Satellite Group

A visit to

Phipps Albion Brewery

Bridge Street, Northampton

6.30 pm on 25th Oct. 2016

We will have a tour of the brewery, and a talk on its history, followed by supper in the brewery cafe.  They have a limit of 25 visitors, so SG members get first dibs.  Lunch members can add their names to the interactive board on a first come first served basis

Visit to the “New” Phipps Albion Brewery

The Satellite Group enjoyed another of their social evenings at the Phipps Brewery in October, joined by a few lucky Lunch Members.  As someone who has been on a few such tours, this was a cut above, as we learned of the history of brewing in Northampton as well as how beer is brewed.

Who would have thought that Northampton is one of only three towns in the country that can obtain water from aquifers below the town that is perfect for brewing?  The others are Burton and Tadcaster.   Burton’s water is the standard which all beers brewed in England must meet, so brewers here have a head start as Northampton aquifer water needs no treatment. This is not the water we drink, of course, but that which is filtered through the surrounding limestone and is pumped up from deep wells under Bridge Street.

Our excellent guide gave us chapter and verse on brewing in Northampton, the scale of which was amazing.  I lost count of the number of different breweries that once were clustered at the bottom of Bridge Street and the stories of rivalry and takeovers were fascinating.  Now there are just two breweries there, the biggest of which is Carlsberg but Phipps certainly has the pedigree.

At the beginning of the tour we were able to taste different beers and at the end were given tokens worth two pints in the excellent Albian Bar, where we enjoyed our evening meal and spent the tokens (unless we were driving home, of course).

John Evitt