Berkshire Breweries Research

What is a Brewery?

Understanding what a brewery is, is quite complicated.  The general rule is that breweries brewed general beer and ale but not ginger beer.  People who brewed ginger beer were normally called 'ginger beer makers' or 'mineral water manufacturers'.  You would be classed as a brewery if you brewed both beer and ginger beer.  You would be classed as a mineral water manufacturer if you made both ginger beer and mineral waters.

Beer bottles are clearly different to ginger beer bottles.  The whole thing is more complicated because of the fact that some mineral water manufacturers made ginger beer and put it into the general shaped beer bottles.  Confused?.....I'm not surprised!!

So, determining a brewery is not exactly straightforward.  The process of making ginger beer and making general beer was very different of course and the yeast used in the process was different.  Because yeast is air borne, beer and ginger beer could not be made on the same site without 'infecting' each product.  This was not the case for mineral water and ginger beer.

It is even more complicated in the fact that some sellers of beer were just 'bottlers' i.e. they did not make the product only bottled it and sold it in their own branded bottles.

If we stick to true brewers being the ones that brewed general beer and ale then we will not go too far wrong!  You may find it useful to read the page entitled 'A BRIEF HISTORY OF BREWING IN THE UK' on the main menu.

Also, brewers tended to be smaller concerns while breweries were larger concerns often with a specific brewery name rather than simply the name of the brewer.

Below is a link to a thorough list of berkshire brewers that have been compiled by experts over a period of time.  The list does not include 'old berkshire' at this time or the 'slough' area.