Black Sheep Brewery

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Black Sheep Brewery

Location	Masham, Yorkshire, England
Owner	Paul Theakston (independent)
Year opened	1992
Annual production	50,000 barrels
Bottled Beers
Black Sheep Ale	Ale
Holy Grail	Ale
Emmerdale	Ale
Riggwelter	Ale
Golden Sheep	Ale
Cask Beers
Best Bitter	Ale
Special Ale	Ale
Emmerdale	Ale
Riggwelter	Ale

Black Sheep ale

The Black Sheep Brewery is a brewery in Masham, Yorkshire. Masham is also the home of the Theakston brewery. The Black Sheep brewery was established by Paul Theakston in 1992. Theakston brewery itself had first been taken over by Matthew Brown plc following disagreements between members of the family and other shareholders. Matthew Brown was in turn taken over by Scottish and Newcastle in 1987, after which Paul Theakston left. In the latest twist to the tale, Theakston brewery has since returned to family ownership.

The brewery produces a range of well-hopped bitters, designed not to replicate the Theakston's range of more fruity and yeasty beers. The brewery quickly became successful after formation, and now produces over 50,000 barrels a year.

The brewery has capitalised on its popularity with a shop, brewery tours and the Black Sheep Bistro and "Baa...r", a favourite of the late Richard Whiteley.

Visitors to the Yorkshire Dales could be forgiven for thinking that every other pub they encounter sells Black Sheep Bitter. In fact, this is a cunning marketing ploy - the brewery manufacture pub signage free of charge, provided of course that it also carries the Black Sheep logo.

The brewery re-launched their Emmerdale Ale as a lower-alcohol beer (formerly 5%) on 27th January 2006 at a special event held at the The Crown in Manfield, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Yorkshire Pub of the Year 2005. The launch party saw Chris Chittell (Eric Pollard from the Emmerdale TV series) pull the first pint of the new brew. The night also marked the rebranding of Black Sheep's Special Ale (in cask form) as Black Sheep Ale, the name that it has been sold as in bottles since 1992, bringing both into line. [1]

[edit] Cask Beers

Black Sheep Ale (formerly Special Ale), 4.4%
Best Bitter, 3.8%
Emmerdale, 4.2%
Riggwelter, 5.7%

According to the website, "...Riggwelter takes its name from the local Yorkshire Dales dialect – when a sheep is on its back and can’t get up without help, local dialect says it is riggwelted. This saying comes from the old Viking words: ‘rigg’ meaning back and ‘velte’ to overturn." ( 1 ). It is also reported that Riggwelter is popular in Sweden, being in the top 20 of bottled ales sold in that country.

[edit] Bottled Beers

Black Sheep Ale (formerly Special Ale in cask form), 4.4%
Holy Grail, 4.7%
Emmerdale, 4.2%
Riggwelter, 5.7%
Golden Sheep, 4.7% (produced specially for Tesco as part of their "Finest" range)