Welcome to our latest column from Heather Brown, Owner of Dorset Foodie Feed, the county’s top food & drink website.

Dorset Foodie Feed and Dorset Biz News work collaboratively to share food & drink news features across both our platforms.

Our aim is simple: to help support and encourage the food and hospitality sectors by bringing positive news stories to our respective audiences.

Heather’s column appears on the last Thursday of each month.

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Heather writes…

Dorset plays host to a number of well-known breweries, and a fair smattering of much smaller, niche micro breweries, all creating a plethora of diverse and delicious craft ales, stouts, IPAs and lighter lagers – beers to suit any taste or occasion!

I live close to Southbourne and have loved seeing how the local breweries have changed and adapted through the pandemic, offering keg and beer deliveries, changing bars to facilitate outside tables and creating new ways to deliver their beers to customers, such as The Way Outback ’s mobile beer van, perfect for events.

Many larger breweries have tours and beer-making sessions if you want to learn how to make your own – including the Brewhouse & Kitchen with their micro brewery sitting right in the heart of the restaurants.

You can also visit many breweries in their tap rooms, taste their latest beers and often find their beers at a reduced price. Eight Arch and Ringwood Brewery are just two that offer a visit to their tap room but many micro breweries do, too.

Badger Beers have been brewing their beers in the heart of Dorset in their large brewery as well as their tap room and restaurant on site.

I spoke to Giles Mountford, Senior Brand Manager, Hall & Woodhouse, to find out more…

To someone who hasn’t heard of Badger Beers before, can you tell me a little about your business and your products? 

Badger Beers are brewed by Hall & Woodhouse; a family owned brewer and pub company founded in 1777 and still based in the heart of Dorset. The beers are brewed exclusively for our pub business which has 52 managed houses and 111 business partners across the south of England.

The Badger range includes cask and keg ale, stout, IPAs and lager, with traditionally flavoured ales such as the malty Fursty Ferret and the refreshing Golden Champion to more progressive brews like Milk Made stout with layers of chocolate, vanilla and coconut and Fropical Ferret a fruity IPA, bursting with tropical passion fruit & mango flavours.

Beer has been brewed in your brewery in Blandford since 1777. What is it about being in Dorset that is so important to Badger Beers?

Dorset is our heartland, where the brewery was founded 245 years ago and where we remain to this day in Blandford.

Dorset is part of our heritage and our story so we couldn’t brew our beers anywhere else!

While we may ‘brew local’ our beers are enjoyed across the country and abroad even winning two gold medals for Red Roaster and Milk Made and a silver for Fursty Ferret at the International Brewing and Cider Awards 2021.

Do you have a favourite beer from your range? Or an ingredient that you’ve trialled in your beer that you didn’t expect to work but it did? 

My favourite beer in the range is probably Twice Tangled, our double hopped IPA which bridges the gap between traditional ale and more modern IPAs with a wonderful deep and hoppy flavour.

Our brewing team are always innovating with flavours and ingredients and a real fan favourite is Golden Glory, a peach flavoured golden ale, that has achieved cult status amongst Badger Beer fans.

How has the pandemic affected your business and have you seen customer habits change? Has the pandemic inspired any new flavours or beers? 

The pandemic has been hard on the entire industry, but we have been around for 245 years so have seen more than one bump in the road over that time!

While the country was locked down and the pubs were shut, we saw people drinking more at home which spurred us on to create Badgerbeers.com so our customers could get their favourite Badger Beers delivered direct to their door.

How can customers find out more about your brewery or your beers and what is the best way for them to buy your beers? Do you have any recommendations for good ways for customers to support local businesses like yourself? 

Everything you need to know is on Badgerbeers.com where you can find our entire range including exclusive beers not available in shops.

It’s always great to support local business, especially after the last two years, so why not look to the local high street before heading online or try a new local pub or restaurant?

And if you’re in Blandford you can always pop into our Brewery for a pint and to get some beers to take home.

Cheers!

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• You can find out more about Badger Beers by visiting their website here. You can also find many of their range in selected Sainsbury and Waitrose supermarkets.
• You can also find some of Dorset’s breweries on the Dorset Foodie Feed Directory.

All photos taken by Heather Brown.