Wakefield CAMRA Homepage Microbrewers
Bosun's Brewing Company
Formerly at Unit
20, Wakefield Commercial Park, 97 Bridge Road, Horbury Bridge WF4 5NW, now at
Unit 4 Prospect Business Centre, Prospect Street, Huddersfield,
HD1 2NU ...brewery website tel
074703535735
CAMRA's BLO (Brewery Liaison Officer) will be an appointee from Huddersfield CAMRA,
A new brewery opened May 2013 by a father and son from Huddersfield, both called Grahame Andrews, so you'll have to distinguish them as Fogey and Junior. E-mail grahamef@bosunsbrewery.co.uk and grahamej@bosunsbrewery.co.uk The father's an ex-Navy man whose bucket list included starting his own brewery and his son has just come put of the Army.
On a
naval theme the first two beers have been Maiden Voyage, a 3.9% English amber
ale, typically Northern, moderately hopped to be moderately bitter and not
citrussy, and Golden Rivet (origin in naval folklore), quite different, near
blonde, mildly bitter and very mildly hopped. Coming soon should be the aromatic
Bosun's Whistle at 4.3% and completing a spread, a mild, probably to be called
Bosun's Mate. Grahame the father is an ex-naval man and Grahame the son is
ex-army, so army-themed beers will also form part of the portfolio including
Yorkshire Pals, a bitter which celebrates those "Pals" regiments to which local
men signed up in WW1 so they would be with other volunteers from the same town
or district. . This
badge for the East Yorkshire Regiment incorporates the Yorkshire white rose.
Bosun's also used a white rose on their pump clip. Unfortunately Samuel Smith of
Tadcaster view the white rose as their trade mark so they have suggested that
Bosun's remove it.
They began setting up on this site on 16 February 2013 in premises on an industrial estate where somebody manufactures or repairs almost everything! Their building was of a good size and already had office and toilet accommodation along with a useful mezzanine floor for storage of dry materials and the height from which brewing grains could be fed from that storage area via a hopper into the mash tun. The plant is a standard David Porter kit and Brewery Consultant Paul Buttrick on board ( Paul Buttrick's website is http://www.beerdimensions.com/ ). It's been a steep learning curve for Grahame and Grahame, but by paying heed to professional advice very little beer has had to be poured away.