About Saffron Brewery
Saffron Brewery is situated on Parsonage farm in the picturesque village of Henham on the Herts/Essex border, nearby to Saffron Walden. It opened for business in May 2006 after the launch of its inaugural brew at the 33rd Cambridge beer festival.
It’s owner, Tony Barrett decided to build the brewery after turning his back on 25 years in the world of 'IT and Corporate Blah Blah' in order to do 'something useful for a change'. Since its launch, the brewery has maintained impressive growth with sales managing to reach 6 figures during its second full year of trading. Several of its beers have won awards including;
Saffron Blonde - voted best beer by the BBC at Chappel beer festival
Braintree Silk/Brewhouse Bell - Champion beer Braintree Beer Festival 2007
Henham Honey - Champion bottled beer of East Anglia 2008 – Silver award
Smokey Whizz bang – Champion beer at HEBfest 2008-10-27
Saffron Brewery’s range of real ales are readily available in local Free Houses, Retail outlets, Online, Farmers markets and direct from the Brewery.
Ingredients
The Maris Otter barley malts used in the production of our beers are sourced from Warminster maltings, who still use traditional floor malting production methods to ensure the malt and grains supplied are of the finest quality. Our traditional English hop varieties (we only use home-grown!) i.e. Challenger, Fuggles, Goldings, Boadicea, Pioneer etc are provided by established Hop merchant - Charles Faram. Finally, the local natural hard water from this area is ideal for brewing and when combined with the above ingredients results in the creation of a superb pint!
Plant and Equipment
Although the brewing process is fundamentally the same for all small independent breweries, its rare that you come across two that are identical in the ingenious way in which the plant and equipment are constructed. Saffron Brewery is no exception with its main stainless steel brewing vessels consisting of fermenters (ex-dairy tanks from Macclesfield), Copper, Hot liquor tank and Mash tun (converted tanks from the old creamery at Whitby). The current set-up can produce approximately 4,500 pints on a single brew day with the capacity to brew 4 times a week.
Brewery Tours
Fancy organising a social evening for work colleagues, clubs, friends etc?
Saffron Brewery run hosted brewery tours throughout the year for groups of minimum 12 persons. Included in the tour is a brief presentation of the brewery and brewing process, brewery walkabout, sampling of ales and light buffet meal.
£7.50 per person. Please contact us for more details.
