ONLYTHEREfor the beer

24 March 2000




ONLYTHEREfor the beer

THE Shepherd Neame Brewery in Faversham is the oldest in the country having celebrated its tercentenary in 1998.

Brewing on the site goes back even further as the monks used to make beer there 800 years ago. The water used comes from an artesian well of which 100,000gal are drawn each day, 30,000gal for brewing, the rest for cleaning and the hops are locally grown.

The menfolk of Kent FWC were allowed on this trip, it must have been interesting for them all to see where their hops go and an added bonus to taste some beer at the end of the tour! We were shown through the whole process of brewing and I was especially amused at the piece of wood in one area marked Brewery Pacifier. I wonder

if they do an "office pacifier".

At one stage we were surrounded by over 3m pints of beer stored in tall kingfisher blue containers and were intrigued to learn that this company exports its beers all over the world, one of the well known ones being Kingfisher.

At the end of the tour we all tried various ales, my choice being Spitfire which gave me an appetite for a ploughmans lunch at the nearby Albion pub which was on the quay – I was certainly not up the creek without a paddle on this occasion.

Jean Howells


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