Husband and wife team toast investment at Acorn Brewery

ACORN Brewery has increased its manufacturing capability after investing in equipment.

The Wombwell-based business has made a £60,000 investment to take its production capacity to 140 brewer’s barrels – or more than 40,000 pints – a week.

Well known for its Acorn Barnsley Bitter brew, the investment follows further spending last year on fermenting and cold store equipment to develop off-trade sales.

Its bottled range now sells through Tesco, Waitrose, Asda, and Rhythm & Booze, while Sainsbury’s recently agreed to roll out Acorn Blonde to its Yorkshire stores.

Acorn also directly delivers to more than 400 pubs across the North and supplies wholesalers and pub companies.

The business is also seeing success following the reopening of the historic Old No 7 pub in Barnsley.

Proprietor and head brewer Dave Hughes said: “We are growing business for both cask and bottles ales despite the dire economic climate. Our investment in the Old No 7 in central Barnsley has acted as a shop window locally.

“We now sell much more in south Yorkshire as licensees, and their customers, increasingly appreciate the broad choice of our range – from our moderate strength Barnsley Bitter to our premium Gorlovka Imperial Stout and IPAs.”

Acorn was launched in 2003 by former chef Mr Hughes and his wife Judi.