We can Organise a ****-up in a brewery

Published on 19th February 2023

On 19th February Rod Wyles organised a tour of the Phipps NBC Brewery in Northampton.

The trip stated with a delicious Sunday roast with a choice of meats (or veggie options) in the main bar area and washed down with a pint of one of their finest ales or soft drink for the designated drivers.
After lunch, despite wanting to fall asleep, we moved into the brewing room for the talk about the fascinating history of the brewery and the art of making the beers.

The Phipps brewery still stands on one of the original sites in Northampton and was rebuilt using British built equipment, some of it being from former breweries after being restored.

Although most people think Northampton is mainly a boot and shoe town I was surprised to learn that in years gone by it was also famous for the number or breweries that were in the town. A lot of this is down to the underground wells that still exist to this day and are in constant use by Phipps and Carlsberg for brewing.

The breweries were set up mainly by local farming families around Northamptonshire with Towcester farmer Pickering Phipps starting the company in Towcester in 1801. Over the years breweries were brought out and merged with other local breweries, until in 1960 Phipps NBC was brought out by one of the giants of brewing Watney Mann.

Eventually an employee of new owners Grand Metropolitan who happened to be a distant relative of the Phipps family realised that Phipps was still owned by them and brought the name for Grand Metropolitan and the brewery was revived.

The tour went on to explain how different brews are made along with small tasters being made available as the talk continued. The tour finished with a visit to the storage areas in the cellar where 2 tunnels still remain and are used for storage of the full kegs of beer to this day. Amazingly these tunnels keep a constant temperature whatever the weather is outside. Newer storage areas have to be temperature controlled to maintain this.

The tour finished with a voucher to have another drink in the bar.

This was a great afternoon for a minimal cost which I would recommend to anyone. If we can get enough interest I am sure Rod be happy to arrange another tour some time.