John Smith's Brewery - Brewery

Brewery

Traditional open slate Yorkshire squares were used for brewing from 1913 until 1975; stainless steel Yorkshire squares were removed in the 1980s. From 1970 until 1984 the John Smith's Brewery produced entirely keg beer, and no cask conditioned beer. In 1984 the original brewhouse ceased to be used to brew beer and was converted into a brewery museum. By 1989 the brewery had a production capacity of 1.2 million barrels per annum. Scottish & Newcastle used the John Smith's Brewery to brew many of its ale brands, including Courage Best Bitter, Director's and Russian Imperial Stout, Webster's Yorkshire Bitter and Green Label, Theakston Best Bitter and McEwan's Export. £40 million had been spent on what the company termed "recent" brewery upgrades by 2005.

Although the hard well water of Tadcaster makes it ideal for brewing, it is no longer important due to technological advances. Tadcaster is a small town which provides plenty of land for expansion and is well situated near to the cities of Leeds and York and the M1 motorway. The brewery brews around 4 million hectolitres of beer per year (1.8 million of which is John Smith's beer) and employed around 300 people in 2008. It has two keg lines, two bottle lines and one canning line. It currently brews and packages the ale brands John Smith's Original, John Smith's Extra Smooth and Newcastle Brown Ale, the lager brands Foster's and Kronenbourg 1664, and Murphy's Irish Stout.