Burton Bridge brews up its own jubilee celebration!
By: JimOldfield
June 2nd, 2012
Amid all the royal commotion, let’s not forget another jubilee – marked by a brewer from Britain’s Ale Epicentre, Burton-upon-Trent!
Burton Bridge Brewery has just reproduced the beer it made on its first day in business… 30 years to the day that it first began turning out its excellent ales.
On May 25, the Bridge Street brewery turned back the clock to brew 4,300 pints of Bridge Bitter – the beer that launched it, on May 25, 1982.
It was set up then by Geoff Mumford, now 70, and partner Bruce Wilkinson, 63 – who remain at the helm, three decades on.
They were employees in a shrinking brewing industry, when they decided to strike out on their own, to ensure they did not become victims of its demise.
They bought the Fox and Goose pub in Burton, in 1981 – which they renamed the Bridge Inn, and which remains the heart of their brewing and tenanted pub business.
When they started, there were just three small, competing local breweries – now with the boom times back, there are as many as 80!
The brewery now employs 11 people – and turns out eight times the amount of beer it initially brewed, with a core range of seven ales.
Geoff said the decision to brew their starter ale, 30 years to the day that they began, was “a symbolic thing”, adding: “same beer, same people, same day!”
