OPENING TIMES
HOW TO FIND US...
To get to Church End Brewery from Hinckley, head west down the A5 towards Atherstone. Turn sharp left at the Atherstone roundabout towards Mancetter. Not much further on, on the right - once you have passed a church and graveyard - turn right. You then take a pleasant country lane past a train bridge and a quarry. You come out at a junction at the end of Ridge Lane village. Turn right and a few yards further up the road on the left is the little road (often obscured by parked cars) that leads into the brewery. There is usually a sandwich board sign on the opposite side of the road to direct you into the brewery.
You can also get to the brewery from the A5 by going through Nuneaton, or by going through Hartshill. The brewery is about 9-10 miles away from Hinckley. When you have discovered one route it's not long before you try out the others...because you'll definitely be returning...
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Church
End Breweries have also used local produce as key ingredients in some of
their ales. The honey in their popular Pooh Beer is from a bee keeper
whose apiary is just up the road from them in Shawbury Lane. The beer is so
popular that it sells out every time they brew it - the bees just can't
keep up with the demand! They also created a bottle conditioned beer named
Rugby ale (ABV 5.0%) which was brewed in celebration of the
Rugby World Cup in 1999. Rugby Ale is a strong Brown Ale.
Now they have over forty distinctive products including fruit beers made with real fruit, herb beers made with real herbs, wheat beers made with a high proportion of malted wheat and black beers made from chocolate malt.
The
say they're quite proud to boast they sell everything they brew.
The small brewery team are happy to show people around their premises in Ridge Lane, near Atherstone, as long as a visit has been arranged beforehand. Just give them a call on 01827 713 080 to arrange a tour.
CHURCH
END BREWERY
A FABULOUS BREWERY sits on the doorstep of Hinckley. Church End Brewery was originally based in an old coffin workshop behind the Griffin Inn at Shustoke, Warwickshire, but in 2001 it moved close to the edge of Leicestershire, to Ridge Lane village, between Nuneaton and Atherstone..
The
brewery is a hands - on craft
brewery making a range of cask - conditioned beers.
When
it first opened in 1994 in a 350-year-old stable block at Shustoke it was
a 4 barrel plant,
but at its present site is 10-barrel. It supplies between 100 and 150 outlets
and produces over 40 different beers each year.
Church End Brewery is situated down a small road, off the main road in Ridge Lane. There is a sign on the side of the main road to show you where to go:: “Brewery Tap Open”. This leads you into a large car park and a field. Here is, what was once, the old Ridge Lane Working Mens' Club. Outside are benches (nice in the summer) and the inside bar is modern. The beer has the freshness of spring water, with a distinctive flavour like no other brand! There is a variety of continental bottled beers for sale too.
Despite brewing beers with unusual ingredients, Church End Brewery still only use ancestral methods and stick to traditional forms of malt and hops.
The first brew was made on August 1st 1994 and it's name was ‘M Reg’. Shortly later came ‘M Reg Gti’ and ‘What the Fox's Hat’. Paul Hamblett from the brewery said, "We've made beers using mangoes, grapefruit, bananas - all sorts of things. The one that wasn't successful was garlic. Much as I love garlic - it doesn't work as beer! I can't remember who suggested that one...!"
Once, the brewery even experimented with special aphrodisiac ingredients to make a beer for Valentine's Day. The love potion - called Alcofrolic - applied the ancient aphrodisiac properties of ginger and ginseng. For the Coventry Beer Festival in 2002, the brewery made the most of the event's Highfield Road location and made Sky Blueberry Bitter, which contained fresh blueberries.