Alive and brewing: the 10 most overlooked British breweries

Roger Protz identifies 10 of the best British beer makers that are somewhat off the radar and reveals why each one deserves your attention.

Arkells of Swindon

The Arkell family has been brewing in Swindon since 1843 and has 90 pubs in Wiltshire and surrounding counties and has just added a 17th century coaching inn, the Old Stocks in Stow-on-the-Wold. It has a traditional Victorian tower brewery and concentrates on cask ale, with 3B its leading beer, dating from 1910.

It has added lager and gold and organic beers but is perhaps seen as a bit old hat in the modern world of craft beer.

Bathams, Brierley Hill, West Midlands

Bathams is a bastion of the Black Country, one of the few breweries left in what used to be the heartbeat of industrial Britain. Its brewery is based next to the Vine pub with a Shakespeare quote on the façade: “Blessing of your heart, you brew good ale”.

In common with all Black Country breweries, it was once famous for its Mild Ale but that is a dying brand. Bathams owns 12 pubs and supplies 54-gallon hogsheads of Bitter to some of them.

The sixth generation of the family now runs the company, with Alice Batham as head brewer. It’s now an almost forgotten part of the country and its remaining beers need greater appreciation.

Brains, Cardiff

“It’s Brains You Want” has been an enduring slogan in South Wales for Cardiff’s oldest brewery dating from 1882.  Critics would say it lacked brains in recent years with poor decisions that included an unsuccessful move into coffee shops.

In 2019 the company moved to a new, custom- built brewery in Cardiff Bay with a capacity of more than 200,000 barrels a year that it struggles to reach.

To pay off massive debts it sold its entire pub estate to Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company. It still supplies beer to Marston’s pubs with a range that includes Dark, one of the last remaining dark milds in the country. SA, known to locals as Skull Attack, has been joined by SA Gold that can be found in Wetherspoon outlets.

Camerons, Hartlepool, Co Durham

Camerons is an enigma. It’s one of the biggest breweries in Britain, with a capacity of 600,000 barrels a year but is scarcely known outside the North-east. It lived for years in the shadow of Newcastle and Vaux breweries but now dominates a region that has lost both heavy industry and thirsty throats.

It has a superb 1970s brewhouse that can produce both ale and lager, with a pilot brewery that makes seasonal and bottled beers. Its best known beer is cask Strongarm that dates from the 1950s. It runs 70 pubs including the Head of Steam outlets at train stations.

Elgood’s, North Brink Brewery, Wisbech

The Fenland brewery is in fine Georgian buildings alongside the River Nene. Founded in 1795, the brewery is run today by Belinda and Jennifer, the fifth generation to run the company. They admit to being overshadowed by Adnams and Greene King in the region but they deserve greater recognition for such excellent ales as Black Dog Mild and Cambridge Bitter.

In 2013 they restored open cooling vessels to brew Belgian-style Lambic beers using wild yeasts in the atmosphere. The brewery is surrounded by attractive gardens – open to the public – where wild yeasts congregate.

Felinfoel, Llanelli

The brewery has lived down the cruel nickname of “Feeling Foul” by producing beers of the highest quality. It dates from 1878 and is in a remote, Welsh-speaking area of Wales.

In its early years it refreshed an army of workers in the iron and tinplate industries. It used local products to make the first-ever British beer in a can in the 1930s.

The tower brewery is listed and supplies 65 pubs with a range of beers that includes its best-known and award-winning Double Dragon.

McMullen, Hertford

The family brewery, dating from 1827, has several pubs in London, including the Old Bank of England next to the Law Courts, and the Nag’s Head in Covent Garden. But it’s not a household name in the capital and flies the flag for brewing in a county that once had 44 breweries but now only one major commercial producer.

It’s highly traditional with a strong emphasis on cask beer. The McMullens have added an IPA but their main brands are the long-running AK Mild and Country Bitter.

AK (3.7% ABV) is a now rare example of a pale mild and was named Champion Beer of Hertfordshire in 2024 at St Albans beer festival. “It was the proudest day of my long career in brewing,” director Fergus McMullen said.

Palmers, Bridport, Dorset

Bridport is thought of as a backwater but it’s on the Jurassic Coast, a Unesco World Heritage Site. The brewery dates from 1794 and has a thatched roof – the only thatched brewery in Britain – and a waterwheel that provides power to the brewhouse.

It’s a highly traditional brewery run today by Cleeves and John Palmer, the fourth generation of the family. They concentrate on cask ale that accounts for 95% of the 10,000 annual barrels that are supplied to 54 pubs and the free trade.

In 1953 the family added IPA to its range and that has become its leading brand. It’s followed by Copper Ale, 200 – that celebrated 200 centuries of brewing – and a strong dark ale, Tally Ho!

Traquair House, Innerleithen, Borders

The brewery at Traquair is one of the oldest in the country and was first used in the 18th century to provide ale for the Maxwell Stuart family and their staff. It fell out of use but in 1965 the Laird or Lord of Traquair, Peter Maxwell Stuart, decided to resume production.

The brewery and the house – which has historic connections to both Mary Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie – are now run by Peter’s daughter Catherine.

The beers are fermented in wood that gives them an oak note. The main beer is Traquair House Ale, a 7.2% ABV bottle-conditioned beer. Draught Bear Ale (5% ABV) is supplied to local hotels and pubs.

The beers are rarely seen outside Scotland and a trip to the house offers both a fascinating tour and the opportunity to take beer home.

Wadworth, Devizes, Wiltshire

There was a time in the early days of the “real ale revolution” in the 1970s and 80s when Wadworth’s 6X was one of the most popular and talked about cask beers in Britain. But it has faded from view as new independent brewers have drawn the attention of beer lovers. But “Waddies” is still busily brewing. The family company celebrated 100 years of brewing this year and in 2023 it moved to a new state-of-the-art plant in Devizes.

It still delivers to pubs with horse-drawn drays and offers publicans the choice of beer from metal or oak cases. Tours are available and they include both a tasting of the range of beers and a talk on the history of the brewery and its important role in the town.

Related news

East Coast Canning partners with Meadow

Sunrise invests £100,000 into Curious Brewery

Sierra Nevada's Celly Drippins pours in the UK for the first time