Welbeck Abbey is a majestic estate in Nottinghamshire – think Robin Hood country – with historic roots stretching back to the Domesday Book. Following several hundred years as a monastery, the grand house became home to a succession of earls and lords, until it was leased to the MoD as an army training college after the Second World War. Still in private hands, the estate took a new direction in the mid-2000s, creating the ambitious Welbeck Project, a quest to create a sustainable community “through rural and creative industries, education and the arts”.

With butchers, bakers, cheese makers and the School of Artisan Food now occupying converted farm buildings, the newest tenant is Welbeck Abbey Brewery. Developed in a partnership with Sheffield’s legendary Kelham Island Brewery, and built with support from the East Midlands Development Agency, the beers are in the capable hands of Claire Monk. Formerly a microbiology graduate, she had been working at Kelham Island when the project cropped up.

Her first brew gives an idea of her leanings, with a good dose of West Coast hops added to water from Welbeck’s own water supply. The second, the Feathers – with its label inspired by the Welbeck’s family crest – is brewed with all English ingredients.

Links are in place with the new Masters of Brewing course starting at University of Sheffield such that a few of the students will spend their placements with Claire at Welbeck Abbey Brewery.

For your chance to see how this youthful craft brewery is evolving, get a group together for one of their evening tours. If you can’t get there, its beers are available in pubs within a 30-mile radius – Sheffield, Lincoln & Nottingham

Eco-friendly initiatives

• Spent grains & hops – given to farmers as feed & compost
• Water usage – minimised in both in water used for brewing and for cleaning, eg final rinse water for casks used as pre-rinse for next cycle.

Trade bodies

SIBA

Fuller review to come following visit

Thanks to Sam Bennett Photography for use of pictures from the brewery launch