Shropshire brewer Dave is only here for the beer Goldingay - real ale

Dave Goldingay enjoys the fruits of Ironbridge Brewery.

For most people, the idea of starting a business in the current economic climate is about as appealing as a pint of Watney’s Red Barrel. But for Dave Goldingay, success is bubbling up and things are coming to a head. Ben Bentley finds out more.

You must be crazy to get into the pub trade at the moment, right?

“My wife thought I was mad,” says Dave Goldingay. “She thought I was having a mid-life crisis. Most men my age buy a Harley-Davidson, but I got a brewery.”

See our photo gallery below

The boss of Shropshire’s newest independent microbrewery, The Ironbridge Brewery on the banks of the River Severn in the Gorge, is not mad. So successful are his beers that he can’t produce them quick enough.

“We cannot keep up with demand,” he says. “We are having to increase production by buying in two new fermenters to double output. If it’s like this now, heaven knows what it’s going to be like towards Christmas.

“I have pub landlords phoning up asking for beer and I’ve not got any because it’s gone - but I would rather be in that situation than have a store room full of beer that nobody wants to drink.”

At a time when, nationally, 36 pubs are closing down each week and the campaign group CAMRA claims that supermarkets are killing the Great British boozer because of their cut-price beer, Dave’s brewing success is a bright spot in what would otherwise appear to be an industry calling ‘time’ on itself.

Small, independent breweries - so-called microbreweries - are being hailed as saviours of the pub trade, and ones such as Dave’s and the likes of Wood’s in Wistanstow, Three Tuns in Bishop’s Castle, along with Worfield and Corvedale breweries, are part of a craft beer revolution that is gathering pace.

Right now Britain has more breweries than at any other time since the Second World War, with more than 70 microbreweries founded in the last year. The Society of Independent Brewers says its members saw an average increase in real ales sales of 11 per cent last year, while sales of Stella Artois, the country’s biggest-selling premium lager, fell by 10 per cent.

Dave opened for business in April and now the Ironbridge Brewery produces three beers - Shanker’s Tipple, a 4.6 per cent dark brown bitter, a lighter 4.2 per cent beer called 1779, and Ironbridge Gold, a light 4.5 per cent beer which recently won a CAMRA silver award for the best beer from a new brewery.

Testing the sugar level or specific gravity with a hydrometer Dave’s order sheet shows deliveries for pubs across the county. Drinkers from Bridgnorth, Market Drayton, Shrewsbury, Telford are all raising a glass to his brews. During the course of our interview Dave takes new orders from a number of pubs and plays genial host to a group of beer aficionados who turn up with the words: “I’ve heard you’ve got a brewery here.”

Despite apparent hard times for the pub trade, the time is evidently right for small breweries.

“People are tired of bland, boring mono-tasting chemical beer,” says Dave. “People are more into food miles, and supporting local industry rather than a big conglomerate in Holland. They are more attuned to the environment and want locally produced food and drink.

“It’s a strange industry, independent brewing, because we all support each other. If I cannot keep up with demand there’s enough for all of us.”

Dave, 48, had no previous experience in the world of beer, other than drinking it and partaking in a spot of home brewing.

He was a high-flying IT consultant, travelling the globe, getting paid handsomely . . . and detesting every moment of it.

He explains: “For the last nine years I was working for an IT company and I hated it with a passion. I sat there thinking, I need to make up my mind what I want to do for the last 15 years of my working life. I was sitting in a pub when I thought ‘I like manufacturing and I like beer. What could I make?’

“I thought, hang on, why not make beer?’”

He went about searching for premises and happened upon a historic warehouse on the premises of the old Merrythought factory that was “full of old teddy bears”.

It was love at first sight. He put his money where his mouth was, purchasing modern brewing equipment and installing it in what is a heritage building in the heart of the birthplace of industry. To date he has ploughed tens of thousands of pounds of his own hard-earned cash into the business.

He continues: “I’ve put my life savings into this, I’ve not borrowed any money from the bank. It’s costing a lot but it’s an obsession. A real passion.”

This time last year, when he found the premises at a time when pubs were going to the wall, he must have wondered if it was a good idea.

“I looked at that. There was the smoking ban and pubs were going out of business, but other pubs - the real-ale pubs - were doing really well. Some of these pubs are doing better since the smoking ban. There’s a new generation of pub-goers who like a social drink and as a result of the smoking ban they can actually taste the beer.”

For Transforming Telford, which helped Dave get the business up and running in those early days, it’s a great success story.

Investment development manager Claire Freeman says: “We supported the business approximately six months ago when it was initially set up, including advising on planning issues.

“It’s pleasing to see the success it has had since then, including the winning of such high-profile awards. We’re delighted to have been able to offer effective advice that has given the business the best possible chance of future success.”

Dave has big ideas for a brewery he wants to keep small and local. He has submitted plans for a visitor centre and hopes to run tours where people can see real ales being made. They will, of course, be able to sample them too.

Although he works like a dog, the move to a new career - or rather, obsession - carries no regrets.

Says Dave: “I get up in the morning and I cannot wait to get down to the brewery. My wife has not seen me and I’m working seven days a week but it’s great. I only want a small percentage of the market to make a living - I just want to feed my wife and family.”

Most people would drink to that.