Tour: Robinson's Unicorn Brewery
Last week Jorgie sent me off on a bit of an impromptu brewery tour. So on the train I went to visit Stockport and its brewery which has been running for over 150 years.
Founded in 1849 the Robinson's family running the Unicorn inn began producing their own beer. Situated on a main roadway between Manchester and London, the inn must have been doing well as they soon expanded their site and began selling to local pubs.
Fast forward to today and the brewery is still family owned and ran. A member of the 7th generation of the family since it began brewing recently completed his work experience there. So there's definitely a family feel to the place. With over 300 pubs owned by the brewery and a range of new and old beers readily available, it's safe to say that the Unicorn is still relevant to this day.
Being a midweek event, the tour group was just myself and two others. This gave me lots of opportunity to ask questions of the tour guide (who was lovely and informative, thanks Ken) and have a great look into all the pieces of kit.
In recent years the brewery has spent millions on investment and upgrading its kit. This has allowed them to increase the variety in their production and start to create new beer styles as they don't have to produce on the large scales their core range would have been made at.
The owners made the decision to keep all the old equipment in the building which to me is a really nice touch. Getting to see all the old vessels in their copper glory, which would have been used up until the early 21st century was a great experience. For a century these pieces of kit had the brewers putting in great work to create beer, preparing and cleaning most things by hand. Nowadays this is all controlled to the slightest degree by the brewers from the comfort of their computer desks, in great stainless steel vessels. Getting up close to everything and its history was a real treat.
After being explained the process of brewing and seeing everything from the grain mills, to the fermentation room, we got back to the visitors centre bar and were given the choice of three of their beers.
I went for a flight consisting of:
Founded in 1849 the Robinson's family running the Unicorn inn began producing their own beer. Situated on a main roadway between Manchester and London, the inn must have been doing well as they soon expanded their site and began selling to local pubs.
Fast forward to today and the brewery is still family owned and ran. A member of the 7th generation of the family since it began brewing recently completed his work experience there. So there's definitely a family feel to the place. With over 300 pubs owned by the brewery and a range of new and old beers readily available, it's safe to say that the Unicorn is still relevant to this day.
Being a midweek event, the tour group was just myself and two others. This gave me lots of opportunity to ask questions of the tour guide (who was lovely and informative, thanks Ken) and have a great look into all the pieces of kit.
In recent years the brewery has spent millions on investment and upgrading its kit. This has allowed them to increase the variety in their production and start to create new beer styles as they don't have to produce on the large scales their core range would have been made at.
The owners made the decision to keep all the old equipment in the building which to me is a really nice touch. Getting to see all the old vessels in their copper glory, which would have been used up until the early 21st century was a great experience. For a century these pieces of kit had the brewers putting in great work to create beer, preparing and cleaning most things by hand. Nowadays this is all controlled to the slightest degree by the brewers from the comfort of their computer desks, in great stainless steel vessels. Getting up close to everything and its history was a real treat.
After being explained the process of brewing and seeing everything from the grain mills, to the fermentation room, we got back to the visitors centre bar and were given the choice of three of their beers.
I went for a flight consisting of:
- Unicorn (cask, 4.2%) A lovely palatable golden ale. I found it well balanced and a beer I could drink all day.
- Wizard (cask, 3.7%) Another easy drinker. Amber, but with a bit less character than the Unicorn.
- Blonde Tom (keg, 6%). I'm a big fan of belgian yeast creations and this one didn't let me down. Sweet with hints of banana and vanilla.
I also managed to get my hands on a free pint of their current seasonal beer, Beer Baracus (cask, 4.4%). I'm envious of whomever has the job of creating the pun-filled names of their seasonal range. This one is a caramel coloured english bitter, the malt flavours and toffee came through nicely.
Overall the tour was a really nice change of pace from my usual days of bartending. I'd highly recommend anyone in the Greater Manchester area to pop in. The brewery was just a 15 minute walk from the station, and easy to find. With the standard adult ticket price at just £9.95, the tour was great value for money.
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