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Vintage Old Man Launch

VINTAGE OLD MAN 6.9%

Barrel-aged in oak bourbon casks for 12 months and bottle conditioned, this bittersweet ale has taken on rich and warming flavours with hints of vanilla and whisky and fermented through to 6.9% ABV. A gorgeous warming velvety drink with huge depth and complex character.

Vintage Old Man

A bottle of Vintage Old Man against wooden background

  • Vintage Old Man Bottle 75cl on wooden background

    Vintage Old Man Bottle

LIMITED STOCK

We have produced only 500 bottles of this stunning beer, which is why we’re limiting it to 6 x bottles per person. Packaged in a striking 75cl bottle, Vintage Old Man is a must-have for any beer lover. Buy yours today to avoid disappointment.

Sussex Life Awards - Winner
Sussex Life Awards - Winner

Green Business of the Year 2019

Long Man Brewery are delighted to announce that we have won Green Business of the Year 2019

Long Man Brewery are delighted to announce that we have won Green Business of the Year 2019 at the Sussex Life Food, Drink & Hospitality Business Awards. We are delighted to be recognised in this way as we are passionate about producing our beer at one with the beautiful surroundings we are rooted in.

Inspired by the beauty of the surrounding natural landscape, environmental responsibility and sustainable farming practices are at the heart of everything we do.

All the water used in our beers – approximately 1 million litres per year – is drawn from our own bore hole sunk 60 metres into the aquifer beneath the chalk downs. We use an advanced UV filtration system followed by ‘Burtonisation’ to ensure the water is perfect for brewing. Waste water is treated on site and returned to the land via irrigation.

We use ‘whole cone’ hops sourced from Sussex, Kent, and beyond, to give the perfect flavour and aroma.

We ‘pitch’ our house yeast into every brew so that we can then harvest and re-pitch from each freshly fermented batch. This not only recycles our yeast but ensures the consistent character in all our beers.

A bank of 100 solar panels on the roof of the farm’s grain store generate 25kva of electricity per year to help power the Brewhouse.

We believe in supporting local employment and our workforce of over 16 is sourced from the surrounding towns and villages.

Brewery Tasting Room & Shop
Brewery Tasting Room & Shop

Brewery Shop & Tasting Room

We are excited to announce that, after 7 months of tricky refurbishment, our beautiful and historic Brewery Shop and Tasting Room is nearing completion. We will be opening the doors for the first time at 10:00am on Saturday 8th December, we would like to invite you to join us and learn more about the Long Man Brewery story.

On site we will have cask ale always available to sample or take away and our full range of bottled beer, gifts, clothing and merchandise available to purchase.

On Saturday 8th December there will also be a brewer on site to talk you through our beers and answer any brewing questions you might have. Hope to see you on Saturday!

Find out more here

  • Brewery Tasting Room & Shop

    Brewery Tasting Room & Shop

Record 6 international awards

Long Man Brewery celebrates a record 6 international awards

We are proud to announce we have won a total of six awards at this years World Beer Awards and International Beer Challenge, two prestigious awards events judged through blind tastings undertaken by a panel of industry experts, brewers and sommeliers. The award winners are established through a rigorous judging process – a highly controlled operation of intense blind tastings by panels of more than 60 respected and experienced industry professionals.

Samples are delivered to the judging area in flights of numbered tasting glasses to ensure the accuracy of the blind tasting. Each product is blind tasted and awarded a score for its aroma, appearance, taste and finish. Scores are collated and recorded by the table captain before Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals are awarded.

Copper Hop – International Beer Challenge, Bronze
Wild Man – International Beer Challenge, Bronze
Old Man – International Beer Challenge, Silver
Copper Hop – World Beer Awards, UK Gold Medal
Long Blonde – World Beer Awards, UK Bronze Medal
Old Man – World Beer Awards, UK Country Winner

 

SIBA South East Independent Beer Awards 2018
SIBA South East Independent Beer Awards 2018

Three awards at the SIBA South East Independent Beer Awards 2018

We are proud to announce that Long Man Brewery has won a Gold, Silver and Bronze at the recent SIBA South East Independent Beer Awards 2018 which were held as part of the annual Juddians RFC Beer Festival in Tonbridge. The awards saw 348 beers in cask, bottle and can compete in blind tastings conducted by a panel made up of fellow brewers, Supplier Associates, members of the press, local CAMRA members and beer enthusiasts.

Copper Hop (4.2%) won Gold in its new 500ml bottled format for British Bitters up to 4.4%, our Wild Man (5.2%) IPA won bronze in 500ml bottle in the Premium Pale Ales 4.4%-5.4% and Old Man followed up its ‘Worlds Best Dark Beer award with a Bronze in the Cask dark beers up to 4.4% category.

All these beers are available to buy direct from the brewery.

Old man Wordl's Best Dark mild Beer 2017
Old man Wordl's Best Dark mild Beer 2017

Old Man declared World’s best at World Beer Awards

Five international award successes for Sussex Based Long Man Brewery as Old Man is declared ‘World’s Best Dark Mild Beer 2017’ at the World Beer Awards.

Long Man Brewery are thrilled to announce that we have been recognised a total of five times across the world’s two leading beer competitions.

Over 1900 beers from more than 36 countries were entered into this year’s World Beer Awards, judges blind tasted and scored the entries through two rounds of judging. The ever-popular beer Old Man was voted best dark mild beer in the world by judges and will now progress to the final round of tastings in late September to challenge for the honour of ‘World’s Best Beer’ across all styles and countries. This original dark beer has soft malt notes of coffee and chocolate that combine with a pleasant light hoppiness to create a rich, full tasting Old Ale of times gone by.

Head brewer Jamie Simm said; “We are absolutely delighted and flattered at this monumental award, everyone in the Long Man team couldn’t be prouder. We work hard to create great examples of traditional styles of cask ales and Old Man is the epitome of that”

In addition to the award for Old Man, awards were also received for Best Bitter, UK Silver and Long Blonde, UK Bronze. In the last two years, Long Man have now had three beers voted best in UK in their respective categories.

In the same week, it was also revealed that two more medals were awarded at the International Beer Challenge. Best Bitter won a Silver Medal and Long Blonde picked up a Bronze in their respective categories.

Since the breweries inception in 2012 Long Man have now won a total of thirty two awards for their range of carefully crafted ales.

  • World Beer Awards 2017

    World Beer Awards 2017

SIBA SE Beer Awards 2017

We are delighted to announce that out of a total of 334 beers that entered this year’s SIBA awards we have achieved two silver medals. Best Bitter was awarded a silver medal in the Cask Best Bitters and Pale Ales category and Old Man took silver in the Cask Porters, Stouts, Old Ales, Strong Milds & Strong Browns category. The judging panel was made up of made up of fellow brewers, Supplier Associates, members of the press, local CAMRA members and beer enthusiasts.

Long Man Brewery Music Stage

Date 8th June 2017 – 10th June 2017 Venue South of England Showground Address Ardingly, West Sussex RH17 6TL

We are proud to announce that we have partnered with The South of England Agricultural Society to bring you The Long Man Brewery Music Stage at this years show in June.

Come and see us at the music stage where will will be serving our beer and taking you through the Long Man story. There will be a range of food and seating available in this area while you enjoy the live music line up.

Showcasing a range of talented, up-and-coming performers all from the south of England. Performing a mixture of originals and covers, the stage will see a number of acts combining folk, acoustic, pop and bluegrass to provide an entertaining day for all ages.

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International Brewing Awards 2017 Bronze
International Brewing Awards 2017 Bronze

Old Man wins at the International Brewing Awards

We are proud to announce that Old Man has won a prestigious Bronze Medal at the International Brewing Awards. 982 beers were submitted from 187 breweries from over 50 countries, the breweries ranged from micros to regionals to multi-national companies. The beers were judged by a panel of 45 Judges from 16 different countries on 6 continents. We are extremely proud that our beer has been recognised in such a prestigious competition. Old Man is available to purchase in bottles here.

Find out more about the International Brewing Awards: brewingawards.org

Sussex farmer brewing up a storm

Sue Scott

When Church Farm said goodbye to its dairy herd 10 years ago, Duncan Ellis thought he’d seen the back of 4am starts for good.

But now you’ll find him up before dawn managing another liquid asset – and the return on investment on this one is considerably better than milk.

Five years ago, having turned down countless approaches to convert his redundant dairy buildings into highly desirable office accommodation, Duncan opened a brewery.

“I hadn’t been looking to start a brewery, but I got chatting to a chap at a village party to celebrate the wedding of William and Kate and he suggested I turn my malting barley into beer,” says Duncan, who was already farming 728 hectares (1,800 acres) of combinable crops with beef and sheep on a further 607ha (1,500 acres) of grass near the Long Man of Wilmington – a fertility symbol carved into the Sussex Downs which would become synonymous with a string of award-winning ales.

The fact the stranger who planted the seed of the idea for Long Man Brewery turned out to be Steve Lees, commercial director of the locally based specialist drinks distributor H.T. White, turned what could have been a fanciful idea into a no-brainer, since Duncan knew one of the biggest challengers to farm-based breweries is the cost of transporting barrel loads of beer.

While most find it a challenge to establish a brand locally, let alone nationally, Long Man rapidly went to eight brews a week and 2.5 million pints a year – half of them sold outside of Sussex.

“The key to our success was being plugged in to a drinks distribution business with 30 lorries on the road from the outset,” says Duncan. “But even then it’s gone far faster and far harder than I ever anticipated.”

  • Long Man Brewery Casks

Creative

A self-confessed ‘session drinker’ whose taste in beer was influenced by three years studying agriculture at Newcastle University in the heart of ‘Broon Dog’ country, Duncan recruited head brewer Jamie Simm to be the creative genius behind Long Man even before the paint was dry on the brewery walls.

Previously with the award-winning Royal Tunbridge Wells Brewery, Kent, he was intrigued by the chance to influence production all the way from plough to pint.

Jamie says: “Not only does it offer a level of control which only a handful of other brewers have, but it is also environmentally sustainable. Ultimately, the choice of variety is Duncan’s to make and I certainly wouldn’t tell a third generation farmer how to grow it, but he does involve me and we do regularly inspect the fields together. I can literally jump in the car and drive up to take a look at the barley, and we do.”

Now a partner in the business with Duncan and Steve Lees, he steered Long Man to success in last year’s Beer Awards, where all four of the beers entered came away with medals to add to the hat-trick the brewery picked up at the International Beer Challenge a month earlier.

This year, it’s aiming for the beer Oscars, the International Brewing Awards, held every two years, where it will come up against some of the best in the world.

Although the brand was deliberately designed to appeal to the biggest bandwidth of drinkers, maintaining quality is a deceptively skilful task.

Jamie says: “To begin with, I focused on producing the beers which would help establish the brand – best bitter, pale ales, etc. Now I hope Long Man is known for producing quality cask ales, most of which are fairly traditional ‘cooking’ bitters. This is something I am very proud of because the key to well-executed beers like these is balance.

“The weird and wacky are good at winning awards and making a lot of noise, but with the traditional session beers like ours, there’s no place to hide.”

About 20 per cent (100 tonnes) of all the Propino spring malting barley produced on-farm goes into Long Man beers.

Such hyper-local provenance is a big part of the brewery’s marketing story, which is becoming increasingly important if they are to realise their ambition of becoming a national and even international brand.

Carving out a space for the nine beers which the brewery has so far produced among the 11,000 or so real ales shouting for attention in the UK is no easy task, although the 19 awards they have already lifted helps.

Loyalty

“People want to go to a pub to experience new beers, but a permanent stockist is what every brewer, including us, is after,” says Duncan.

Winning this loyalty is tough, which is why the brewery has invested in state-of-the art equipment designed with visits from trade customers in mind. This is also why, however big they grow, they’ll keep the very first brew-house they installed in the historic flint barn with its stunning views of the Cuckmere Valley.

Duncan says: “We grow the barley, feed livestock the spent grains and the brewery is powered by 25kW solar system on top of the grain store. We also have a bore hole from which we draw water.”

Waste water left over from a natural filtration system gets pumped back onto the fields.

This is the sustainable story the drinking public hears, but Duncan’s stewardship of the land underpinning the Long Man brand goes deeper.

About 10 years ago, the farm began experimenting with minimum till on the heavier clay soils to improve their structure.

“Conservation agriculture is what I’m driving for now,” says Duncan. “I’m convinced it’s right and I’m trying to convince others. Soil structure, together with rotation, is crucial if we want a healthy farm we can hand down.”

It’s important, he says, to stay focused on the ‘day job’ while allowing the brewery staff to get on with creating and selling great beer.

Even before Long Man’s launch, a queue of well-qualified professionals keen to become involved in the business was forming at the door.

The brewery has created 14 in the past five years – seven times more than the £50,000 of LEADER funding which the farm secured required. In fact, Long Man has over-delivered on expectation in every respect.

Story

“We knew we could sell the beer and we knew we had a good story. We’ve just got to get even better at telling it,” says Duncan.

He doesn’t underestimate the challenges facing the independent sector, from big breweries muscling in on ‘craft beers’, to the unstoppable tide of pub closures and a tax system which seems determined to punish the British pint.

Despite recent reforms, it will take years to undo the damage done by progressive taxation which saw beer duty increase by 42 per cent between 2008 and 2013, while beer consumption fell by 16 per cent and 7,000 pubs closed. And yet breweries are opening in the UK faster than at any time since the 1930s.

Jamie says: “Our main challenge now is the competition. Although I see this as a good thing for the industry, you can’t open the paper or turn on the radio these days without hearing about a new brewery opening, so it’s definitely got tougher – hence the importance of our farm story. Still, tax on beer is too high and the pub sector really needs help.”

Breweries have been shown to have one of the highest business survival rates of any farm diversification, but as the market gets tougher, will this continue to be the case?

Original source: https://www.fginsight.com/vip/vip/sussex-farmer-brewing-up-a-storm–18381