CAMRA Members Bob & Sarah Smith report from Lakeland

As frequent visitors to the Lake District, Sarah & I usually brave all weathers to get out onto the hills for a day's walking. However, this early September Wednesday proved to be an exception. The cloud was down to a few hundred feet, the rain was relentless and added to the fact that our planned walk was not in an area that we were familiar with, we decided to do something else.

Now, if you've ever been to the Lakes, you'll know that there isn't anything very exciting to do on a wet day (unless you class life threatening as exciting). So, not being greatly drawn to the Cumberland Pencil Museum or The Keswick Motor Museum we plumped for The Jennings Brewery Tour.

Cockermouth lies just outside the main tourist area of Lakeland and is a busy market town (Wednesday is market day so parking is scarce) that doesn't suffer from the commercial trappings that it's more (it has to be said) glamorous neighbours seem to. The CAMRA 'Concise Guide to Lakeland Pubs' which is on sale in....er..... most Lakeland pubs price £2.00, lists 13 real ale establishments in the town. Sadly, we only had time to visit one of them. More on that shortly.

Having put down the more mundane attractions earlier, I must admit we did call at The Lakeland Sheep & Wool Centre which is a mile outside Cockermouth. If you've got a couple of hours to spare it's well worth a visit. Entrance to the main complex which houses a Lakeland exhibition , shop, bar & restaurant is free but the Sheep Show is not to be missed - even at £3 a head. It is both entertaining & amusing (if a little smelly) and we both enjoyed it very much. The most fun you'll ever have with sheep (legally).

Then it was down to the serious business of the day. We drove into the town centre and parked up without too much hassle. Then, clutching our guide to Cockermouth which we picked up at the Sheep & Wool Centre, we proceeded to The Jennings Brewery. Situated below the crumbling ramparts of Cockermouth Castle and on the bank of the River Cocker, the Brewery stands, unchanged for the most part since it was built.

It faces the building that used to be home to The Jennings Bro's. original business - the Maltings which for many years supplied the Brewery and would probably still be doing so had demand not exceeded supply. We gravitated to the only hospitable looking point - the Brewery Shop and enquired about getting on a tour. The friendly shop assistant told us that it would be very advisable to book in advance, especially on a wet day. We took her advice and booked onto the next available tour which gave us about an hour and a half to kill. Now.... who's round is it?.. What? Mine again?.. Doh!!

We stumbled across rather than went looking for, a pub called The Bitter End, which oddly isn't in the Good Beer Guide. The reason I say this is because the pub has the smallest brewery in Cumbria on it's premises and serves 6 real ales, 3 of which are brewed on site: Bitter End Cocker Snoot, Bitter End Skinners Old Strong & another one which escapes our memory. We had our lunch here and sampled some of the fine 'Home Brew'. At the rear of the lounge bar is the Bitter End Brewery which is viewable through large windows. There wasn't any available literature on the Brewery, so the only other info I can relay is from the CAMRA guide to Lakeland pubs; 'The Brew House is operational most Monday evenings - visitors welcome'.

The rain mercifully held off for most of the short walk back to the Jennings Brothers Brewery where we had been instructed to assemble for 2.00 p.m.We paid our £2.90 tour fee (each) and when the full party (and a right motley bunch they were as well) had assembled, one of the shop assistants opened a door at the back of the shop and asked us to follow her. The tour started in the sample room (no we weren't served any beer!) where we watched a video about the history of the company. When this had finished we moved into the brewery for the tour proper (with a promise of a return visit to the room we had just vacated at the end of the tour). Our guide led us from one area to another, working through the brewing process from start to finish.

We peered into various large brewing vessels, tasted the malt, reeled at the overpowering aroma in the hops store and grimaced at the scum floating on the top in the fermentation vessels. At each stage our guide gave a short talk about the building, the process, the history etc.. before moving on to the next point via one of the many stairways, gantries and corridors ( it's a bit like being the ball bearing in Mousetrap!) finally ending up back in the sample room. Yippee!

We were treated to samples of all four of the available beers; Jennings Bitter (3.5%), Cumberland Ale (4.0%), Cocker Hoop (4.8%) and Sneck Lifter (5.1%) along with explanations of the names. Two hours after we had arrived, we reluctantly bade farewell to our host and The Jennings Brothers Brewery having thoroughly enjoyed the tour and our day in and around Cockermouth.

Contact Info:
The Bitter End Brew Pub - 15, Kirkgate, Cockermouth, Cumbria

Feb. '98