Report - Highgate Brewery, Walsall - October 2014

[clebby]

Highgate Brewery, Walsall.

Visited with PopPunkJamie after a recce (of sorts) with Speed. I had a spectacular hangover and the smell of beer wasn't helping things. Some history:

The Highgate Brewery was built for J. A. Fletcher and became operational in 1898 as a small brewing concern; producing a single, mild ale, and employing only three or four people. The tower brewery building is shown on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1903. By 1914, it had begun to expand to produce bitter and bottled beers and the brewery was enlarged in 1919. Highgate Brewery merged with John Lord's Brewery to form Walsall Breweries Proprietary Ltd in 1924. The Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1938 shows the building extended, principally to the north and west, although the broken building outline may indicate that construction work was underway at the time of survey. Production at the brewery continued to expand between the wars and in 1939 the large brewers Mitchell's and Butler's (M&B) bought the brewery, and its tied houses, with a view to closing down their competitor. However, wartime rationing altered their plans, as the brewery qualified for vital, extra, rationed supplies, and brewing continued at the site.

The success of the brewery for M&B is reflected in their retention of ownership after the end of rationing in the early-1950s. The brewery was producing 750 barrels per week by 1948, which grew to 2,500 barrels of mild ale alone by the 1970s, at which time it employed 60 people. Much of the brewing equipment was replaced or adapted during the course of the C20. In 1995 the brewery was sold to the management by Bass, who had by this time acquired M&B. The brewery was only producing 400-500 barrels per week by 1998, the year in which centenary gates were installed at the site entrance to commemorate 100 years of brewing at Sandymount Road. By the early C21, production had increased once more and, following a further sale in 2007, the Highgate Brewery was combined with the Davenports brand. The brewery closed in June 2010.

I believe that post-closure an outbuilding was converted into a micro-brewery, which itself closed down earlier this year. The brewery was subsequently put to auction with a guide price of £850,000, bringing to an end 115 years of brewing in Highgate. The brewery is not only a fine building, packed full of century-old machinery, but also a much-loved one which provided refreshing ales to generations of leather workers in Walsall.

Unfortunately there's no way of doing this without setting off the evil alarm system so should you go I'm afraid you'll have to bite the bullet and accept that you'll get caught. You do, however, get about half an hour or more before anyone turns up, and as it's surprisingly compact that's plenty of time to see everything. No stress anyway, the bloke who caught us was pretty sound and we were dead polite (although running around does mean my photos have turned out wank).

The making of beer depends on a gravity method. At the top of the building, the malt is crushed and separated. On the floor below, water is heated to boiling point and mixed in mash tuns with the malt taken from the grist case. After mixing, it is sieved and boiled in copper kettles on the second floor, where hops are added. From there it is run off into the hop back and cooled before fermenting in the vessels on first-floor level. Yeast is added and the brew is left to ferment. The beer is kegged at ground-floor level, and was originally stored in the cellar. I would try and show you the beer-making process in sequence (from the top floor to the basement) but my pictures from some sections are simply too scabby to include and so I'll post in the order we found things.

Two magnificent coppers dating from the early 1950s:

Fermenting vessels, some dated 1908:

Others dating from the early 1920s:

Old fashioned offices (I'd love a proper rummage through these as there was some properly old stuff waiting to be found):

Some more modern plant:

Even before we got in we knew it was going to be old inside. On the top floor you could see they've replaced a window with a lovely pane of acid etched pub glass, sawn in half:

Sack hoist in an overhanging timber gable:

Note the other half of the acid etched pane in the stairwell

Ghastly photo of the boilerhouse:

Thanks for looking.
​

 

[WildBoyz]

Fantastic. Hope it stays in that condition.

 

[wellingtonian]

Liking that a lot clebby. Good stuff.

 

[Speed]

Good to see a bit more but as you say need more rummaging time! Glad it lived up to expectations.

 

[Oxygen Thief]

This is up there with the best of the small breweries.

I have noted you're not scared of alarms.

 

[Will Knot]

Now that is a bloody good report and place mate

Nice pics and well done there mate

 

[bubblehead]

good stuff, tried this place way back in 2010 with Sophie the rat but it had already re-opened as the micro brewery

 

[clebby]

Thanks for the comments.

Good to see a bit more but as you say need more rummaging time! Glad it lived up to expectations.

Aye. There were a couple of workshops and a locker room that I didn't get a proper look through as well, and a few old belt-driven machines I couldn't get a decent picture of but all in all it was definitely worth the hassle!

 

[Camera Shy]

Proper nice this, well done.

 

[Lost Explorer]

Very nice!

 

[PopPunkJamie]

Good work mate, you were certainly a lot more snap happy than I was

 

[clebby]

Cheers girls and boys

Looks good!

Where has your significant other got to? I texted him twice about it!