Melbourn Brothers, Stamford - April 2023

A Visit to Melbourn Brothers (Stamford) made by the BHS on 20th April 2023.

Report by Jeff Sechiari

We were delighted to be invited to visit Sam Smith’s former Melbourn Brothers All Saints Brewery, Stamford on April 20th to restart our visits programme after a long interruption. Travelling from the Isle of Wight meant setting off the day before, reflecting on just how different the A1 is from journeys past when it seemed to be an endless succession of roundabouts. We set off to explore this lovely town with a great many churches, together with wide roads and many little narrow alleyways running between them, so lots to see.

The All Saints Brewery is easy to spot with its chimney dominating the skyline and encouraging signs of steam emanating. Adjacent to the brewery there was an impressive red brick building announcing P & R Phipps Brewers including an archway for wagons, although now filled in with doors. In the brewery yard we met our hosts, Head Brewer Gavin Scoreby and longstanding brewer Mick Burton.

After introductions we split into two groups for the tours although we seemed to merge after a while. First impressions were of such wonderful historic kit that has been kept functioning. As my group started at the end of the process this was a case of wooden clad copper fermentation rounds along with one square one – although elsewhere on site they also have a number of larger steel vessels to cope with the volume of demand. Adjacent to these was a Briggs vertical fridge like the one we saw preserved at Palmers a couple of years ago. On the floor above this level, in a room with louvered sides at the top of the tower, was the impressive coolship awaiting the brew in progress.

There was a former laboratory, which had clearly not been used for very many years and also the small brewer’s office with a Victorian ledger on the desk and Melbourn memorabilia dotted around. Then it was on to the copper room with a brew boiling impressively. Continuing on further back in the process, we inspected the mash tun, which was starting to be dug out and a demonstration of the steam engine, used to drive the mash tun rakes and the malt mill. The mash tun dates from 1876 and it was a joy to watch Mick demonstrating the manual mashing in procedure using the hand driven mashing-in device.

We finished in the sunshine in the brewery yard sampling the fruit beers that are brewed on site before being shipped to Tadcaster for the addition of organic fruit and packaging. The biggest market is the USA.

Our thanks to our hosts for inviting us to see this very special, historic, brewery and giving us such an interesting and informative tour. Geoff Dye’s article on the brewery’s history can be found elsewhere in this website: 150 years of the Melbourn Brothers All Saints Brewery.