The Branscombe Vale Brewery was established in 1992 when two dairy employees received a redundancy payment and wanted to start a business together. The late Graham Luxton was, at that time married to the Landlady of the local village pub who was always looking to give her regulars some new beers to try. The boys saw an opportunity, put two and two together and went for it.
Joined from its inception by now Company Chairman Paul Dimond, the brewery has had several increases in capacity, going from the humble beginnings of a 5.5 gallon home brew bucket in 1992 to the 7,200 pint brew length it is today.
Still housed in its idyllic cliff top location, a short drive to the aptly named village of Beer and overlooking Lyme Bay at Branscombe Mouth, there can’t be many better views from an ‘office’ window. The hard working small team (with help from Jet and Darcy, the brewery dogs) produce four multi award winning regular ales, the occasional seasonal beer and two wonderful gins. They’ve even branched out into the cider market and have created the wonderfully named ‘Sea Cider’.
As you can imagine, the team are flat out every summer supplying hotels, bars and outside events with their beers to holidaymakers and enthusiastic locals alike. The team concentrate on producing the well balanced, easy drinking beers it’s always been recognised for. It’s a simple philosophy, but one that’s seen Branscombe brewery flourish even through the demands placed on it over the last two years.
You can view our September beer club tasting notes and pub quiz here