WESTERHAM BREWERY COMPANY LIMITED

ABOUT WESTERHAM BREWERY COMPANY LIMITED

Established in 2004 by Robert Wicks, the Westerham Brewery Company is proud to bring brewing back to the historic town of Westerham. With a rich brewing heritage, Westerham can once again be proud of locally brewed, top quality real ales.

Westerham Brewery Company has revived many of the much-loved flavours of the old Black Eagle Brewery, which closed in 1965 following the catastrophic consolidation by the ‘Big Brewers’ in the 1950’s.

We are mad about hops, specifically Kent hops. Why be a small brewery in Kent and not use the wonderful hops grown by our valiant hop growers. We have developed a particularly close working relationship with Ian Strang who farms the Scotney Castle Estate in Lamberhurst and the Finchcocks’ hop gardens in Goudhurst. 96% of the hops we use are grown in Kent and we use 9 different Kent hops in the Spirit of Kent. Our suppliers are Lupofresh (Finchcocks’ and AC Hulme), Botanix (Scotney) and Charles Faram (Non Kent hops).

Removing all plastic waste from our bottled beer products and replacing with recyclable items

Mission Statement

In 1862 Ben Bushell joined the partnership and for the next 40 years he was to drive the growth in the business. Such was the success of The Black Eagle Brewery that in 1881 a branch line from Sevenoaks to Westerham was constructed to carry beer to and from London. By the turn of the century the brewery was the largest employer in Westerham.

“We were also making ‘jettison’, auxiliary fuel tanks for fighter planes to carry extra fuel to enable them to fly further into Europe and still be able to get back home. Once refueling facilities were established over there, the Westerham Brewery used to fill those auxiliary non-returnable petrol tanks with Westerham Ales for our troops in Europe. Black Eagle lorries delivered it in barrels to Biggin Hill where the auxiliary dual purpose tanks were filled with Bitter on one side and Mild on the other. We made them of 16 gauge metal with baffles for safe landing, the RAF’s version of the brewer’s dray.”

© Westerham Brewery Company Limited

Dogs are welcome on our terrace and can be provided with water. Dog owners are asked to keep their pets under control at all time, keeping them on a lead if necessary. For hygiene reasons we are unfortunately unable to accommodate animals within the Tap Room itself or on one of our brewery tours.