Beartown Brewery stopped brewing in January as work to expand the site officially started

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The first beer has been poured at a brewery following a major renovation project. Congleton-based Beartown Brewery stopped brewing in January as work to expand the Spindle Street site officially started.

The project - which comes on the back of a record year in 2021 - has included the installation of state-of-the-art equipment and a brand new taproom which is set to be unveiled in the coming months.

Now Beartown - which has been based at the site since 1994 - has produced its first beer since the start of the year, with the help of Congleton's official ale taster Benedict Goodale.

It marks the start of celebrations to honour the new brewery which is due for completion in June.

Joseph Manning, managing director of Beartown Brewery, said: "We are excited to finally reveal the progress that we have made on our newly-renovated brewery, especially with it being four months since we brewed our last beer. A huge amount of progress has been made in that time.

"The production of the first beer is the first step in revealing the new look of the brewery. Although there's still a few final renovations to be made, we are very close to proudly showing off the new brewery.

"Along with the renovations, we have plans in place to enable our vision of expansion in 2022 and beyond, which includes a rebrand and new products to be revealed. We look forward to revealing it all over the coming weeks."

Beartown is a family-owned brewery which started out brewing cask beer. Over the decades its range has grown to offer bottles, cans and kegs which include the best-selling Creme Bearlee, Kodiak and LIT.

Today the business is run by the Manning family who are 'committed to sustainability' as the site expands.

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