St Austell Brewery is a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...

founded in 1851 by Walter Hicks in

St Austell St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell wa ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England.

History

Originally named ''Walter Hicks & Co: brewers and wine merchants'', the brewery company was renamed St Austell Brewery and significantly expanded by Hicks' daughter Hester Parnall (1868-1939), who became a Director in 1911. She took over running the company on her father's death in 1916, and added nearly 80 pubs and hotels to the brewery's holdings, becoming known for "''ruling the company with the grace of a duchess combined with the aplomb of a successful businessman''". The brewery's

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

is Tribute Ale, which accounts for around 80% of sales. Other popular ales include Proper Job, Tinner's Ale and Duchy Bitter. On 1 July 2016 St Austell Brewery acquired Bath Ales. In March 2017 a multi-million pound investment in a new brewery and larger bottling and canning facilities at Bath Ales was announced. Chief executive, James Staughton, described the rationale of the investment as "We needed to de-risk the business away from the seasonality of Cornwall. The further east we go, the more we're focused on city centres and the less seasonal the business becomes."

Beers

Tribute was created to commemorate the 1999 solar eclipse. It was originally a one-off special named Daylight Robbery, but proved to be so popular it was reintroduced as Tribute and has since won several awards around the UK. St Austell Brewery signed a deal in 2008 with Healeys

Cornish Cyder Farm Healey's Cornish Cyder Farm is a small independent family-run business in Penhallow near Truro, Cornwall, England, UK. It produces and sells its own cider, brandy, whisky, gin, eau de vie, country fruit wines and apple juice. Ciders include Co ...

, near

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

, to continue kegging and distributing Rattler cyder and Rattler pear cyder for five years. St Austell Brewery also produce M&S Cornish IPA, which is bottle-conditioned and sold in

Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

stores. Other products include: * Proper Job IPA (4.5% cask, 5.5% bottled) - also sold as M&S Cornish IPA at a strength of 5% * Black Prince (4%) * Trelawny (3.8%) * HSD (Hicks Special Draught) (5.0%) * Dartmoor Best Bitter (3.5%) * Korev Cornish Lager (4.8%) * Big Job IPA (7.2%) * Mena Dhu (Cornish Stout) (4.5%)

References

External links

St Austell Brewery website

Tribute Website
Companies based in Cornwall St Austell Food and drink companies established in 1851 1851 establishments in England Cornish cuisine Breweries in England British companies established in 1851 {{Cornwall-stub