A bitter feeling in Barnsley

Tighten your seat belts and get ready for a bumpy ride. This is about a brewery in Yorkshire that brews Barnsley Bitter — sounds simple but it's a complicated story, with a fair bit of heartache and anger along the way.

There was once a large company in Oakwell called the Barnsley Brewery. It was taken over and closed down by John Smith's of Tadcaster in the 1970s. Barnsley folk don't forget acts of cultural vandalism like that, especially when Michael Parkinson and Dickie Bird weep fondly as they recall the joys of Barnsley Bitter.

Many years later a new and much smaller Barnsley Brewery appeared in Elsecar. It started life as the South Yorkshire Brewing Co, but in 1996 it won the right to use the Barnsley name and launched Barnsley Bitter, using the original yeast strain.

When it ran into financial difficulties, the Elsecar plant closed and production switched to the Blackpool Brewery on the other side of the Pennines. Barnsley Bitter brewed in Lancashire? Perish the thought.

Eventually the entire shebang went bust. Meanwhile, Dave Hughes, who had worked as head brewer at Elsecar, launched Acorn Brewery with his wife Judi in the Barnsley suburb of Wombwell. Dave, a former professional chef, was able to use the name Barnsley Bitter and he also got hold of the original yeast culture.

We're almost up to date, but there's a bit of bad blood to get out of the way. Before it went down the chute, Blackpool Brewery produced a beer called Snake in the Grass, with an image of Dave Hughes on the label. When he had the temerity to buy up bankrupt stock at Blackpool, another beer was named in his dubious honour: Grave Robber. The Wars of the Roses have nothing on this beery saga.

Was I about to meet a monster, I wondered, as I arrived at the Womb-well offices. Reputations can be deceptive. Hughes turns out to be a quiet, humorous and easy-going man with a fine rapport with his staff and the licensees we met in the course of a long but memorable day.

Acorn was launched in 2003, using plant from a former Firkin brewpub in Stafford. With his head brewer Steve Bunting, Hughes brought Barnsley Bitter back to life for the third time. It was a great success and in 2007 a major investment allowed Acorn to move to new premises with a 20-barrel plant. This was when the brewing kit was purchased from the defunct Blackpool company and the annual illuminations went all red that year. But that's history now and it's time to move on.

Acorn is yet another craft brewing success story. It produces 100 barrels a week and that figure will grow with the purchase of additional fermenting vessels. Barnsley Bitter (3.8% ABV) is a copper-coloured beer with a good balance of malt and hops. Hughes and Bunting use the best malting barley, Maris Otter, and English hop varieties. The beer won silver in its class in the Champion Beer of Britain awards in 2006 and was a finalist in the two following years. Acorn beers have won more than 40 awards in national and regional competitions run by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA).

The Acorn range​

As well as Barnsley Bitter, Acorn produces Barnsley Gold, Old Moore Porter and Gorlovka Imperial Stout. The name of the stout sounds like something made up by the late Spike Milligan when he was scripting the Goon Show. But Gorlovka turns out to be Barnsley's twin town in the Ukraine and the beer recalls the hey-day of porter and stout brewing in London, when strong versions of the dark beers were exported to Russia and the Baltic States.

The full name is Gorlovka Imperial Stout and the 6% ABV beer — packed with rich liquorice, roasted grain and chocolate malt character — is a reminder that a grateful Russian Tsar once gave his royal seal to the stouts imported from England. The beer won the stout class in CAMRA's Great Champion Winter Beer competition in January.

Acorn has also recreated another great 19th-century export style: India pale ale. Many craft brewers make IPAs but none can match Acorn's 36 versions of the style. "Is it a world record?" Dave Hughes asks. Probably — it's a pity the Guinness Book of World Records has gone prissy and won't list achievements for alcohol.

To make life easy, the IPAs use the same recipe, with a strength of 5% ABV, and the same units of bitterness. The difference lies in the hop varieties used. They have included Amarillo, Cascade and Liberty from the US, Hallertau Mittelfruh from Germany, Bobek and Celeia from Slovenia, and English Bramling Cross, Challenger, First Gold and Fuggles. The beers prove that hops give far more to beer than bitterness and each stamps its unique aromas and flavours on a brew. "When we used Amarillo, with its intense citrus character, the aroma could be smelt for miles around," Dave Hughes recalls.

One Barnsley pub, the Devonshire Cat, takes every IPA as soon as it's ready. The entire Acorn range is now sold to 300 outlets, using the SIBA Direct Delivery Scheme and wholesalers, plus Wetherspoon's pubs.

Acorn, after that controversial start, is putting down sturdy roots in Barnsley. At the rate it's going, it will soon have to change its name to Oaktree Brewery — as long as that doesn't ruffle any feathers in Blackpool or points west.