Construction work underway at new £1m Elvington Brewery

Work is underway at the new Elvington Brewery, in Station Yard, Elvington, with the construction side due to be complete by the end of January.

The team, who will also be opening a tap room, started trialling recipes from a 'nano brewery' during lockdown to perfect their lager, ready to be able to produce at scale when the bigger building is operational.

Their Mittel Pils has already won global acclaim by scooping The International Keg Lager Award at the International Brewing & Cider Awards.

International Brewing Awards judges with worldwide beers.

As supply is still limited, they are currently only selling to Pivni in York and Tapped in Leeds.

Managing director Jamie Hawksworth said they had successfully secured planning permission three years ago for the brewery, but Covid had delayed plans.

With the consent due to expire next April, work has started on site.

"I bought a small kit to work on recipes," he said, explaining that the site aimed to be as carbon neutral as possible.

"We want to use predominantly Elvington water to use as local as possible. We need to use certain ingredients to give certain flavours. Understanding how the water would work with brewing a Bavarian-style kit, there were 28 trial brews to get it right."

The 45-year-old added: "We have a new £1m brewhouse on order from Germany due to arrive in July 2022 which is to be housed in a new bespoke building in Elvington.

"So while we wait for the big kit we have been undergoing brewing trials with an existing small kit bought from a Zeliv Monastery in the Czech Republic since this is the country where I trained as a brewmaster."

Jamie said brewing lager required at least five weeks. Due to the space and time required for storage, the brewery would only be able to produce a fifth of its capability without further expansion.

He said the award had given them 'a real buzz'.

"In reality it takes some brewers years to get to where we are. It was perhaps a bit of luck but we knew what we were after. We set out from the start to brew just one beer. There are not many breweries that do that - the giants like Heineken and John Smith's.

"This award confirms that we are doing it right."

Jamie is also director of Pivovar Group, which employs about 190 staff and operates multiple retail craft beer bars, including York's Pivni, Pavement Vaults, the Market Cat and York Tap, and also imports European beer.

He said the new brewery is costing £1m for construction and equipment.

The award was one of 12 trophy winners following three days of judging, with Elvington Brewery joining brewers from Japan and Malta and cider-makers from Australia and Luxembourg in claiming the top honours.

The event is said to be the world’s most historic international beer and cider competition, dating back to 1886. It took place at the National Brewery Centre in Burton-upon-Trent.

Brewers and cider-makers from 24 countries received accolades, with 126 medals and 12 trophies awarded to beers and ciders from all over the world, including entrants from Australia, China, Japan, Luxembourg, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, USA and the UK.

Nine beer Trophy winners were announced which included winners from Japan and Malta.