Recent awards include:

Nightmare - Champion Beer SIBA (North) 2006

TESCO Beer Innovation Award 2005 – Gluten Free Ale

FOOD FROM BRITAIN Best Drinks Producer for Yorkshire and Humber 2005

 

A short history of HAMBLETON ALES

 

Nick Stafford’s Hambleton Ales was established in 1991 in the hamlet of Holme on Swale, situated on the banks of the River Swale in the heartland of Hambleton District.

Nick Stafford was made redundant twice within seven months during the worst recession since the Second World War and set out to earn a living without relocating.

 

Despite severe underfunding, and after only a few months, awards, employment and growth were significant features of this business. Financial targets were met months early (the first year’s turnover being £100,000) and after just three years the brewery had to be relocated within the hamlet. In 1997 Hambleton Ales gained the coveted award of CAMRA Champion Winter Beer of Britain for its Nightmare brand. Nightmare is now exported regularly to the USA. Turnover is now over £1 million.

 

Never compromising on quality of products or service, Nick and his wife, Sally, developed a small family business dedicated to those living in Yorkshire and the North East. Local people are employed, now numbering 15 and wherever possible local suppliers are used. Malted barley, the main ingredient, is purchased exclusively from Fawcetts of Castleford.

 

Needless to say, Hambleton Ales serves many local communities because it is the brewery’s business to supply Yorkshire pubs and restaurants. Private individuals are very important customers, as parties, weddings and anniversaries are constantly being celebrated with ale from its home delivery service. Local off licences are supplied, as are ASDA, Threshers and Tescos. It is company policy to support local schools and sports clubs with supplies of refreshments for their fund-raising events at less than cost price.

 

Innovation has been the core of the brewery operation, not just in the recipes of new beers which are created every month, but also the design and manufacture of brewing and bottling equipment used exclusively by Hambleton Ales. As part of the Millennium celebrations the largest brewer in the UK, Scottish Courage, commissioned Hambleton Ales to bottle its four commemorative beers. No other bottling company in the UK was able to provide the quality of service demanded. Bottling of beers from 30 other Yorkshire breweries is undertaken by contract.

 

In February, 2005, Nick Stafford’s ‘Hambleton Ales Gluten and Wheat Free Ale’ (GFA) was launched. It is the first British brewed beer of its type, providing the full flavour and satisfaction expected from a beer but in a gluten free formulation. Nick Stafford spent several years researching and developing bottling and filtration techniques. His recent breakthrough in brewing this unique ale has presented him with the opportunity of meeting demand from the UK’s 100,000 coeliacs. There is now a sister product, GFL – a gluten free lager.

 

Investment in the rapidly growing business continues, with 2007 witnessing the commissioning of a £150,000 filtration and bottling line in January, enabling the business to meet an urgent £50,000 order to the U.S., and the opening of a £700,000 new brewery in the autumn.

 

Nick Stafford is also Commercial Director of the Society Of Independent Brewers (SIBA) and helped create the SIBA Direct Delivery Scheme which is a co-operative effort by the UK’s local brewers to sell to multiple retailers such as Enterprise Inns and Threshers. Thus Hambleton Ales is very much at the heart of the ‘beer revolution’ taking place for consumers in the pub and at home.

 

Local ales boost sales!

---

18/03/06 - Wheels 2 Work

Hambleton Ales, the innovative and successful Brewery based in North Yorkshire, with an impressive, regional, national and international customer base, has pledged support to ‘Wheels 2 Work’, A unique employment enabling scheme with a proven record of success.  
 

Nick continued “it is not always easy for businesses to find employees of the right calibre who are ‘on the doorstep’ and bearing in mind the high cost of recruitment I decided to invest my own money in ‘Wheels 2 Work’ forming a new partnership to enable and support, employment and training opportunities in North Yorkshire.  Sponsorship by myself and other businesses is I believe a cost-effective way of encouraging growth and ultimately will lead to development and increased prosperity for local communities and across the region as a whole.   

Nick Stafford told us “As a successful business we have a reputation for delivering an excellent product.  As an employer, I know that a key factor in our success is the high standard of ability and commitment shown by our employees.   We recently created a new employment opportunity in an area that has the highest levels of unemployment amongst people of working age, since 1997.  We were able to offer the position to ‘Tom’ who would not have been able to take up the offer without the independent means of transport offered by ‘Wheels 2 Work”. 

---

 

02/2006 - HAMBLETON ALES WINS TOP REGIONAL BEER AWARD 

Vale of York based Hambleton Ales has won the coveted award of Champion Beer at Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) northern competition held last weekend at Southport. Hambleton Ales NIGHTMARE defeated 106 other beers from 87 brewers on the 12^th occasion of this beer challenge. 

Brewers from as far afield as Berwick on Tweed to Sheffield gathered at the Scarisbrick Hotel, Southport – a mecca for real ale in the North West – to vie for the annual challenge of producing the best beer in the North. 

NIGHTMARE first succeeded in seeing off rivals in the Porter, Stout and Mild Category before being judged with six other category winners by six brewing experts for the top gong. The decision was unanimous. 

Nick Stafford, founder and owner of Hambleton Ales said: “We are honoured to receive this accolade from the brewing community. To be judged by your peers in such a definitive fashion is high praise indeed, especially for our Head Brewer, Peter Wesley. Peter leads a small but able and experienced team and obviously to great effect!” (Picture attached of Head Brewer, Peter Wesley, enjoying the fruits of his success) 

Hambleton NIGHTMARE is a “rich, smooth and creamy drink”, Delicious Magazine March 2005. “Fully deserving its claim, this impressively flavoured beer satisfies all parts of the palate. Strong roast malts dominate, but hoppiness rears out of this complex blend” (GOOD BEER GUIDE 2006).“This is a fine, fine beer………..four out of five…” Roger Protz. “Starts chocolatey…becomes creamy..and finishes oakily”, Michael Jackson Looking for a good small brewery? 1998. 

Stafford continued: “We have been pleasantly surprised with the flurry of prizes we have won recently for brewing and business success and it spurs us on to do even greater things, and all in the name of Yorkshire of course!” 

Hambleton NIGHTMARE is available from pubs throughout Yorkshire and also in bottles from local Asda supermarkets, independent specialist retailers and www.hambletonales.co.uk 

PHOTOGRAPHS BY: GARETH HARFORD www.ghphotos.co.uk 01757 288070 07871 326933 (More photos and logos available at www.hambletonales.co.uk on the History/PR page.) 

Editor’s notes 

Nick Stafford's Hambleton Ales was established in 1991 on the banks on the River Swale in North Yorkshire and quickly found a ready market for locally brewed cask ales from Sheffield to Newcastle. Many brewing awards have been won and his Nightmare Stout was the first ever CAMRA Champion Winter Beer of Britain in 1997. The brewery now has a capacity of 100 barrels per week. In 1997 contract bottling commenced for micro, regional and national brewers.

 

Phase One of a major relocation was completed September this year, allowing a 500% increase in bottling services in the very near future. Phase 2 in 2006 will see the installation of new cask ale facilities.

 

Nick Stafford is also Chief Executive of the Society of Independent Brewers' Direct Delivery Scheme, which uniquely enables local breweries throughout the UK access to multiple retailers of pubs and supermarkets. 

Recent awards include: 

TESCO Beer Innovation Award 2005 – Gluten Free Ale

FOOD FROM BRITAIN Best Drinks Producer for Yorkshire and Humber 2005

HAMBLETON DISTRICT COUNCIL: Food Producer of the Year 2004 

Brewery: 01765 640108

Nick Stafford: 07803 933 142

 

---

Gluten Free Ale - Most Innovative Beer - Tesco Beer Challenge 2005