A POPULAR York brewery is celebrating a very special delivery - a new fermenter which will dramatically increase its capacity to produce beer.

The massive vessel, which was transported to Brew York’s base in Walmgate, can hold up to 8,640 pints of beer at a time, triple the capacity of the present fermenters at the site.

This means the company, which only started trading in April, now expects to be able to brew its beers up to seven times every fortnight.

Following its success in its inaugural year,when one of its beers, Tonkoko, won first place in the York Beer and Cider Festival, founding duo Wayne Smith and Lee Grabham have been able in employ another member of staff in their brewery, alongside the ten people already employed in their taproom, a spot where locals can watch the beers they are drinking being made from scratch.

Brew York’s beers are now being marketed in cans instead of bottles, which Mr Grabham explained ensured the product kept fresh.

The cans have also been specially branded for Brew York, with help from local company United by Design

Mr Grabham said the brewery had achieved a number of successes in its first year which they had expected would come later. “We’ve carried on climbing and I’m confident we can do better,” he added.

Mr Smith said their accomplishments were down to their high-quality product. “It’s a combination of the beer we’re making and the venue that we’ve created where people can taste it fresh.

“We’re constantly trying to improve what we make, which a lot of people do, but we’re our own bosses; we haven’t got someone telling us what we can make.”

Mr Grabham said Brew York had already done a couple of collaborations with other craft breweries, and he anticipated there would be further opportunities to do this in the coming year.