Brewing is to return to thehistoric city of Lancaster next month thanks to a £130,000 venture set up by a trio of prominent trade personalities.
The Lancaster Brewery Company will be headed by award-winning licensee Matt Jackson, Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) chairman Keith Bott and Mike Smith, head of Midlands beer wholesaler MWS Wholesale of Stoke-on-Trent.
The first commercial brew is set to hit the trade by the end of May from a temporary base in the city with long-term plans for a permanent home in a nearby canalside wharf building.
Jackson, who runs three pubs in the city, including the Water Witch, believes the new brewery will fill a void left when Lancaster family brewer Mitchells ended production six years ago.
But he says the brewery trading and supply strategy provides for a roll out of beers far beyond its homeland north-west base.
"Our beers will be named and marketed very much on Lancaster's historic themes, but we are aiming for sales way beyond Lancaster and its surrounds,"he said.
Brewing director is Bott, who as well as being SIBA chairman, also runs one of the country's most successful small independents, Titanic Brewery of Stoke-on-Trent.
The company will also utilise the logistical strengths of MWS Wholesale, which already enjoys a strong supply network across the country.
The first beers to roll out of the new brewery will be a 3.9% abv session beer Duchy and a stronger 4.3% abv JSB. A programme of seasonal ales willfollow.