Last Saturday, our local CAMRA branch had a coach trip to pubs in West Lancs for beer scoring purposes (for the Good Beer Guide). One of our last stops was at the Hop Vine in Burscough, which has recently opened a microbrewery in an old stable to the rear of the pub. The brewery was set up last year by Mike McCombe, who runs the pub, and Andy Brocken who is responsible for brewing; it's first beers went on sale in the pub last December. After I had bought a pint of the Burscough Priory Gold (3.8% - I quite liked it, even though it's below my preferred strength), Andy showed us the brewery, which is in a room not much bigger than a large garage. He told us that the beer is already being sold elsewhere, including at a couple of beer festivals, and seems to be well received.
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Andy in his brew house:
drinking the profits? |
A local in the pub proudly showed me the write-up about the brewery in a copy of Swiggin In Wigan, Wigan CAMRA Branch's magazine. It was almost word for word what I had previously written on this blog. Well, they say that plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery!
The Hop Vine has a good range of well-kept real ales, not just its own beers, including a house beer called Hop Vine, brewed by the excellent Prospect. It's on the A59, a couple of hundred yards from Burscough Bridge station and about half a mile from Burscough Junction. Postcode: L40 4BY.
Sounds interesting and will certainly check it out when the weather improves and the cycling legs come back...
ReplyDeleteFor the record the brewery, (or The Burscough Brewing Company Ltd to give it it's proper title), although located at The Hop Vine in Burscough is a seperate business from the pub. It was set up by Mike McCombe and Andy Brocken who are co owners / directors of the business.
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