Brewery celebrates milestone with fun day
A Shropshire brewery is celebrating a decade producing pints this month, celebrating with a family-friendly open day in the coming weeks.
Ludlow Brewing Company was founded by Gary and Alison Walters in 2006, with just themselves working for the business.
Today it has grown to include 20-barrel brewing plant with 30 employees that now produces more than 18,000 pints a week, and it's converted railway shed off Station Drive is also a major venue in the town hosting everything from gigs and stand-up comedy to theatre and group meetings.
Gary said: "This is a proud moment for us. Our dream was to rekindle the industry in Ludlow, but to achieve this level of success was beyond our expectations.
"The town has a long tradition of brewing but there hadn't been any beer produced in Ludlow since the last brewery in town shut up shop in the 1930s.
"The business has gone from strength to strength in our first ten years proving that there is an underlying British passion for beer."
The brewery's first mash was started in May 2006 in the Old Maltings, Corve Street, and moved to the railway shed in 2010 with the brewery tap and visitor centre opening to the public in April 2011.
Over 10 years the brewery has bagged a raft of industry awards, producing beers such as Ludlow Gold, Boiling Well, Ludlow Best, Black Knight, Stairway and Blonde.
On May 30, Gary and Alison will be marking the milestone birthday with a free family fun day from 11am to 4pm, promising brewery tours, vintage lorries, face painting, giant pub games, a bouncy castle, hot food, ice creams, dancing from fusion dance company and a prize raffle in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Gary will be spending a stint in some medieval stocks, letting staff and customers pelt him with shaving foam pies and water, he said.
"We're celebrating our birthday in style in our anniversary month," he said.
"We wanted to hold a special event to mark the occasion and thank all our loyal customers.
"We've had overwhelming support from the local community since we launched the brewery in 2006, and we're as excited as any of our regular customers about what the second decade holds for us."
Places on the free brewery tours are limited so must be booked in advance on 01584 873 291.
