Boom time for South Lakeland’s micro-breweries

While large beer companies struggle to maintain sales, small brewers in the district are working flat out to satisfy unprecedented demand for their ales.

Alex Brodie, who owns Staveley-based Hawkshead Brewery, said business had ‘never been better’ with sales in the first quarter of 2009 up 30 per cent on last year.

Mr Brodie said Hawkshead was now at maximum capacity producing 28,800 pints every week.

Dent Brewery is also hitting maximum production of 50 barrels a week, as is the new Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery, where capacity is a much more modest six barrels a week.

Mr Brodie, a member of the Society of Independent Brewers, said it was a ‘boom time for small breweries’.

He said: “I put it down to real ale making a breakthrough with mainstream beer drinkers.

“We are now selling Hawkshead beer in the sort of pubs where five years ago we would have been told we were wasting our time.

“Customers are going into pubs and asking if they have a local beer. If not they simply turn round and walk out.

“Big breweries are finding beer sales declining while small-to-medium firms like us are booming.”

Paul Goodyear, head brewer at Dent Brewery, which sells bottled beers all over Britain as well as exporting them as far afield as New Zealand, said: “It’s true that small breweries seem to be doing really well.

"I believe one of the reasons is that smaller firms simply provide a much better service.”

Stewart Taylor, one of the founders of Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery, said: “We only opened in February and are already thinking about expanding.”