Brewery news

Bays Brewery is delighted to be launching a second product to their ‘Craft’ Keg range this April. Following the huge success of their award winning ‘Devon Rock Craft Lager’, ‘Devon Cove Pale Ale’ is the ultimate modern pale ale, combining an array of English malts and five aromatic American hops creating a smooth, refreshingly balanced pale ale with hints of mango, passion fruit and pineapple.

Black Tor are bringing back three popular limited edition beers in cask from April: Saison 4% abv, Spring Pale 4.4% abv & New Zealand IPA 5.2% abv. They will be serving their cask ales at the new Black Tor Bar at this year’s Devon County Show. Raven 4.2% abv best bitter is being judged in the SIBA National Beer Competition at BeerEx in Liverpool in March.

George (Ed) Langabeer, head brewer at Bridgetown Brewery’s latest creations - a Red Rye bitter and an Oatmeal Stout - were voted a success at the Albert Inn's Winter Beer Festival. More creations are on the way, including a mild - watch this space. Meanwhile the brewery - which has recently joined SIBA - is delighted that three of its beers - Albert Ale, Cheeky Blonde and Shark Island Stout - will be available at the forthcoming Maltings Beer Festival.

With Otter Brewery proudly celebrating 30 years as a Devon independent this summer, a steady flow of new brews, as well as the core range of ales and two award winning lagers, continue to keep South West drinkers happy. Say hello to New Wave, the latest Otterfest seasonal - a tasty and fresh range that celebrates their love of music & beer. Deep gold in colour, tangerine & peach on the nose, clean, crisp & fruity on the tongue.

This year sees the 28th SIBA Tuckers Maltings Beer Festival and as always, Red Rock Brewery are proud to be supporting the event. This year they have their Traditional Red Rock Bitter, Capstan ESB, Award Winning Pilsner, Limited Edition Summer Daze and our Award-Winning Slow Honey. In addition, a one-off brew, brewed solely for this event, Watermelon and Lime Gosa, available in 330ml bottles. Salcombe Brewery has won a silver medal at the European Beer Challenge for Island Street Porter. They are also delighted to announce the launch of Ocean Cider, a premium cider available from the 1st February on draught across the country and 1st March available in 500ml bottles. Ocean Cider (abv 4.5%) is a full-bodied traditional cider with a medium dry taste and a light sparkle. Ocean Cider is produced for Salcombe Brewery by Sheppy’s, one of the oldest cider making families in the world and will be available across the country.

20th June is South Hams Brewery Mid-Summer Fayre which is a food and craft Fayre where they will be doing time slots for brewery tours and we are working with AONB (area of outstanding natural beauty). They will be again at Devon county show at the Contented Cow bar and brewing the show special ale celebrating 125 years of the show.

At Summerskills Brewery trade picked up during the autumn and they had a busy Christmas period. Tamar featured in the JD Wetherspoon National Guest Ale programme between January and March and has been popping up in their outlets far and wide, as well as some closer to home. Their Dragon Pioneer IPA has been well received in cask and EcoKegs and they are achieving a more consistent level of secondary fermentation in the latter format. Christmas beers Turkey’s Delight and Christmouse sold well in cask, bottle and mini-keg. Indiana’s Bones has been selling well as has Plymouth Porter, both of which featured alongside Bunker Hill at the CAMRA Great British Beer Festival Winter.

Since starting brewing in 2019, Teignmouth Brewery’s brewer John has also introduced bottle conditioned beers from his existing range. He has a new beer called Devon Dipper and is planning another called Conversion aimed at the Six Nations Rugby championship season. Both these beers are around 4 – 4.5% ABV but other beers are planned. There are plans to expand the brewing equipment by addition of a conditioning tank and more casks and the current bottling arrangements are to be revised to enable greater production.