Small, independent, family. Three words to savour. We say them so often that they may seem trite, but when tasted as they roll around your mouth and take on a richer flavour – as I found out when I visited Mauldons in Sudbury, Suffolk’s oldest brewery.
Mauldons Brewery is small and punchy, a hot house of production, brewing three times a week, producing a range of core beers and some seasonal delights. This family brewery is a team of busy bees. Head brewer Steve Birch has been working for the brewery for 41 years, starting at the tender age of 16, employed via the YTS (Youth Training Scheme – remember that?).
He was asked by then owner Peter Mauldon to join them full time. 'Peter made our work so fun and interesting; he knew so much,' say Steve. Along with another mentor, Derek Compson, a bright chemist from Truman Brewery, Steve learnt his trade from masters.
He never looked back, he says, except when he tried to leave at the age of 21; he thought he ought to get a 'proper job' as brewing never felt like work. But he realised that, although it was fun, the beer business could provide him with the makings of a successful career and stayed on.
He's now been brewing beer professionally since he was a teenager and oversees the whole process at Mauldons. He's rather good at it, and it appears to me that it's his passion for creating excellent beer that makes his beer so tasty – the whole Mauldon range is clearly made with love.
Passion is mentioned more than once in conversation with both Steve and Charlie Buckle, managing director of Nedging Hall Estate which owns Mauldons, as we chat in the bar styled shop. Charlie 'fell in love with looking after beer' and developed a 'passion' for real ale when he rented and managed the Lindsey Rose in Lindsey, near Hadleigh.
After a period in London working in insurance, he moved back to his family home in Suffolk to enjoy the lifestyle he loves, which includes racing horses. While running the Lindsey Rose, he was able to put to good use the business acumen he had learnt and began to play around with beer, buying two kegs at the same time, but leaving one for a month to see what difference it would make to the taste.
'You leave it to the conditions and see what happens,' he explains. This playfulness is an example of the passion he has for producing great beer. He likes to see people's reaction to the taste of the beer. ‘I'll have another’ is the greatest compliment for his bitter.
The customer is the vital last stage of the production process, of course, and both Steve and Charlie emphasise the value of having knowledgeable people behind the bar to store the beer appropriately, and sell it with passion.
Steve says beer drinkers are like train spotters; they can always ‘spot’ a beer they have not tried before. This is the thinking behind guest beers, seasonal beers and hosting a beer festival. They give people a chance to try something fresh, perhaps from another part of the country.
'Nobody does beer like the British,' says Steve. Mauldon's has been brewing since 1795, but the history of making beer in Britain is much longer. There is evidence of brewing at the time Julius Caesar’s invasion, and some say that it was in evidence even earlier than this.
This long tradition means there's a great deal of expertise and it's this expertise that is so stimulating on a brewery visit. Throughout the tour and tasting experience, Steve provides such incredible detail about the process of brewing, what it takes to produce an excellent bottle or pint of beer, it's a pleasure to learn about it.
Both Steve and Charlie talk about ‘knowing your demographic’ and understanding ‘changes in fashion’. Their creative marketing outlook, combined with superbly honed skills, means they are able to move with the times.
Steve has now created the first Mauldon lager, yet to be named, which we were lucky enough to taste. It's excellent, so here's another triad for you to savour: passionate, skilful, tasty.
