Westerham Brewery
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Established in 2004 by Robert Wicks, The Westerham Brewery Company brought brewing back to the historic town of Westerham.
Producing real ale for the local market. Locally sourced, the malt and hops are chosen to produce ales with a distinct, traditional flavour. The local hard water, which percolates through the Lower Greensand Ridge to the south of Westerham, is excellent for brewing ales such as the IPA (India Pale Ale) for which Westerham was once famous.
The Westerham Brewery Company plans revive many of the flavours of the old Black Eagle Brewery, which closed in 1965 following the catastrophic consolidation by the ‘Big Brewers’ in the 1950s.
The yeast used has been recultured from the Black Eagle Brewery. Back in 1959, after the takeover by Taylor Walker & Co, the Black Eagle Brewery deposited freeze dried samples of their yeasts with the National Collection of Yeast Cultures. Now, 45 years later, these yeast cultures have been revived. The water used comes from the same aquifer that served the old brewery in the 1960s and before.
Early in his book Aftermath Travels in a Post-War World (isbn 1-57098-173-6, Roberts Rinehart Publishers) Farley Mowat relates a tour of the Black Eagle Brewery he took in 1953.
