Cornish beer is incredibly popular throughout the South West, but has also been making waves nationally, and could arguably be something the county is now known for. There are hundreds of fantastic varieties, and an increasing amount of quirky boutique breweries, all striving to bring something new to the table. We asked our loyal social media following for their suggestions for the very best breweries and we received a massive response! Here you can find the top ten….cheers!
Rebel Brewing Co, Penryn
Rebel Brewing is a multi-award winning, dynamic, independent Cornish microbrewery. Their dedicated team produce a wide range of innovative top quality real ales from our Surfbum 3.5% light IPA to Mexi-cocoa our 7.2% full-bodied chocolate vanilla stout. They are always experimenting with new and exciting ingredients to make some wonderful and at times wacky new recipes to keep us on our toes. They always encourage our customers to suggest styles and ingredients they would like to see them produce and
pride themselves on producing the highest quality craft ales which stand out in the crowd and strive to use the finest ingredients from Cornwall and around the world.
https://www.rebelbrewing.co.uk/
Harbour Brewing, Kirland
The Harbour Brewing Co. was founded in February 2012. They apply a progressive and innovative approach in both beer style and brewing technique, whist honoring traditional and proven methods. Using this approach, they produce a range of full flavoured, balanced and creative beers. They approach all their beer design in the same way, drawing on the vast gamete of styles and techniques used worldwide. They then use this as a foundation to build upon, but that doesn’t always mean straying too far from the original, more evolution than revolution.
https://www.harbourbrewing.com/
Keltek Brewery, Redruth
The Keltek Cornish Brewery began life in a small stable on the Roseland Peninsula and for years was run by its founder “Big” Stu Heath, much more as a hobby than a business. But after winning a vast number of regional, national and even international awards, the brewery soon expanded, and over the years Keltek has grown into one of the largest capacity breweries in the West Country. Now based in Redruth in Cornwall, they have invested in their own in-house bottling facilities, and in 2013, became only the second brewery in Cornwall to own its own estate of public houses. Keltek remains a family owned brewery that adheres to the age old traditions of brewing by hand with care and craftsmanship using the finest whole hop flowers, British malts and hand-pitched yeast.
https://keltekbrewery.co.uk/
Skinners, Truro
In 1997, armed only with his own surname, a chap called Steve Skinner dreamed of setting up a community brewery in Cornwall. On the banks of the Truro River, he and his family brewed a ground-breaking golden ale and named it after the tin-mining faeries of local myth. With Cornish Knocker, Steve set out his stall for concocting trailblazing ales, following it with another legendary brew, a brazen Cornish bitter called Betty Stogs, which CAMRA named Britain’s best bitter. Fast forward, and today the brewery has almost 40 staff, with a range of multiple award-winning ales, including the Queen of Cornish ales, Betty Stogs.
https://www.skinnersbrewery.com
St Austell Brewery, St Austell
St Austell Brewery produces many of the region’s most popular beers for sale in pubs, bars and supermarkets in Cornwall, Devon, across the UK and also overseas. Their thriving estate of pubs, inns and hotels spans the South West ranging from Bristol in the east to the Isles of Scilly in the west. Indeed, many of the South West’s most famous pubs are part of the St Austell Brewery estate and you will usually find one of their pubs at the heart of every community, particularly in Cornwall. They produce many favourites including Tribute, Proper Job and Korev.
https://www.staustellbrewery.co.uk/
Tremethick Brewery, Grampound
Tremethick brew and bottle by hand, making beers that are fresh and easy to drink. They think the best ale is the most local ale. They launched the microbrewery in the summer of 2016 and supply ales to shops, restaurants, and bars in Cornwall. Their malt is from Tuckers Maltings in Newton Abbott which is one of the only remaining traditional malt houses supplying malted barley from the South West. Their hops come from all over the world. Sounds like a winning combination to us!
www.tremethick.co.uk
https://tremethick.co.uk/
Coastal Brewery, Redruth
Alan Hinde moved to Cornwall, from his home area of Crewe, with his family in November 2005 and set up Coastal Brewery, on Redruth’s busy Cardrew Industrial Estate. While many come to full-time brewing via home brewing, Alan didn’t take this route, instead helping commercial brewers before trying his hand at his own brews. “I just took to it,” says the modest brewer, who has earned lots of praise for beers that make particularly good use of hops. In Cornwall, Coastal beers can often be found at The Star, Crowlas, an award-winning freehouse near Penzance, and the Star Inn at Vogue.
https://coastalbrewery.co.uk/
Bude Brewery, Bude
Bude Brewery are an ambitious brewery based in the picturesque town of Bude in North Cornwall with a reputation for producing FEROCIOUSLY tasty traditional real ale. As an independent brewery, taste and locality are very important to them which is why each of their unique craft ales are named and branded after iconic locations from around Bude, including: SummerLeaze, BlackRock, Neet, Haven And PorthBud. All of their ales are bottle conditioned and available in pubs and bars as cask ales, in order the retain the unique flavour’s that they have worked tirelessly to create.
https://www.budebrewery.co.uk/
Cornish Chough, The Lizard
Cornish Chough Brewery started brewing in May 2011 following the acquisition of the 5-barrel plant from what was the Organic Brew House at Bochym. Cornish Chough’s brewer is Andy Hamer who has been brewing and developing recipes for over twenty years. The beers and ales that they produce are made from the very best ingredients and the liquor (water) drawn via its own bore hole from between two seams of Serpentine rock, thus the name of it first brew Serpentine. The brewery supplies and is supported by local free houses, JD Wetherspoons in Cornwall, The Eden Project and a number of tourist locations, local Farmers Markets and a large number of retailers.
https://choughbrewery.com/