You will find details on the breweries history, descriptions of the beers, awards to date, where the beers can be found, how to contact us and also some useful related links .

Where did the name “Hopshackle“ originate from and what does it mean? Strangely enough I first came across the word when watching the popular T.V. programme “Call My Bluff“ some years ago. What a cracking name for a brewery I thought should I ever get around to realising a life times ambition!

The origin of the word “Hopshackle“ is unknown, but it’s transitive verb is to hobble which has several relevant meanings.

Hobble – to walk with an uneven, unsteady or feeble gait; to hinder, perplex or tie together the legs of to prevent escape, kicking, or to regulate pace or stride. Dray horses were hobbled to ensure that they did not waste any of the valuable beer they were delivering !

Why Historic Ales ? def ; Historical - based on the past . My great passion  is for the ales of yesteryear, the I.P.A.‘s full of hop flavour, bitterness and high alcoholic content. For browns, ambers, milds and barley wines, all with their distinctive flavours and characteristics. To taste ales the way they used to be, before they became a mass produced commodity, made as quickly as possible to last as long as possible!. I want to make beers that generations before have tasted and generations to come will have the opportunity to taste . Many of the recipes are based on historical ones but some are also new innovative beers that stretch the boundaries of a particular recognised style .Who knows , maybe the breweries of today are making a bit of history themselves  ! .

Ale or Beer! Whats the difference? Is there any difference?

Ale – this historically referred to a malt beverage made without the use of any hops. The maltiness of the brew was balanced with spices, herbs and sometimes pepper.

Beer – this historically referred to a malt beverage which had the maltiness balanced by the bitterness from hops.

These two “styles“ of beverage were distinct up to about 1700, but with the decline in unhopped ales, beer became synonomous with all hopped malt beverages, even lagers. Today, the terms ale and beer are used largely in the same context describing a hopped beverage fermented with a top fermenting yeast at temperatures of around 20^oC. Whilst lagers are fermented at a temperature of around 8^oC by bottom fermenting yeast .