Yorkshire’s Ossett Brewing Co is toasting 25 successful years with a series of special cask ales as sales continue to grow, despite market challenges.
Brewer of nationally renowned brands, such as Yorkshire Blonde, White Rat, Silver King, and Excelsius, Ossett Brewing Co began life in 1998 on a five-barrel kit behind the Brewer’s Pride pub in Ossett. Within three years, brewing capacity was 40 barrels a week.
Winning many national and international awards, today’s modern brewery stands only a short distance from the original site in Low Mill Road, producing an eclectic range of cask ale and lager.
The company now produces 440 brewer’sbarrels a week, serving a pub estate of 35 outlets, free trade customers, and national customers all over the UK.
Ossett has received various CAMRA, Publican, and SIBA awards over the years, including supreme national champion with Excelsius. Silver King won its first national award in 2001 and, two decades later in 2021, won another national gold medal.
Launching the celebrations, the first of a creative four-strong Silver Series of anniversary ales rolls out the end of this month — a premium golden ale, Dazzler (4.5% ABV).
First brewed in the summer of 1998, Dazzler was one of the very first Ossett beers. Twenty-five years later, this is an updated version of an old favourite, but with lots more hops. Golden Promise malt creates a premium golden pale ale with bready and biscuity flavours. Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV) hops grown in Kent are added at three stages of the brewing process to produce the floral and herbal aromas characteristic of the best English ales.
The second roll-out will be Easy Does It (3.4% ABV), an easy-drinking session summer bitter. It will be clear pale straw in colour and full bodied, with hints of peach, pineapple, and passion fruit on the aroma, and a balanced dry, citrus bitterness in taste, delivered from new British Harlequin and American Citra hops.
A third brew for the autumn is Alter Ego (5.5% ABV), exploring the New England IPA style and proclaimed as a ‘souped up’ dry-hopped mutation of Ossett’s highly popular White Rat. Hazy, straw-coloured, with the aroma of orange, peach and grapefruit, from the Cascade, Amarillo, and Columbus American hops, it will deliver a bittersweet balance.
A vanilla stout concludes the celebrations. Irish stout style Jet (4.2% ABV) is black, with vanilla, chocolate, and coffee notes on the aroma and a dry and bitter finish from roasted malts, joined with French Savinjski Goldings hops and US Chinook. Distinctive pumpclips for the series display red and silver lettering on a black background.
Each month there are collaboration brews, featuring pioneering ales such as Rose Petal IPA, brewed jointly with Adnams using the new UK Mystic hop. Alongside is a single-hop series of pale ales, exploring varieties from the UK, USA, New Zealand, France, and Germany.
The company was originally founded as a brewpub in 1998 by Bob Lawson, former career brewer at Joshua Tetley in Leeds. Son Jamie founded an independent pub group, Izakaya Pub Co Ltd, alongside the brewery in 2003. This later merged into the Ossett brewing group.
Jamie has led the brewery since Bob became chairman in 2005, with Paul Spencer taking over as head brewer at the
same time. Paul is still in charge of Ossett’s beer line-up after 22 years with the company. Jamie was also responsible for the founding of its craft beer sister company, SALT, in 2018.
“These post-pandemic times have been particularly challenging for the brewing and pub industry,” said Jamie. “However, the past two years have seen us enjoy steady growth, and we are now delighted to be celebrating our milestone 25th year with our Silver Series.
“We believe in the future of cask ale and are determined to build on our deep roots to sustain Ossett for the future,
through broadening the appeal of cask with inventive and exciting brands, as seen with our Silver Series, Synergy Series, Collaboration Ales, and our Single Hopped programme, as well as the all-time favourites that sit within our core range.”
