The Bass Brewery was founded in 1777 by William Bass in Burton-upon-Trent. The main brand was Bass Pale Ale, once the highest-selling beer in the UK. By 1877, Bass had become the largest brewery in the world, with an annual output of one million barrels. Throughout the 20th century Bass merged with a number of other brewers, until 2000 when the brewing operations of the company were bought by Interbrew. The government's Competition Commission was concerned about the monopoly implications arising from the deal, and instructed Interbrew to dispose of the brewery and certain brands (Carling and Worthington) to Coors, who later merged with Molson to become the Molson Coors Brewing Company.
The South Brewhouse and associated fermentation plant in Burton was formerly responsible for the brewing of Bass Pale Ale, however the Competition Commission allowed Interbrew to retain the rights to the brand and production was moved elsewhere. The section of the site to the south of Station Street has been mostly disused ever since, and the interconnecting bridge between this and the main site was recently removed. The main Molson Coors site remains in operation, unsurprisingly brewing Coors, amongst other products.
Visited with @SpiderMonkey and @slayaaaa for a nighttime reccie and return visit the next day for some daylight shots.
Exterior of the brewery
Inside, we were greeted with a representation of the Bass brewing process
Diagram of the brewing process
Dated 70's ceiling
Fermenting vessels
Corridors of fermenting vessels
Below the fermenting vessels
A bit of old signage
Malt mills
Some even older signage
The stripped out control room made us all very sad :'( We sat and cried out tears of stale beer for several minutes.
Heading further along the building we find some more modern bits....
Mash Presses
And at the far end of the building, we find the large scale fermentation vessels....
Below the vessels
The V-shaped vessels above are the bottom of the huge tanks shown below:
Next, we head into the building shown the left above. This is the oldest part of the site and is listed. Note the bay window, which had these behind it....
Finally we head across an interconnecting bridge to another older area....
A small area of the original admin remains
The South Brewhouse and associated fermentation plant in Burton was formerly responsible for the brewing of Bass Pale Ale, however the Competition Commission allowed Interbrew to retain the rights to the brand and production was moved elsewhere. The section of the site to the south of Station Street has been mostly disused ever since, and the interconnecting bridge between this and the main site was recently removed. The main Molson Coors site remains in operation, unsurprisingly brewing Coors, amongst other products.
Visited with @SpiderMonkey and @slayaaaa for a nighttime reccie and return visit the next day for some daylight shots.
Exterior of the brewery
Inside, we were greeted with a representation of the Bass brewing process
Diagram of the brewing process
Dated 70's ceiling
Fermenting vessels
Corridors of fermenting vessels
Below the fermenting vessels
A bit of old signage
Malt mills
Some even older signage
The stripped out control room made us all very sad :'( We sat and cried out tears of stale beer for several minutes.
Heading further along the building we find some more modern bits....
Mash Presses
And at the far end of the building, we find the large scale fermentation vessels....
Below the vessels
The V-shaped vessels above are the bottom of the huge tanks shown below:
Next, we head into the building shown the left above. This is the oldest part of the site and is listed. Note the bay window, which had these behind it....
Finally we head across an interconnecting bridge to another older area....
A small area of the original admin remains
