TWO friends who wanted to change their lives have opened a brewery in South Gloucestershire.

Warren Bryant, from Yate, and John Worlock, from Nibley, decided they needed a new  challenge, so set up the Cotswold Spring Brewery in Codrington, near Chipping Sodbury.

It is only a matter of weeks since they produced their first real ale, but already their three beers are being enjoyed in pubs in South Gloucestershire, Bristol, Gloucestershire and Somerset.

Codrington Codger is the flagship bitter, but their brewer, Nick Milo, also produces the lighter Olde English Rose and the strongest beer of the trio, Codrington Royal.

Warren said: "I was working opposite the brewery in Wickwar and was fascinated by what it did.

"When I spoke to John, who's been a friend for years, he jumped at the chance of getting involved.

"We were really lucky to be able to set up on the same site as the Cotswold Spring Water company and all our beer is made with that spring water."

Wednesday 10 August 2005 Observer

Brewing up a tall tale of hard work

THE story behind the opening of Chipping Sodbury's first brewery could be mistaken for the beginnings of a film plot.

Two men in need of a lifestyle change set up a business and, after a lot of hard work, a mad dash across the Channel to rescue a man nicknamed The Bear and one mystery beer later, Cotswold

Spring Brewery is born. Gazette reporter Hannah Swingler speaks to the brains behind the business and finds out exactly how these extraordinary turn of events came about.

Picture right: COTSWOLD Spring Brewery directors, Warren Bryant and John Warlock and transport manager Vie Giles toast their success at the recent Avon Valley Railway beer festival where they received a Gold and Best Seller award for their beers

Picture left: MASTER brewer Nic Milo measures the temperature of the mash in the new brewery premises

JOHN Worlock and Warren Bryant, both local businessmen, came up with the idea of setting up a brewery after becoming fed up with living in the rat race.

Both have young families and wanted to spend more time with them as well as enjoying the place they grew up in.

Father-of-two John, whose family used to run the Downs Farm hi Codrington, told the Gazette: "I have my own training consultancy firm and had to spend a year working in Glasgow away from my family so I decided on a complete lifestyle change so that I could work closer to home."

Business

Warren, who is from Wickwar and runs a conser­vatory company there, added: "We decided that our families came first and this means we have more quality time with them."

John and Warren's wives have been involved in set­ting up the business and John's wife Angela helped name one of the ales.

"That was the hardest bit about setting up the busi­ness, naming it and the. ales," laughed John.

Local produce is used to make the ales, at the Dodington Ash brewery

The ale is distilled using water produced by neighbouring business Cotswold Spring Water and the malt is sourced from local farms

John, 38, said the aim of the brewery is to support local trade. He continued: "The ales will be sold in local pubs and we already have two pubs in Chipping Sodbury who are willing to sell it."

The ales, the Codrington Royal, Codrington Codger and the Olde English Rose, have been produced by stalwart brewer Nick Milo, also known as The Bear.

He bad been working in Britons France for four years before being rescued by John and Warren.

"We found out about him from a friend of a friend and knew he wasn't happy in France so we went to get him, bundled him and everything he owns in a white transit van and brought him back home," explained John.

Nick, a brewer of 22 years, gets his nickname because, as the men joke, "He’s big and hairy."

The three men, along with fellow partner Vie Giles from Yate, have already produced an award-winning ale since their official launch at the beginning of this month, although the whole thing was a bit of a mystery

Mystery

John explains: "We weren't sure about our fist batch of ale and so we entered it into the Avon Vale Festival under the name CSB Mystery It out­sold everything three to one."

The three ales will be on sale at the Chipping Sodbury Beer Festival next month and the public can go to the brewery for a taste and to see how the ales are produced.

John added:  "We want this to be an open brewery where members of the pub­lic can come and have a look at what we do. We are not sure what the future holds but we are local boys and we want the business to have a local feel."

Friday 1 July 2005 Gazette

Ah, but little do we realise that this motorway junction is your best route to a new brewing venture whose use of natural ingredients is set to make it the darling of the conservationist movement. For, at the base of the Cotswolds, not half a mile from the motorway, is a natural spring, home to a successful mineral water operation and, as of this summer, to the newest brewery in South Gloucestershire.

 

The Cotswold Spring Brewery is the brainchild of John Worlock and Warren Bryant. Given John’s background in Training & Consultancy in the Financial Services Industry, and Warren’s successful career as a Carpenter and Builder, it is perhaps surprising that they have chosen a new craft brewery as their next venture, but here they are.

 

The truth is that this is a labour of love for them. When I meet them at the brewery, they are both positively buzzing with enthusiasm for the project. They agree to show me around.

 

The new brewery has been purpose-built by Warren on the site of the Cotswold Spring Water Company. Apart from the obvious benefits of siting a brewery at a natural spring, the decision to build from scratch has also enabled the guys to make sure that everything about the brewery is absolutely as they would wish it to be. For example, the brewery is spacious and well-laid out, with cladding throughout allowing precision temperature

control as well as lending itself admirably to high-power and hygienic cleaning techniques.

 

The equipment itself was purchased from the Felon and Firkin pub/brewery in Leeds. It is a ten-barrel plant using the local spring water in exactly the same condition as that which is bottled for sale by the Cotswold Spring Water Company. The guys are confident that customers will agree that the purity of the central ingredient will contribute to a crisp and clear taste in the beers produced here.

 

Talking of which, Cotswold Spring Brewery beers will be available during the summer at free-trade outlets and beer festivals across the region. There will be three brews to start with:

 

! Cotswold Spring Old English Rose (3.8%) – An eminently quaffable session bitter with a light, crisp summer flavour to it.

 

! Cotswold Spring Codrington Codger (4.2%) – The flagship bitter. This will be a classic best bitter with malt and hops present throughout, and a smooth aftertaste.

 

! Cotswold Spring Royal – The strongest beer in the initial portfolio, weighing in at a full-bodied 4.5% ABV. Flavoursome and moreish, this will be the big brother of the Cotswold clan.

 

Early outlets for the Cotswold Spring beers are likely to be the Codrington Arms in Codrington, as well as the George and the Beaufort, both in Chipping Sodbury; though there will be plenty of other places to sample these ales if all goes to plan.

 

Not only that, but the Cotswold Spring Brewery will be offering ‘beer boxes’ and possibly specially bottled beers, available direct from the brewery. Call (01454) 323 088 or email info@cotswoldbrewery.com for more details.

 

Duncan Shine

Cotswold Spring Brewery

 

M4 Junction 18. Picture it. Streams of cars heading south on the A46 to Bath, road works on the motorway and the annual snarl-up trying to get to the Badminton Horse Trials. A pretty unremarkable motorway junction.

Summer 2005

Friday 6 January 2006 Gazette

A LOCAL brewery celebrated the festive period by organising an unique "dray" out for its customers.

Staff at Cotswold Spring Brewery surprised local landlords by making their Christmas delivery using a traditional handcrafted dray.

The horse drawn truck had been restored by Yate craftsman, known only as Mike, who worked tirelessly to finish the traditional cart in time for Christmas deliveries to pubs in Chipping Sodbury and Codrington.

Joint owner of the brewery John Worlock told the Gazette that they had been trying to recreate a bit of tradition for Christmas and bring some festive cheer to the local area and landlords. "The dray was pulled by a traditional Welsh cob and certainly caused a stir when we dropped off our ale at the George and Beaufort in Chipping Sodbury who have supported us since we started in June last year," he explained. "It was a great day out."

The horse drawn cart also paid a visit to the Codrington Arms, Codrington, much to the delight of passers by.

Mr Worlock added: "The whole thing was a success and we are grateful to Mike for pulling out all the stops to get the dray finished in time for Christmas."

Cotswold Spring

By Richard James

Friday 9^lh June was a glorious summer's evening as we left the Glue Pot in Emlyn Square and headed for junction 16 of the M4 to visit the Cotswold Spring Brewery at Codrington near Chipping Sodbury. The brewery is very easy to find, it is just 5 minutes off junction 18.

We were greeted at the brewery by brewer Nik Milo who joined Cotswold Spring from the Corref brewery in Brittany in May 2005. Nik has extensive brewing experience including stints with the Firkin chain when they were brew pubs.

The Cotswold Spring brewery is the brainchild of business men John Warlock and Warren Bryant. They set the brewery up from scratch in the spring of 2005 and from the outset they were determined to use the best local ingredients. This includes spring water from the Cotswold Spring Water company which is sited next door which gives the brewery its name. The hops come from Worcestershire and the malt from Warminster.

The brewery is custom built and very compact with a range of three regular beers - Codrington Codger (4.2%), Codrington Royal (4.5%), and Olde English Rose (4.0% ). In addition they have a number of season specials including the World Cup themed It's Coming Home (4.3%) which Nik invited us to sample first. This is a lager beer and went down well on a hot evening; I can see this being very popular over the next few weeks!

The next special will be Apricot Harvest (TBC%) which contains real Apricot and is one of Nik's personal favourites.

By now we had been joined by John Warlock who told us the story of how their first beer CSB Mystery was brewed. This was very much a joint effort. Nik had come over from Brittany to apply for the brewer's job and had immediately impressed John & Warren. He was hired on the spot and started the first Cotswold Spring brew. However, it was John & Warren who had to finish this off while Nik returned to Brittany to arrange his move back to Britain

John did not explain exactly what happened next except to say that "...everything went wrong" and point to the heat damaged ceiling above the Copper! Luckily all was not lost and on his return Nik declared the beer a success and it was decided to send it to the Avon Vale Festival under the name CSB Mystery. It proved a great success and won the brewery its first award!

After many more samples and a very informative discussions with our hosts we reluctantly headed back to out minibus to head for home, via a few pubs of course!

The TUN - Summer 2006