Consett Ales set to arrive - Institute starts stocking great bottled ales by a superb local independent brewery.

We’re proud to announce that when we return from lockdown on the 4th of July we’ll have added some new choices to the range of ales we’re offering you here at the Stute.

Lockdown has changed the world in many ways, and one of those changes has been an uplift in interest in supporting local independent businesses - and in that spirit, we’re proud to say that when we come back, as well as offering your old favourites, we’ll be offering some extremely tasty local independent ales too. 

Initially, that will be bottled ale, though who knows where it might go.

Conducting the research in picking new partners has been a terrible task, you’ll never believe how much we’ve suffered trying all those delicious flavoursome local beers (maybe we should extend the research period a little?) but we think we’ve found a perfect range of beer to add for starters.

As we in Shildon know only too well, being a railway town depending greatly on these things, coal mining and steelmaking have forged the very backbone of our proud Northern landscape.

Consett, sitting high and handsome on the North Pennines, was integral in firing the Industrial Revolution and built its reputation on the manufacture of steel. Its works once employed over 6,000 workers at its very height, making the steel that not only contributed to Shildon built wagons and the rails that led them out to the world but also constructed the Blackpool Tower and launched the nations fleet of Nuclear Submarines.

The Consett Ale Works’s beers pay homage to this proud history, from ‘Red Dust’, recalling the infamous blanket of iron oxide that settled over the whole of Consett to ‘Men of Steel’, a simple tribute to the resolute workforce.

As with Shildon, their works were closed down by the Govt. at the beginning of the 1980s  with the loss of 3,700 jobs. Their steelworks may have gone but they are determined that the legacy will continue to live on.

The Consett Ale Works story began in 2005, nestled in the old stable block behind the Grey Horse, where they began to create award-winning beer.

We’re proud to be bringing you four bottled ales from their superb range - all painstakingly taste-tested on your behalf, by us - well, we had to be sure you know. 

Red Dust - 4.5% abv

Is ruby red in colour and beautifully clear with a robust, full-flavoured malt and fruit nature.

Red Dust takes its name from the cloud of Iron Oxide, emitted when the Steelworks were in production. In times now long gone, there were red clouds of the dust that would hang over the town, settling on cars and washing hung out to dry!  The air in Consett may be somewhat cleaner now, but the memory remains for many, and lives on in this beer!

White Hot - 4.0% abv

White Hot Is the perfect summer beer; highly hopped and sparkling with wheat-like cereal characteristics. Like other Consett Ale Works beers, it has excellent head retention.

Men of Steel  - 4.2% abv

A full-flavoured golden hoppy ale.

The Works - 4.0% abv

A Dark robust ale.

For those concerned that we might take away their ‘big brewery’ favourites - rest easy, we’ll always provide for you.  We’re there for all our members.

For those looking to support local businesses, not just because it’s the right thing to do during a time of need, but also because their products are absolutely superb - we say “Cheers to choice”  

(27th Jun 2020)