The Brakspear Brewery dates back to 1711, when W.H. Brakspear bought a brewery on Bell Street, Henley. In 1812 the brewery moved to the Thames-side location on New Street and remained there until 2002, when the brewery closed and, the site was sold for development. The Brewery was one of the last established traditional brewers in the UK to use the Double Drop method for production of its regular brews.
Brakspear beers have won numerous awards in recent years, including Champion Beer of Britain for Brakspear Bitter and Champion Organic Beer of Britain in 2000 and 2001 for Organic.
Following the brewery’s closure, Wychwood Brewery bought the rights to brew Brakspear Beers. After months of looking for a suitable site near Henley (during which time much of the beer was brewed at Burtonwood Brewery in Cheshire), major building works were commissioned to enlarge the Wychwood brewery site to incorporate a new Brakspear brew house and separate Brakspear fermenting room, using original Brakspear equipment from Henley, including six Double Drop vessels.
Production was finally moved to Wychwood Brewery in July 2004, and the beer continues to be made in the way it always was. Robert Brakspear, who formed W.H.Brakspear and Sons Brewery in Henley, in 1779, actually started his brewing career in a Witney brew-pub - the Cross Keys on the High Street. So it was a belated homecoming for the brands. Over 200 years after Robert Brakspear first brewed in Witney, it seems fit and proper that his beer should be brewed here once again.
The brewery shut in October 2002, falling sales and pressure to offer discounts were blamed for the closure resulting in the loss of 35 jobs. Today, it is now the Hotel Du Vin but it still features many of the original features of another lost brewery.
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