Our first ever brew of 10 barrels (some 3000 pints) began at 6:00 a.m. on 4th August 1992, and rapidly sold out through a handful of local pubs. We now brew over 140 barrels, or 40,000 pints per week and supply over 500 outlets. The original brewhouse was in one part of the complex of 18th century farm barns which house the brewery today. We are still expanding rapidly and current plans include re-equipping the fermenting room, extension of storage facilities, and a 'new' shop in a separate barn dating back to the 15th century!

It all started when Tony Stanton-Precious contacted the Editor of 'The Grist' in September 1991 enquiring about a subscription to the magazine. Such was the enthusiasm of Elisabeth Baker that she immediately asked if Tony was thinking of building a brewery and volunteered to put him in contact with Martin Zillwood-Hunt, who was apparently looking for a partner in just such a venture

Evidently Tony had developed far more than just a passing interest in beer, his work with the Ordnance Survey involved a deal of travelling, so he visited pubs, appreciated beer and had started to visit beer festivals. Quite by chance he had found a library book titled 'How to start your own brewery', briefly the message seemed to be that you needed a deal of capital, the divorce rate among aspirants was apparently high and that it was a thoroughly risky business. In spite of such good negative advice, the possibility of running a brewery was still appealing but in the meantime he had a good job in marketing for a land survey company and moreover it was the height of the recession.

Meanwhile, Martin had become exceptionally interested in beer and brewing in the course of a peripatetic career. His most recent jobs had included managing a farm in Upper New York State, broken by an enforced period back home in order to get legal with the visa requirements, running a courier business and finally acting as caretaker for a social club, in all of these activities he was aided and abetted by his wife, Maureen.

Then in February 1989 he suffered a breakdown and was confined to home, this must have been an incredibly difficult period for a person so manifestly active and enthusiastic about everything he does - indeed had done quite a lot, he reckons that he had at least 70 jobs by the age of 23. So how was he going to occupy himself, the answer was to start brewing. Some Burco Boilers, those utensils commonly seen in cafes and cricket pavilions, did duty for a mash tun and copper and he was away brewing trial units of 5 gallons. The term trials is used advisedly, the brewing record for his first brew of Ash House Bitter made on 24th February, 1989 at once demonstrates great attention to detail.

Thereafter he continued to brew daily, mashing in at 6.00am, finally collecting at 7.00pm, keeping full records, tasting and ditching his production to make room for a new gyle. BRI get involved Thus far Martin was brewing to meet his own standards but was already considering going commercial, but that step demanded market research. The route was through his brother, John, who was running a beer retailing business and suggested that some of his customers might be prepared to put up a pin of Martin's beer for tasting; the principle being that the customer could have a free half pint of the trial beer in return for a written appraisal. Quite by chance this effort did yield an extraordinarily technical response from one pub, The Nutley Arms, Reigate. It was frequented by staff from BRI whose comments on conditioning, esters, oxygenation and diacetyl took the whole exercise onto a totally different level - not only was he getting a professional organoleptic appraisal but the comments were hugely encouraging.

Now Martin's enthusiasm was starting to run riot and he was determined to be a 'brewer for sale'. While he may not have recognised that Customs & Excise description, he quickly became aware of it when the Excise starting chasing him for selling beer illegally. Apparently somebody had tipped the Excise off about his 'sales', but he was able to get off the hook by explaining to the Officer, Ron Foddy, that they were sample casks and no money had changed hands. Later Ron was a great help when Martin finally took the plunge and went into production brewing with the Burco plant.

The next step had to be a micro brewery. His home was at Ash so it was logical to look for a site locally. There was great help from the planning office in Guildford who suggested various sites and he was starting to form a capital budget - perhaps £12,000. It is about this moment that Tony was drawn into the web of Martin's enthusiasm. So in September 199 1 there was a meeting of like minds, thereafter things moved at an extraordinary rate. Space was found on the Manor Farm Industrial Estate, which is a very prosaic way of describing a complex of 18'" century barns even though they were semi-derelict. However the potential of the site was inspiring, a lease was taken and by Christmas 1991, Martin had marked out with string and chalk the outline of a brewery.

The proposal was for a 10 barrel unit, the planning was refined in consultation with a number of people, principally David Smith (Brewing Services & Consultancy), Kevin Mitchell (Aardvark Associates) and Barry Kirby (Tankcraft Development) backed up with taking surreptitious measurements of other brewers' plant.. On a freezing New Year's Day, Tony came, saw and was conquered by the project.

In February a partnership was formed between John, Martin and Tony to establish the Hog's Back Brewery. Then started a period of frenetic activity of building and fabrication and inevitably the capital budget started to climb through £60,000. Building works were handled by a local builder Pat MacFadden and the initial plant, which included two fermenters was fabricated locally. Dr Christine Fleming of Murphy & Son was very influential while Fred Martin, late King & Barnes, was the eminence gris in the background.- and in the foreground too! Fred's advice was invaluable during the commissioning phase and he continued to supervise early production, his input was crucial in those early days. Now another ex-King & Barnes head brewer is involved, Andy Hepworth is acting as locum brewer when the present staff get stressed out.

There was an unexpected source of finance when Tony made redundant in June 1992, so he was able to plough his cheque for £4,700 into the fledgling business; perhaps more important than that he was able to invest 'himself in the brewery. In the IBG Directory he is listed as Partner/Personnel Manager, next year Marketing must be added. Inevitably in a small organisation you are involved in everything, but his cartographic skills have enabled him to do all the art-work for point of sale material, pump clips and so on. T.E.A., aka Traditional English Ale was the key beer while they became established, indeed they were thoroughly enjoying designing and dreaming up beer names long before the first brew. T.E.A. lends itself to great play on words or as Martin explains they were seeking something with abstract connotations that would be a useful marketing tool - your correspondent may not have reported that point correctly but you will deduce the philosophy. This is a very brand-aware brewery.

However to get back to the practicalities, by late summer the brewing plant was being installed and then the great moment arrived at 6.00am, not a minute before or after, on 4th August, 1992 the first brew was mashed in at Hogs Back. There was no time or need for trials, that had all been done in the Burco boiler, and it is a matter of record that the first brew went straight to an expectant trade. The only crisis during the first brew was when two process streams were scheduled to pass through the same main , and urgent work with a hack-saw and plastic pipe resolved the problem . Also the hop sieve had to he cut in half in order get it through the copper man-way.

Since that first brew the outline of the brewery has remained essentially the same but it has been extended. The layout is absolutely logical flowing through in a straight line from malt intake through to racking and bottling. In 1996 a new mash tun was installed extending the capacity of the brew house from 10 to 20 barrels brew length, in conjunction with a new hot liquor tank thus releasing one of the two coppers for its design purpose (each are fitted with a hop sieve).

At first malt was ground through a £15 agricultural mill, this became a restriction with the extended brew length, now The Beeston Malting Company supply crushed Maris Otter and sadly the future of that company is in doubt. Another problem at mashing was not achieving a satisfactory blend with liquor, which necessitated a deal of raking - that may be traditional but it is still very hard work for the brewster! Martin solved the problem by fitting a stainless steel bowl, with part of the bottom roughly cut out, in the grist/liquor flow, it works so well that he is loathe to alter the design by cleaning up the rough saw cut

Brewing liquor is town supply from Britty Hill, which is treated with mineral salts from Murphy's in the hot liquor tank and has worked extremely well for the brewery. The Board did switch supply to North Lane and the pH change was immediately noticeable; representations were made at once, since when relations with the Water Board have been entirely helpful. There are now 6 x 12 1/2 brl open fermenters with a high diameter:height ratio which makes best use of the available space and gives the impression of a cylindro-conical, similarly there are 2 x 25 brl vessels with the same wort depth. The original vessels were clad in timber but this is now giving way to a stainless steel, the room is presently being prepared for an additional 2 x 40 barrel vessels being fabricated by Oschle of Ortenberg, Baden; since the recently stretched brew length is 25 barrels, filling the latter will demand a double brewing day - so a very early start for Maureen.

Yeast is purchased from Hook Norton, an interesting common factor between two successful breweries. ('Yeast is the most important beer flavour determinant'- Discuss in not more than 800 words). After fermentation, the beer is transferred to conditioning, which comprises 3 x 26 barrel Moschle vessels against a nitrogen back pressure, Finings are added to the beer at transfer to a 26 barrel bright beer tank also supplied by Moschle from whence the beer is transferred to either cask or bottling. Clean casks are routed through the conditioning room and gravity racked adjacent to the bright beer tank en route to the temperature controlled warehouse. There was a brief experiment with wooden casks but there was concern that any possible flavour variation would not be well received. Now 18 gallon and 9 gallon stainless steel casks are standard - and they are tracked in the trade.

Racked bright beer is available in the shop in PET bottles dispensed either from cask or 2 1/2 barrel conditioning tanks. At week ends this trade equates to about 10 barrels - not a bad pub turnover. With the exception of the mash tun all vessels are cleaned by CIP , which is again good news for the brewster. The latter term is the correct description for the lady who would have been responsible for brewing in a 19'" century beer house in the South, in this instance it applies to Maureen Rolfe, she is responsible for all operations from malt intake through to the conditioning room with her assistant Nigel White.

The standard for all raw materials is 'choicest', a description particularly applicable to hops purchased from Lupofresh and Wealden. In this connection later we went to see the last hop garden in Surrey and also supplier to the largest brewery in the same county. Bill Biddell has 16 acres of Fuggles at Hampton Court Estates, the isolation of the farm has meant that it has remained free of Verticillium Wilt. He had just recruited his student pickers who will start in the first week of September. His hops are marketed by Wealden and he is working hard to establish contact with brewers; at the time of writing he has one forward contract for the 2000 crop and nothing for 2001, so some hard decisions will have to be made shortly. Everything is there, wire-work, poles, oast, even the last automatic Rotobank picker that was installed in 1957, and a determination to continue.

In 1994 they started having the beers bottled under contract but since 1998 have been doing the work at Tongham under the direction of Peter Arguile of Liquid Solutions, who is responsible for beer preparation, filling, and packaging, and also supplies the equipment. The 500ml and 275ml bottles are sterile rinsed and purged with nitrogen on a Vintronics rinser, then filled on a gravity filler and hand crowned. They are decorated with a shrink-on gold capsule and self adhesive label applied on the Enos labeller. This facility has enabled the brewery to tap the supermarket business with Safeway, Sainsbury and Waitrose, at present sales are growing at the extraordinary rate of 300% pa

In the early days it was very much the case that brothers, sisters, cousins and aunts came in to help run the brewery. A year after the first brew the company was big enough to consider taking on staff and Tony moved to marketing full time. Brewing staff were taken on and when Maureen Rolfe's first baby was born, she was then married to Martin, this gave rise to the first special beer 'Brewster's Bundle'. There is a strong impression of order and organisation, there is a spacious administration office beyond which there is a small boardroom and other offices all on the net. When Martin and Tony established the business there was a determination to learn from the mistakes of others, which in itself is a great tribute to the 'Freedom of Information Act' that works in this industry. So now everybody takes their holidays rather than be chained to the brewery, in fact there are now 15 full time staff and 8 on part time.

The brewery is now producing in excess of 140 barrels per week of beer with all sorts of names, somehow the names reflect the enthusiasm of the proprietors. Among the many there are Santa's Wobble, Still Wobbling, Wobble in a Bottle, Rip Snorter. Hop Garden Gold which originated as a special beer for Greenwich Beer Festival in~May 1993, O.T.T. (Old Tongham Tasty) and depending on the calendar a special - Friday 13'". The latter commemorates the brew that was stopped in the mash tun for 5 1/2 hours when five swans flew into the power lines on October 13'" 1995, in combination with this a pump and the FV temperature controller packed up. Despite the strong possibility of a beer problem, they decided to keep going and add some honey to the FV to counteract any possible off flavour, in the event it was not a disaster and they have continued with the special when the calendar dictates - without the mash tun rest. Under the circumstances it seems rather heartless not to have called it 'Five Swans' in memory of those who perished on that day.

Another recent special is Burma Star Ale. Martin's father had fought in Burma and is pictured on the label - part of the profits are donated to the Fund. Eight years on From the very beginning the ethos at Hog's Back has always been that of a wholesale brewer and the partners have invested the profits in first class plant. They have been rewarded with expanding sales and exhibition successes, notably at the GBBF in 1995 when they won a Silver medal and now Gold for TEA in the Best Bitter Class in 2000, followed by bronze in 2001. Sales do not simply follow technical success without a determined marketing effort, in that respect perhaps they are not doing anything particularly different - but they do it very well. The brewery looks lovely, the shop is delightful and the people are thoroughly enjoying brewing excellent beers.

WITH GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TO MR MICHAEL PARSONS (2000)