Focus Midlands: back in the pub business

When Chris Sadler finished university in 2004 the road to establishing a successful microbrewery in Lye, near Stourbridge, must have seemed a very long one.

Yet a little under three years later he and his father John have re-established a family trade that had lain dormant since the original brewery closed in 1927. As well as the brewery they have opened up their own distinctly local pub on the same site.

Chris and John run the Windsor Castle Inn and Brewery, which has steadily gained a strong reputation in an area crowded with local brewers. The 10-barrel plant brews a wide variety of beers, all under the name of Sadler's 'Incomparable' Ales - a brand started by Christopher's great-grandfather Thomas Alexander Sadler in 1900. They are stocked by some 350 pubs around the Midlands and nationwide.

The pub has eight pumps, seven dedicated to Sadler's ales and one to a regularly changing guest. Its menu has a homemade and local focus, with dishes including homemade soup of the day and homemade chicken liver pâté. Other items include Herefordshire cheese, Herefordshire beef burgers, plus chicken dishes, sausages and breads that include Sadler's beer in the recipes.

The Windsor Castle made a gross profit of £208,000 in its first year, and also made it into the final of Newcomer of the Year in the 2007 Publican Awards.

Chris finished university just as his father was seeking a new career after winding up his publishing firm. The brewery was installed in the former printworks in 2004 and the pub followed.

"The emotional link of it being an old family business spurred me on," says Chris. "I literally walked into the old printworks and had to change the nature of the building completely within six months."

Chris and John run regular brewery tours, offer samples of the beers, and run a weekly free music night. The brewery tours are a big attraction for the business, with the plant's circular layout perfect for walking round. "We are a microbrewery, but in our ideas and scale we are not so micro anymore," explains Chris.

He believes the strong Midlands identity of the business has been crucial to its success. "It's very important to be local," he says. "People come to our pub to drink our Black Country beer, and most are pretty aware that we are a brewery, too - at the start, people didn't really believe us when we said there was beer being brewed 'behind that door'.

"People from round here love the fact that they are drinking Black Country beer, and we also have coach tours arriving from much further afield."

The young brewer defines traditional Black Country cuisine as "really old food such as hotpots and faggots" but adds "we are not trying to do that".

"We are not trying to be a gastropub either, but when the food goes out you know it's proper stuff."

Dining areas with capacity for 45 covers surround the Windsor Castle's central, flagged drinking area and the pub employs two full-time chefs. "We bring none of the dishes in," Chris says. "Others claim that, but we really mean it."