Cheers! Joule's Brewery to open more North Staffordshire pubs
A BEER first brewed by Staffordshire monks 900 years ago will become more widely available thanks to a £1 million bank loan.
Joule's Brewery has received a financial package from the Co-operative Bank which will allow it to open more pubs in the region.
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CHEERS! Jason Keenan, landlord of the Glebe pub in Stoke, raises a glass of Joule's.
The brewery produced its famous pale ale in Stone for two centuries, continuing a tradition started by Augustinian monks in the 1100s.
In 1974 it appeared the Joule's story had come to an end when the brewery was demolished after a takeover.
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But Joule's was resurrected in Market Drayton in 2010, and now runs 17 pubs in Staffordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire and Wales.
Managing director Steve Nuttall said the company would now be looking for new sites in the area.
He said: "Joule's strong traditional values are key to our success. Our public houses are old-style English pubs like those which have served communities for centuries.
"While many pub chains have been hit hard by the downturn, Joule's bucks the trend and shows how we are giving the public what they want.
"It's all about the simple things in life – really good beer, good food and uncomplicated interiors in lovely historical buildings. We welcome the continuing support provided by The Co-operative Bank."
Joule's produces its pale ale according to the original company's brewing notes and methods, using spring water from the site of an original Joule's house. It has now created two new beers: Joule's Blonde and Slumbering Monk.
Joule's was recently awarded the National Pub Design Award by the Campaign for Real Ale and English Heritage for its Red Lion Tap House in Market Drayton.
Mike Harker, chairman of Staffordshire Camra, said Joule's success proved there was still life in the pub trade.
He said: "This is excellent news. Joule's has brought good old pubs back to life, providing good food, and obviously their choice of beers is always excellent. It was a very sad day when the original Joule's brewery closed in Stone. I think people carried a coffin through the town."
Stoke publican Jason Keenan has run The Glebe since Joule's re-opened it in 2010.
He said: "The emphasis is very much on quality. They focus on artisan beers and refurbish their pubs to a very high standard.
"As they're still opening pubs at a time when many are closing down, they must be doing something right."
Daran Harding, business development manager, at The Co-operative Bank, said: "We're delighted to be providing further support to Joule's Brewery, which continues to go from strength to strength.
"This is another illustration of our approach to developing strong long-term relationships with customers that are dedicated to supporting their future success."
Comments
by Backdoored
Friday, January 04 2013, 6:52PM
“James Joule – Brewer and Man of Science
William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and James Prescott Joule were good friends and scientific colleagues but probably not drinking partners.
So when James wrote on 17th September 1853 that his family brewery had started a batch of Porter, he wasn't inviting Thomson to a booze-up. Far from it, the interest centred on the gas produced during fermentation not on the intoxicating qualities of the ale.
They had already discovered that a temperature drop occurred when air expanded freely through a porous plug. Carbon dioxide gave an even better result – a reduction some four times greater than with air.
The Joule-Thomson effect, as it became known, was one of the many manifestations of the equivalence of heat and energy that Joule made his life's work. The fact that heat could be converted to provide the work done by molecules in overcoming attractive forces paved the way for the liquefaction of gases and subsequent developments in low- temperature physics.
Another famous scientist, Joseph Priestly (1733-1804), also made use of carbon dioxide when he conducted experiments at a brewery on Meadow Lane in Leeds. He may even have been the first person to propose artificially carbonated beer.”
by Backdoored
Friday, January 04 2013, 6:45PM
“Staffordshire County Records Office - Staffordshire Past Tracks
"Francis Joule came into possession of the White House Inn and brewhouse at Stone in 1758. Nine years later he demolished the inn and built a house, which later became the home of the head brewer. In 1780 he established a public brewery, to supply its own premises and other public houses. To expand production land was bought in the High Street.
Francis' son, John, took over the company in 1813 and the brewery was named John Joule and Son. In 1873 Joules was sold to three brewers from Liverpool - John Parrington, Thomas Harding and John Harding.
Joule's thrived throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. Local deliveries were made by dray and the company owned forty shire horses and twenty drays.
The Trent and Mersey Canal which passed behind the Newcastle Street Ales Stores enabled transport to other parts of the country, and exports to America and Europe left from the docks of Liverpool and Hull respectively. Transport by barge eventually gave way to railway and from the 1920s drays were replaced by lorries.
Joule's was taken over by Bass Charrington in 1970, but production ceased four years later."”
by dougalcross
Friday, January 04 2013, 1:46PM
“Wonder if the still brew Joules Stone Bitter. If I've got the wrong name for the Best Bitter brewed
by Joules in the 60's, will someone please correct me?”
by Backdoored
Friday, January 04 2013, 12:38PM
“Yes I heard a mention of this development at the Butchers before Xmas..... when in a London Rd pub in Stoke.”
by Sparkmeister
Friday, January 04 2013, 12:36PM
“Truly excellent pubs. The cheese board in The Glebe is to die for, as is the baked camembert. It's not particularly near to me, but I've lost count of the number of shopping trips I've found necessary to make to 'stumble upon' The Glebe on the way home.”
by MrDAP
Friday, January 04 2013, 12:18PM
“Great news. Good luck lads!”
by STHolder
Friday, January 04 2013, 11:47AM
“Rumour has it the Butchers Arms in Fozza has been taken over by Joules. Anyone know if this is true?”
by Backdoored
Friday, January 04 2013, 9:08AM
“"And By Joules it's Good!!"
If my memory serves me correctly -those words were for years carried as an advert daily, in the top corner on the front page of the then -EVENING SENTINEL -through the 50s and 60s.”