About Us

We believe in the idea that beer traditionally represents the character of its locality and inhabitants and we love the fact that we have such a rich and proud brewing history here in Middle England. Given that the genuinely local brewing industry has dwindled and all but disappeared from our locality in the past two centuries, we thought we’d have a go at putting a brewery back where we think it could and should belong, supplying local customers. We like brewing, we love Stamford and we think our traditionally brewed beers can be silent ambassadors for the town as we expand.

 

As you can see, neither of us are Hipsters, and nor are we refugees from industrial brewers. Tim has been home-brewing in his shed up the road in Easton on the Hill for a few years, and about a year ago, Simon joined him for a brewing session. A few weeks later and over a pint or two of Shed-Brewed Beer, we decided we could build a workable business in brewing and that we could boost Stamford’s reputation in the process. Since then Simon’s been applying himself to learning the craft of brewing, studying and practising, brewing with other breweries, and testing flavour combinations, so now we’re ready to share our beers with a wider audience. We’re both concentrating on launching a professionally run small business and establishing a new brand.

But in the end it’s all about the beer- how we brew it and how it tastes.

Why “Stoney Ford”?

Stoney Ford is the original Roman name given to the road crossing of the River Welland. Sited firstly to the East and then just west of the Meadows in Stamford, local people used to cross the river via the Stoney Ford on their way between Castor and Great Casterton, as did later coach driven travellers en route between London and York.

Our intention is to build on Stamford’s history and be as original, true, and authentic as we can be in everything we do.

But in the end it’s all about the beer- how we brew it and how it tastes.

Stoney Ford beers are:

Brewed with rigorous precision in accordance with traditional brewing practice. Each small batch is brewed with great care and attention to detail so that each batch is as consistently good if not better than the previous one.
Proud of our local provenance: We source quality ingredients as locally as possible (our malts come from Lincolnshire) and always from the UK. We use local suppliers for all the other ingredients and services wherever we can.)
Principally designed for flavour, when drunk individually or enjoyed with food.
Widely available locally- not just in pubs but in restaurants, cafes, off licences, sports venues, farmer’s markets and bars. (we hope)

 

Beyond the brewing, we aim to be great at old fashioned customer service and courteous delivery to a wide variety of outlets. We even deliver our beers in a vehicle we think fits our Middle England heritage- a Classic Morris Minor Van- the “Alebulance”.

The Alebulance

Here’s what a small batch brewers dray looks like- a 1970 Morris Minor Van. 1098 cc of raw power, 4 speeds and none of them fast, the Alebulance will get there, eventually. The trailer sometimes comes too, for the empties. You can find out more about the #Alebulance on its own page here

 

What is Craft Beer?

“Craft” is a label that’s being applied to so many new and different brewery start-ups it's difficult to be clear on what it actually means. Without getting into all the debate and discussion going on in real ale circles, it’s generally accepted to mean beer (Ale, Lambic, or Lager) that is traditionally brewed in small batches by brewers who are authentic and honest in the way they brew and are independently owned. Some craft beer however (not ours we hasten to add,) is filtered and sold in kegs, like industrial brewers do, which is where the “craft beer” and “real ale” camps divide. Craft and “micro” are often used as interchangeable terms, but micro just refers to overall size. A UK micro brewer is defined by the duty relief available for small brewers; up to half a million litres annually. So not every micro brewer is a craft brewer, not every micro is small, and not every craft beer is a real ale. (Still with us?)

Craft beer has taken off in a big way in the US and it’s a fast growing movement here. There are over 1,400 micro breweries in the UK now, and we are well aware that we’re not the only ones in the area. One of the great things about brewing is the collaboration and sense of community among fellow brewers. We don’t compete with our fellow micro neighbours, but together we do compete with industrial breweries, especially when they masquerade as craft brewers.

Want to read more on this? There's a great article from Tony Naylor in the Guardian here  (Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd)

 

So are we a Craft Brewery?

For the reasons above we don't think “Craft” is always a helpful term to describe a brewery. Plus, we think that the explosion in achingly funky, cutting edge, rebellious, over-hopped beers is not helping the average drinker find a superb easy drinking ale or a true variety of different beer styles. We are going to take advantage of our small size and experiment with different English hops, ingredients, and recipes, but at the core of our range is always going to be a couple of regular fabulous beers for everyday drinking.
So we just call ourselves a “Small Batch Brewery”, and we think our beers are “Rock Solid”- timeless and unpretentious. We hope you will agree.

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