Our History
Brewing in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire
Keen to run their own business, brothers Mark and Phil Stevens drew on their previous experiences with brewers such as Morrells and Allied Breweries and a love of traditional real ales to create Vale Brewery.
All beers were and still are brewed only with natural ingredients, Malted Barley, Hops, live yeast and water. No additional additives, preservatives or chemicals are added.
Initially situated in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire a large village in the Aylesbury Vale, Vale Brewery Co. was formed in January 1995 with their first brew available early March 1995.
The beer names initially were derived from local landmarks, Wychert is named after a form of wattling wall the village Haddenham is famous for and a Grumpling is the base stone on the Wychert walls.
Initially based in one unit on an industrial park, a second unit nearby was rented to house offices and a shop.
Sales in the local free trade developed well and by 2006 we owned four pubs.
The Move To Brill
The Haddenham site became to small to comfortably operate from and in 2007 we moved to Brill, to an even more rural location.
Brill is a rural location 9 miles from Haddenham. This provided the direct inspiration for Oxford Don J.R.R Tolkein’s ‘Bree’, in his trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The rolling hill area described as ‘The Shires’ in ‘Middle Earth’ is based indirectly on the hill top site at Brill, the name of which amused Tolkein so much.
The name Brill is an odd mix of the Celtic “Bre” meaning “hill” and the saxon “hyll” meaning “hill” also. So a literal translation would be hill-hill. However, resisting the temptation to rename as the Hill-Hill Brewery or even the more obvious Brill Brewery, Vale will be maintaining the well established Vale Brewery Co. name.
The most famous Brill landmark now is the hilltop windmill, which forms part of our new logo.
The Tramway Business Park now houses the brewery, brewery shop, storage and offices on one site with room for further expansion.
The Present
Although a larger brewery now, the philosophy remains true to the original plan, to produce consistent high quality real ales.
Brill brewed real ale is sold to local pubs, and farther a-field via distributors and via exchanges with other like mined breweries. Most beers are available bottle conditioned and a brewery shop sells minipins, polypins and bottles so bring back the age old tradition of a local brewery supplying locally hand crafted ales.