Hopefully, this will be my last beer from the back of the cupboard as we will be down the pub when the next edition of London Drinker is out! In the meantime, I couldn’t let the drinking of this special beer go unreported.
For those of you who don’t know the history behind the Black Sheep Brewery, it is worth telling. Once upon a time there was a family whose brewery, Theakston’s, had brewed in the North Yorkshire market town of Masham since 1827. In the 1970’s, Theakston’s thought that, in order to survive, they needed to expand and so they purchased the Carlisle State Management Brewery, which itself has an interesting history. The State Brewery been owned and operated by the Government since 1916, having been nationalised as part of an initiative to control drinking by munitions workers in Carlisle during the First World War. Unfortunately, however, this purchase stretched Theakston’s financially, so in 1984, looking for investment, they joined up with Matthew Brown of Blackburn, Lancashire. Three years later, in 1987, Matthew Brown were taken over by Scottish & Newcastle Breweries (S&N). This however was the beginning of the story rather than the end.
At the time of the takeover, Paul Theakston was managing director, a role that he had filled since 1968 when he was only 23. S&N made no secret that they didn’t want him in Masham and so he quit the following year. After a few years of investigation and planning, Paul settled on the maltings of the former Lightfoot Brewery, also in Masham, and which Theakston’s had acquired and closed in 1917. In 1992, the Black Sheep Brewery was born. There is no secret that Sue, Paul’s wife, came up with the brewery’s name and it was designed to be ‘a bit tongue in cheek’.
Traditions remain; the brewery still uses the unique Yorkshire Square fermentation system*, one of the very few breweries in the world to do so. And, as with Theakston’s (which Paul’s four cousins bought back from S&N in 2003), Black Sheep is a family affair. Paul’s two sons, Rob and Jo are the Managing Director and Sales and Marketing Director respectively. Paul stood down from the Board in 2018.
Nearly 30 years on, Black Sheep are still brewing, despite the increasingly competitive market. When in 2012, the brewery celebrated its 20th anniversary, they brought out a 10% ABV beer called Progress Limited Edition using just Progress hops. The writing on the bottle ties the hops to the ethos of Black Sheep: ‘Don’t be afraid to take on an unfamiliar path as often they’re the ones that take you to the best places, for without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible’. Progress Limited Edition proved to be stunning as an after dinner drink. Shame we only had one bottle!
Tasting Notes: dark ruby brown rich, full bodied beer with roasty dark chocolate and sweet caramelised Christmas cake aroma. These flavours are present with a pleasant increasing intensity on the palate with rich Madeira note and some tart damson and hints of black treacle. The finish is of dark, dry chocolate and a spicy bitter hoppiness that lingers.
Christine Cryne
- As the wort ferments, the yeast rises and flows out of the vessel and onto the walled deck above, thus separating the beer from the yeast. This system rouses the beer and the fermented wort is pumped from the bottom of the tank and then sprayed over the top of the brew.
Editor’s note: Black Sheep maintained production during ‘lockdown’ and sold beer from the brewery. They were among the first breweries to restart full production in June in anticipation of the pubs reopening.