A BREWERY founded out of a need to diversify from traditional farming 11 years ago has grown from producing 100 gallons a week with no paid staff to a team of 17 churning out 4,3000 gallons.

Wold Top Brewery was established by the third generation of the Mellors, a farming family from Wold Newton, with husband and wife Tom and Gill combining their home grown malting barley with their chalk filtered Yorkshire Wolds water to brew award winning ales.

As the brewery has grown Mr and Mrs Mellor's daughter Kate, representing the fourth generation, and her husband Alex Balchin, have joined the team and are responsible for the bottling plant business, Agricola.

Mrs Balchin also manages export sales and the accounts for both businesses and Mr Balchin has recently taken on the role as general brewery manager.

Over the last 12 months, Mr and Mrs Balchin have grown Agricola by 50 per cent and Mrs Balchin has driven export sales growth of 90 per cent year on year.

As well as vying for the Small Business of the Year title, the Mellors and Balchins are hoping to be named Family Business of the Year.

Mrs Mellor said: "Alex was the first non blood relation into the family business and has had a significant impact on the brewery’s profitability since he joined after university.

"Tom and I have every confidence in Alex and Kate to continue to drive the business forward as part of our succession planning and are keen to embrace the new ideas for different styles of beers that they proposed."