in the new brewery which was relocated next to their Vat and Fiddle pub in the centre of Nottingham and renamed Castle Rock Brewery.

Once again the brewery was a success and the beers were very well regarded both locally and further afield. However in 2001 Philip and Niven decided to sell their half of the concern to Tynemill and to go it alone. They had already purchased the Plough public house in Radford and decided that the outbuildings would be ideal for a brewery. So they spent several months altering the buildings and installing the ten barrel plant (see photographs below).

The Plough was once owned by the former Nottingham Brewery which was closed in 1952 and demolished in the early sixties so they thought they would resurrect the name.

Their first brew went on sale on 5 October and, as expected it was excellent. It was a 3.8% hoppy bitter and was named "Gyle2". "Gyle 3" followed a week later ("Gyle 1" was a test brew that never made it to the bar). They initially used Gyle numbers (a brewer's name for batch) as names for their brews until they were certain they had the recipes right and then the current beer names were introduced early in 2002.

NOTTINGHAM BREWERY