Adnams Brewery, Southwold

Posted on 16. Mar, 2010 by Robert Gale in Breweries

Adnams Brewery

The Adnams Brewery is located in small picturesque town of Southwold, Suffolk. The brewery dates back to 1872 although the earliest record of beer being brewed on the site of the brewery is from 1345 when Johanna de Corby and 17 other ‘ale wives’ of Southwold were charged by the manorial court with breaking the assize of ale.

The popular brewery tours run 7 days a week and allows you to view most parts of the brewery (the distribution centre is located outside of town) including fermentation, the kegging line and the most important part – the tasting room. The tour guide I had was extremely knowledgeable about Adnams, the brewing process and the town of Southwold.

Many parts of the brewery are modern and just a few years ago new equipment was installed that made it one of the most modern breweries in the UK. Throughout there is evidence of the commitment by the brewery to the environment. The bottles they use are lightweight, use less water to make each brew, recover 100% of the heat and steam from each brew and even grow grass on the roof of their distribution centre!

Fermentation Tanks

Two days before I went on the tour I had a tour at Greene King brewery in Bury St Edmunds and found the Adnams to be far more enjoyable. Maybe it’s the fact that brewery is smaller than Greene King or that you can get closer to more modern pieces of kit. One downside to the Adnams tour is that the beer in the tasting room is from bottles whereas they serve samples in the Greene King brewery tap from casks.

Each tour lasts about 1 hour followed by a 30 minute tutored tasting. During my tour there was also an opportunity for a wine tasting in the nearby Cellar & Kitchen. The tours cost £10 and include a bottle of beer of your choice.

Venue Location

Adnams Brewery

East Green

Southwold

Suffolk

IP18 6JW

Tel: 01502 727200

www.adnams.co.uk

View on Google Street View

Robert Gale (Twitter: @awv)

Beer Taster, Pub Attendee, Photo Taker

Robert Gale likes beer, pubs and beer festivals. He also likes to take photos of beer, pubs and beer festivals. Most weekends of the year you can find him travelling around the UK (and sometimes beyond) photographing and reviewing good quality pubs and beer festivals. He also has a day job in the form of a web developer for Ozum.