One For The Lads – Ten Years Of Gates Burton Brewery

A man walks into a pub, buys a pint and no this isn’t a joke, the beer in question is Gates Burton Ale and it has just been bought by the chap who brewed it.

“I drink my own beer as I believe it’s the best in the pub,” says Stuart Gates, this may sound like a conceited statement but anyone who has met Stuart knows him to be a quietly modest chap. “It’s a quality beer, consistent and I know the passion that has gone in to making it.”

“I’ve said to him many a time that I feel awful charging him the full amount,” laughs Julie Latham, who has just served him.

Julie is the Landlady of The Roebuck Inn in Burton upon Trent and Stuart has returned to the pub to talk about the tenth anniversary of Gates Burton Brewery which is being celebrated this month. This may suggest that he has not been in here for years but in reality, Stuart is a regular and always drinks his own beers. Both the pub and Julie play a significant part in the brewery’s history as this was where the idea to turn a hobby into a commercial venture first came about.

Fresh from school Stuart started work at Allied Breweries which once sat directly opposite the Roebuck. He worked there for 40 years, witnessing the rebirth of Ind Coope Burton Brewery in 1981, the merger with Carlsberg in 1992, the Bass takeover in 1998, the 2000 sale to Interbrew and company buy out by Coors (later Molson Coors) in 2002 before he retired in 2010.

• 

“I started in the Porters,” recalls Stuart. “It was a massive site in those days and we had to deliver all the post. Every Manager and Executive had a secretary, so you can imagine how much there was, it was unbelievable! I think there were fourteen of us at any one time. We had to take the teas to the Directors in the morning and afternoon too.

“I did that for three years and progressed when I was eighteen, then you went in the brewery wherever you could or where you fancied; that’s where it all began. I worked in Packaging where I was a Team Leader in Canning for a while and in the brewery: Brewhouse, Filtration and in the satellite Labs too.”

For a man who spent his entire working life surrounded by beer, it may seem unusual to want to go home and brew in his spare time.

“It’s different when you do it yourself,” Stuart explains. “In the brewery you are just following a process. We all have hobbies, some like to play golf and I liked to come home and brew. I’ve always been passionate about cask beer, a friend of mine started making his own when I was seventeen. He hadn’t got much money as he’d just started a family. I’d go round his house and try to drink this beer, it was from one of those kits and err a very acquirred taste. I said to John, one day I’m going to make some beer but I’m going to do it the traditional way and that’s what I did.”

Back in the 1970’s there wasn’t a great deal of choice if you drank cask bitter in Burton, there was Draught Bass, Marston’s Pedigree and the relative new comer Ind Coope Draught Burton Ale.

“My Dad used to drink Bass and my Uncle Pedigree, if they went to a pub and it wasn’t on they wouldn’t drink the other. My Uncle would rather drink Guinness than Bass,” he recalls.

Today this would be unthinkable but this led Stuart to his vision: “I wanted to make a beer that would stand up against Pedigree and Bass, I hope I’ve done that; I’m pleased with the way it turned out,” he says in his typical understated fashion.

His first attempt at brewing is lost in the mist of time, but after some thought he recalls: “I started brewing around 27 years ago in the kitchen. I used a big pan and one day I burnt the work surface! I’ve never done a kit, always a full mash so it was suck it and see. There used to be a mess in the kitchen, malt everywhere, Valda used to clean up; another wife would have gone mad but Valda supported me.

“I’d brew for the kids’ birthday parties, Christmas, Easter, barbeques, dinner parties, Bonfire Night … I’d brew a lot through the year but it wasn’t every week and it’d get drunk every time. I’d always take notes on how it went; I was so proud when they’d come round and drink my beer.”

• 

In those early days Valda went as far to produce the first Gates’ Ales pump clip for their mythical pub the Reservoir Inn. It sits proudly in their conservatory along with three handpulls, although it is a sign of the popularity of Stuart’s beers that there isn’t a drop to be had. Something that Stuart apologises for with the offer of an invite in the future when there will be more than tea available.

There are a few funny stories that Stuart fondly remembers about his home brewing days where family ended up as willing taste subjects.

“I made one once and I took a sample into work, the Lab did a test for me. I knew it was bloody strong, they checked it and it was 7.3%! My brother-in-law Jerry worked in the Lab and he was coming round on the Friday night to drink it along with Valda’s brother. We had a dinner party and I set a handpull up in the kitchen. Sean said this is beautiful, how strong is it? I’d already primed Jerry before to not tell him it was 7.3%, I said it was 4.6%. We had three pints then served the soup out and his head went into it, he came round when we were serving pudding! Another day we’d had a barbeque and Jerry got in the taxi without his shoes as he’d had too many.”

As his interest and expertise increased, Stuart spotted some stainless-steel pipes at the brewery that nobody wanted.

“One of the Engineers cut it down for me, welded a bottom and put an element in so I’d got a boiler. I’d do a full mash in that, run off into a plastic bucket, clear all the mash out then pour it back in and do my boil, then add the hops. That would make a 36 pint pin, I did that for a long long time and that’s where I was when Julie had the first one in the Roebuck.”

TIME TO RETIRE?

In 2010 Stuart took early retirement from his job in the Filtration Department and decided there was only one place to have his send off.

“The Roebuck was the flagship for the brewery, so I’d spent a lot of time in there over the years,” laughs Stuart.

“You used to be able to spend your Beer Tokens in there,” adds Valda.

“I went in the Roebuck and spoke to Julie and said I want to have my leaving do in here, I’ll put some money behind the bar and I’d like to put a pin of beer on. She said yes! Valda did a pumpclip and it was called ‘One For The Lads’.”

“You asked would it be okay and can I bring some beer in? I said I’d put it through the handpull; it went down a storm,” says Julie. “Everyone just loved it, even the locals tried it.”

“I was a bit apprehensive of how it was going to go down,” confesses Stuart. “I knew it was a nice drink but I didn’t know how nice at that time. Julie said if you ever go commercial I’ll be the first to have it off you and she did, she hasn’t missed in ten years, apart from Lockdown obviously. She’s either had one or two a week.”

• 

When Julie Latham took over the tenancy of The Roebuck in 2007 it was a troubled pub. Since 2000 it had spent as much time closed for business as it had open.

“The only regular customers were the Bower brothers,” says Julie, the Bower family having been the Ind Coope signwriters. “They’d turn up every weekend and if it was closed they’d carry on round the corner to the Devonshire. Consequently, they were our hardest nut to crack as they were used to seeing tenants come and go. It was consistency that got us going and the introduction of various real ales. Stuart’s beer became more and more popular.”

“Julie has been great to me, she’s made it happen and I’ve told her many many times,” says an eternally grateful Stuart. “She said ‘Stuart this pub wouldn’t be the same without your beer in it, there are lots of people coming in asking for Reservoir or GBA and if it isn’t on they walk out.’”

‘One For The Lads’ would later be renamed Reservoir Premium, but the recipe remains unchanged to the present day.

AT A PREMIUM

It’s a little known fact that it nearly wasn’t Gates Burton Brewery at all: “We pondered calling it Reservoir Brewery as we are on Reservoir Road.”

“Over the years when I was first brewing I made beers that I never really named, but once I got the flavour of the Reservoir I thought I’m not changing that, same with the Damn. Reservoir was originally called Reservoir Premium because it is a premium ale at 4.6%. I thought Reservoir would be a catchier name. I looked at Carling which used to be Carling Black Label and I thought well it worked for them …”

• 

“We wanted to redesign the pump clips with a ribbon on and we had too much wording, it didn’t work,” observes Valda, so the Premium was dropped.

“People would go in to pubs and say have you got any Reservoir Premium? The current pump clip does however say Fine Premium Ale underneath Reservoir.”

The first pint of Gates Reservoir Premium sold in the Roebuck in June 2011, Julie even remembers the customer: “It was Phil Hutchinson, he sadly passed away three years ago.”

ANOTHER BEER OR TWO?

Stuart needed to build up a portfolio so Reservoir Premium was quickly joined by two more beers in late 2011. The first was Damn which according to the tasting notes is a “smooth drinking Ruby Ale with chocolate malt tones and delicately hopped with a subtle sweet finish.”

“When the nights get dark people ask for the Damn, it’s more of a ruby beer and it always sold well in the winter time.”

“I’ve been your biggest seller of Damn,” says Julie. “It’s always gone well here as it’s 5.0% and my core customers don’t like weaker beers. If I have something 3.8% I end up throwing most of it away.”

The second new beer was Reservoir Gold, again from the tasting notes “full bodied, amber in colour, finely balanced with roast barley and gently hopped. Sweet finish. Deceitfully smooth.”

“I started brewing this in December 2011, it’s a different recipe to the Reservoir, a high sugar content is needed to produce an alcohol of 7.5%. I brew it annually.”

“There was one bloke who used to love the Gold, so he’d mix it with either the GBA or the Reservoir to make it a bit less potent,” reckons Julie. “We had the Gold on one Christmas lunch time and another guy came in and had three pints, he didn’t get up until Boxing Day. He completely missed his Christmas dinner, it bowled him over!”

• 

WE’RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER BREWERY

Business began to take off thanks mostly to Julie’s recommendations and before long Stuart was selling to other local pubs.

“I was supplying the Waterloo, then one or two others kicked in and I thought I can do this, that was the trigger really,” then something surprising happened that gave Stuart the confidence he needed. “There was a guy in the Black Horse that wanted to meet me as he’d seen the way my beer sold. He said money’s no issue with me, you build a brewery and I’ll pay for it. He didn’t care what it cost as it was worth investing in my beer. I came back home; would I take him up on it? No, I wouldn’t know where to begin, I’d still got my pin maker!”

As it was, Stuart had already got his eye on some old Dosing Tanks in the Blending Room back at Molson Coors and this would-be benefactor gave him the self-belief to invest in his business.

“They held a barrel and had been ripped out as they were having a new Blending Line. They were dumping them so I went to the Engineering Manager and said could I buy them? I paid £50 each. I bought three and made a fermenter, a mash tun and a copper. I could now brew two and a half firkins.”

The new brewery was built inside Stuart and Valda’s garage, although if the word garage conjures up images of a place of cobwebs and old newspapers, Gates Burton Brewery couldn’t be further from this.

“I had the roof changed, the joists covered up, it was all done clinically and a different floor put down. As soon as it kicked off and got busier I invested in another new three barrel brewery, so we converted it again six years ago; had the roof completely off put on a new pitched roof so it looks the part and I had to have a cold room as I’d nowhere to store twelve firkins at a time.”

• 

BURTON’S BEST KEPT SECRET?

One fact that might surprise you is that in ten years Stuart has never won a CAMRA award for his beer, this is understandably a sore point particularly as both he and Valda are loyal CAMRA members. What particularly irks him is that other beers with additives and flavourings get credited instead. Stuart thinks that these types of beer reduce the skill of the brewer as they disguise off flavours.

Another view point is that this lack of official recognition adds to the romance and legend of Gates Burton Brewery; you won’t find the beer outside a ten mile radius of Burton, it’s never been in a Wetherspoon’s and commercial bottling is also a none starter, although he has packaged a limited amount of Reservoir Gold in the past. Gates Burton Brewery is a true regional beer, a local secret as one Beer blogger discovered in 2013.

“There was a guy called The Beer Trotter that had come from London; he started at the Burton Bridge and he gave a story about each pub, ending up in the Roebuck where the Reservoir was on. He described it as ‘surprisingly well made, with a lovely fruit character balancing a nice malt sweetness making it more interesting than many regular bitters I’ve tasted over the years.’ This sort of thing makes you think you can do this; it gives you confidence.”

WHY DON’T YOU CALL IT GATES BURTON ALE?

2016 saw the introduction of Stuart’s fourth and up until now last addition to his beer range; GBA or Gates Burton Ale.

“Draught Burton Ale was my favourite drink and I used to try and replicate it as a Home Brewer. In the brewery it was well known what hops went into DBA, so I just played with the recipe. I used to have friends round who drank DBA and they’d say that’s not bad, well they never left any. I think I’ve got it spot on and a lot of people say it’s like the original.

“We used to go into the Roebuck on a Friday or a Saturday and drink the Reservoir or the Damn. Julie had what turned out to be the last ever cask of DBA, which was being brewed by J.W. Lees of Manchester at the time. I’d tried it but I didn’t drink it as it wasn’t the same as the original. When Julie told me they were finishing it completely she said why don’t you do it? I said I can’t even though I’d already got the recipe, I’d need a license to do it and I didn’t know how to go about it.

“There’s another guy who goes in the Roebuck who said why don’t you call it GBA or Gates Burton Ale instead? For the next month or so, every time I went into the pub they’d say why don’t you brew it? One night we came home late, we’d had a few, Valda found J.W. Lee’s email address and we put together an email that night between us. I told them that I know it sounds daft as we’re only a three barrel brewery but could I have the rights to brew DBA, because if it is going to die I’d like to keep it going. I said I can’t brew much but if I can have the recipe I could supply the Roebuck. There wasn’t places that had the DBA anymore, I think there was the Cross Keys at Tutbury too. I explained that the Roebuck is across the road from the brewery and it was their flagship pub. I said I wouldn’t pay for the recipe as it wouldn’t be worth it.

• 

“This marketing guy emailed back, he said I’m sorry Mr. Gates, I love where you are coming from but I can’t do anything about it as we brew it for Carlsberg under license, so it’s them you need to talk to and he gave me the address of this guy at Carlsberg, so we emailed him. I mean a three barrel brewery emailing Carlsberg?” Stuart laughs at the audacity of this, but Carlsberg sent a reply. “He was nice and said we have got to have Board Meetings about the DBA as we don’t know what to do with it yet, but you are right it is a very underestimated drink. He said he’d be in touch if anything happened but he never did.

“In the meantime the Burton Mail heard the rumour that I was going to brew DBA, they rang me up and asked if I was doing it? I said I’m not, I’ve just been in touch with Carlsberg to see if I can.”

Then the story took an unexpected turn: “Lo and behold two weeks later Burton Bridge brought their version out, I couldn’t believe it! There was a big CAMRA thing about it and I thought blooming hell I feel really bad, my heart sank. They had it in the Roebuck but it didn’t sell very well, so Julie said the Bridge have done it so why can’t you? I thought blow it and that’s what I did. The old guys who drank DBA liked mine, although it’s not as powerful in the hop as the original because you’ve got the dry hop and the longer it stands in the cask the stronger the flavour. I knocked them down a bit so it’s a smoother drink but you still get the hop flavour.”

DEMAND OUTSTRIPS SUPPLY

Currently Stuart regularly supplies the following: Roebuck Inn, Devonshire Arms, Waterloo Inn, The Brewery Tap, Marston’s Club, Brews of the World and The Last Heretic in Burton, Cask & Pottle at Tutbury, Black Lion at Blackfordby, Spread Eagle at Etwall, Mickleover Sports Club, Golden Cup at Yoxall, Stretton Club, Rolleston Club and the Dog and Partridge at Marchington.

“Demand is definitely outstripping supply; three quarters of my customers are regulars. Now they don’t just want one, they want three firkins at once and it’s hard to keep up really.

“I can’t see me getting many more customers as these are all local, that is unless I start delivering miles out of town. I can’t really expand more than this, I always said I’d only drive a ten mile radius. I get calls from Stoke and Stone but by the time you’ve driven there and back there’s not much money to be made on a firkin so it’s not worth it.”

Equipment wise the current set up is as follows: “I have just one fermenter, I could ramp it up and brew 24 firkins a week if I had another but I’d have to employ somebody. I brew as much as I can; it’s a lot of beer when you put it into pints, it’s about 43,000 a year. I’d have to knock the garage down and start again or move to a new unit,” something that Stuart appears to have no enthusiasm for.

The brewery is sited on a quiet side street in the Shobnall area, a stone’s throw from Marston’s. Fortunately his neighbours are very supportive about living next to a brewery: “Next door will say when are you brewing, I love the smell! They have a barbeque each year and I’ll take a pin round. If anyone did complain about the smell I’d say it’s not me, it’s coming from Marstons! The only tricky thing is the malt delivery, they send great big lorries sometimes and you never know when they are coming. I’m considerate too, I try to be quiet when I’m cleaning my casks.”

“I sell my beers at a reasonable price, I haven’t put mine up for ten years and the malt has got more expensive, I don’t spend £10 on a bag I pay £25 for mine; Warminster, it’s the best you can buy, it’s a floor malt. Obviously you need your knowledge and your passion, but what you put in is what you get out. Hops are from Charles Faram, they are the finest. I use tap water and Burtonise it and I add Calcium Chloride to bring out the flavour of the hops.”

As for the yeast, Stuart isn’t forthcoming with this information; every man has his secrets. He does however have one very important tip for would-be brewer.

“If you write your recipes down you can repeat them. Initially I didn’t do this as I thought I’d remember. You want consistency in a beer and that’s what the customers want too. They don’t want to walk in to the pub and ask what’s it like this week? It might be nice, it might not be.”

MEANWHILE BACK IN THE ‘BUCK …

When asked about his proudest moment, Stuart has a good answer.

“One night we went in the Roebuck and the Reservoir was in the middle of the two beers I was trying to compete with, Bass and Pedigree, and I thought I can’t believe I’ve done that and to top it all the firkin sold out in two hours.”

Julie remembers it slightly differently: “Wasn’t it the Damn that sold in two hours?”

Stuart is then asked to pose for a few photographs, he is obviously uncomfortable with this so to distract him he is asked what does he look for in a beer?

“I like a traditional full-bodied ale, a nice balance of hop and malt, it’s got to be bright and have a good tight head and nice lacing,” he then takes a mouthful of GBA and holds the glass up to the light doing an unconscious quality check, which it passes.

“It’s not just been selling it and getting your beer out there, through this I’ve met some nice people. I’d like to thank all the Landlords and Landladies, friends and family. Burton people have been fabulous supporting me and they still are. Like that bloke who set up the Facebook appreciation group Keith B. Large, I’ve never met him but when I do the beers are on me!”

“I don’t think Stuart really believes how good his beer is,” comments Julie. “I’ve never known anybody care so much, he treats his beer like a baby, he sets his alarm to get up in the night to it if he needs to.”

“Yes,” agrees Stuart. “I’ll get up at 2am to check the Present Gravity.”

“If we wanted to go on holiday, it’d be ‘… but I’ve got a brew going!’” laughs Valda. “We went somewhere for three nights, it was cheaper to go for four but he wanted to get home to brew.”

“It’s a labour of love, especially in the early days but even now you worry, making sure it’s okay don’t you,” Julie adds.

• 

“You have to,” nods Stuart. “If you want a quality product …”

Stuart has taken his business as far as he can, with minimal advertising, no support from CAMRA and without a tied house, although the Roebuck is his unofficial Brewery Tap. His success has hinged on the consistent quality of his beers, friendly customer service and most importantly personal recommendation. His beers are universally cherished by Burton cask beer drinkers, an accolade that far outweighs any award that he could win.

“Just think soon you’ll be able to go in nearly every pub in Burton and have a Gates pub crawl, that’s remarkable!” he says with a big grin. “It makes me proud to be the most popular Burton brewed guest ale in the town.”

www.gatesburtonbrewery.co.uk
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