Bottoms Up Blackawton - the oldest brewery in Devon

Westward TV reporter John Doyle shows us around Blackawton Brewery as it starts to produce its first brews. It was the oldest operating brewery in Devon originating in 1977 moved around the county and then to Cornwall in 2000. Blackawton changed ownership in 2004 and 2010, then moved back to Devon settling in once again in Ilsington near Newton Abbott. Nigel Fitzhugh set up the Brewery in 1977 and started producing real ales.

Real Ale or craft beer was thought to be dying out in the 1970s and to counter that the Campaign for Real Ale or CAMRA was set up in 1971. Traditional cask ale was losing out to mass-produced keg bitter and fizzy lager. However an artisan brewing revival and a renewed interest in craft beer is providing more choice to the discerning drinker. In 2002, Gordon Brown introduced tax breaks for small brewers and their number has been on the increase ever since and has even encouraged some celebrity chefs to take up the mantle of small brewer.