Samuel Smith Brewery

Samuel Smith Old Brewery, popularly known as Samuel Smith's or Sam Smith's, is an independent brewery and pub owner based in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England. It is Yorkshire's oldest brewery, founded in 1758, and one of three breweries in the town. Samuel Smith's, which is an unlimited family-owned company, produces a range including bitters, stouts, porters, lagers, and fruit beers, and is known as a highly traditional and somewhat eccentric operator of around 200 pubs due to its continued use of dray horses, bans on music and mobile devices, and low beer prices.

History

Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, has produced beer since the 14th century owing to the quality and accessibility of the local water supply, which is rich in lime sulphate after being pumped up from an underground lake of limestone water; it became second only to Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire as an English brewing centre. Two of Tadcaster's three surviving breweries were founded by members of the Smith family.

The Old Brewery was established as the Backhouse & Hartley Brewery in 1758. In 1847, John Smith purchased the small brewery with funding provided by his father, a successful butcher and cattle dealer from Meanwood, Leeds, but soon built his own new brewery John Smith's, close by. John Smith's brother William, who ran the business after John's death in 1879, left the Old Brewery to his young nephew Samuel in 1886. However, Samuel inherited an empty building and its well, with all equipment having been moved to the New Brewery. Nevertheless, he was enabled by the buoyant beer industry to open Samuel Smith's Brewery under his own name and was able to compete with the established John Smith's Brewery.

Samuel Smith beers in bottled form were a major influence on American craft brewers such as Goose Island and Brooklyn Brewery in the late 1970s and early 1980s, helped popularise classic British beer styles.

The Old Brewery

The Old Brewery is both the oldest brewery in Yorkshire and the only surviving independent brewery in Tadcaster. The smallest of the three modern-day Tadcaster breweries, Samuel Smith's is one of the few remaining British breweries to employ the traditional Yorkshire Square system, a method of fermentation developed in the 19th century to cleanse beer of yeast. Most modern squares are made of stainless steel but Smith’s prefers Welsh slate, which they feel helps keep natural carbonation entrained in the beer, imparting a creamier texture.

Brewing water for ales and stouts is still drawn from the original well, sunk when the site was established in 1758, and the yeast used in the fermentation process is of a strain that has been used continuously since approximately 1900—one of the oldest unchanged strains in the country. In keeping with this sense of history and tradition, the brewery keeps a small team of dapple-grey shire horses. Rather than being show horses, they are among the last active dray horses in the world; they deliver beer around the town of Tadcaster five days a week. The brewery site has expanded over the years and is divided by Centre Lane. New Street separates it from the adjacent John Smith's Brewery.

Beers

Since discontinuing Museum Ale in the early 1990s, Samuel Smith's has brewed only one cask beer, Old Brewery Bitter (OBB). This is unusual in the British brewing industry, as most brewers will either produce a range of real ales or none at all.

The brewery also produces a range of brewery-conditioned beers. All its beers, with the exception of the Old Brewery Bitter and Yorkshire Stingo, are vegan.

In the United States, Samuel Smith's bottled beers are imported by Merchant du Vin. In Norway, the beers are imported by Strag AS. The beers are also sold in certain places in Northern Ireland. Samuel Smith's Organic Cider is available in bottles, while Cider Reserve is sold on draught solely in the UK. The brewery offers two draught milds, Dark Mild and Light Mild. Most pubs will offer only one variant. The brewery used to produce a super strength Barley Wine called Strong Golden at 10.2%. A range of bottled fruit beers are available, flavoured with cherry, apricot or raspberry.

In recent years, the brewery have altered their product line-up, dispensing with Tadcaster Bitter but introducing Best Bitter. Best Bitter and Sovereign are the brewery's only keg bitters. They introduced Double Four in late 2013, a 4% strength lager aimed at providing a standard strength lager to bridge the gap between Alpine (2.8%) and Taddy Lager (4.5%). A wheat beer has been added to the draught product range, although few pubs stock it. Until 2006 Samuel Smith's used the brand name Ayingerbräu for its lagers and wheat beers, using the name and logo of German brewery, Brauerei Aying. The brand was best known for its 'man-in-a-box' pump for Ayingerbräu Lager, which featured a model Bavarian man inside a plastic box.

Pubs

Samuel Smith's operates over 200 pubs - including rural, suburban, inner-city and city-centre ones, with over 20 pubs in central London - which are notable for their independence: the beers are all produced by the Tadcaster brewery and no large corporation spirits or soft drinks are available. Irrespective of the location, the pubs are maintained in a traditional manner. Most incorporate multiple bars and rooms, often with a spartan public bar and a more plush lounge. Samuel Smith's still delivers multiple-trip reusable bottles in beer crates.

In 2000, the "publicity-shy" company began removing the branding from its pubs and delivery vehicles, making it difficult to determine the exact number it operates. Samuel Smith's public houses are distinctive in their plain appearance with limited signage or artwork. In November 2004, the company took the decision to ban music and televisions in its pubs, saving it from paying Performing Rights levy.

Though wet-led, food has been offered since 2007. The brewery's pubs now have centrally determined set menus from which individual pubs can select to create its menu. All portion sizes and serving practice are set by the brewery. Further to the company phasing out brands, all pubs now sell Samuel Smith's branded crisps, peanuts, pork scratchings and cheese biscuits.

In 2019, the brewery became further notorious for its prohibitions after introducing rules banning the use of mobile telephones, tablets, e-books and laptops within the indoor area of its pubs with the aim of removing activities that discouraged conversation. The ban also includes "pictures of sport".

File:Angel Inn, Leeds.jpg, The Angel Inn, Briggate, Leeds
File:Old Red Lion - Meadow Lane - geograph.org.uk - 609894.jpg, Old Red Lion, Leeds
File:Brown Hare - Harehills Lane - geograph.org.uk - 683768.jpg, Brown Hare, Harehills, Leeds
File:Fitzroy Tavern - Fitzrovia - W1.jpg, Fitzroy Tavern, London
File:Borough Bailiff, High Street, Knaresborough (19th March 2013) 002.JPG, Borough Bailiff (now the Commercial Hotel), Knaresborough, North Yorkshire
File:The Sun Inn at Long Maston.jpg, Sun Inn, Long Marston, North Yorkshire
File:Railway Inn, Spofforth (19th March 2013) 003.JPG, Railway Inn, Spofforth, North Yorkshire
File:Tankard Inn, Rufforth (12th June 2013) 002.JPG, Tankard Inn, Rufforth

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