Guildford Micro-brewery’s Tasty New Audit Ale Based On The Original Friary Meux Brew

Published on: 24 Nov, 2016
Updated on: 26 Nov, 2016

Guildford’s very own micro-brewery, Little Beer Corporation, has produced a tasty new addition to its range and one that salutes the town’s former giant Friary Meux brewery.

At the launch of the new Audit Ale. From left: Jim Taylor, founder and CEO of Little Beer Corporation; David Marklew, co-founder of inn@home; and writer, historian and bottle collector David Rose.

It comes in bottles and is called Audit Ale – named after and very close in taste to the same barleywine once brewed in Guildford town centre.

The original bottle of Friary Meux Audit Ale.

Earlier this year Guildford Dragon NEWS writer and local historian David Rose offered the Little Beer Corporation a 47-year-old unopened bottle of Friary Meux’s Audit Ale from his collection to see how the contents had fared over the years. It is believed to have come off the production line shortly before the brewery closed in December 1969. The site is today’s Friary shopping centre. Click here for previous story.

Little beer Corporation’s founder and CEO, Jim Taylor, was delighted to get the chance to open the bottle and, with David, sample the brew.

Jim said: “For the last couple of years, we’ve thought about reproducing one of the old Friary Meux beers, as a mark of respect and a sign we were picking up the brewing mantle in Guildford. However, it was only earlier this year when we decided to go for it. This came about when we got our hands on David’s unopened bottle of Audit Ale, and tried it; while a little oxidised by the years, it was nevertheless, very drinkable!”

From the tasting, Jim was able to work out the likely ingredients in Friary Meux’s Audit Ale and its alcoholic strength. David has put the now empty bottle back in his collection!

Inside the Little Beer Corporation’s brewery on the Guildford Business Park, Midleton Road, Guildford.

For the new brew, Jim said: “We were trying to emulate Friary Meux’s Audit Ale, based on it’s taste – because the original recipe has been lost. Therefore when we brewed it, we developed a recipe based on this and produced about 1,500 litres.

“However, after about four days of fermentation we tried the resulting beer and felt that it needed more depth, to get closer to the original’s taste. Therefore I brewed a further 500-litre batch of very strong, very malty ‘wort’ and injected this into the first batch, resulting in a second fermentation of the whole 2,000 litres.

“The result is a gorgeous, clean, malty, well-attenuated and drinkable barleywine, that is very close in taste to the original.”

Jim said that about 1,300 litres of it have been bottled for sale. About 1,000 litres in standard 330ml bottles, about 200 litres in 375ml Italian bottles, with a wax seal (this is bottle-conditioned) and about 100 litres in 750ml Italian bottles, with a wax seal (this is also bottle-conditioned).

Little Beer Corporation’s new Audit Ale incorporating a similar label as the original.

He added: “Before planning the recipe and the production, we first went about contacting the current owners of the intellectual property (IP) of Audit Ale. Before closing, Friary Meux was part of Allied brands. In 1978, Allied Breweries merged with the food and catering group J. Lyons & Co to form Allied Lyons.

“The breweries business merged with Carlsberg in 1992 and became Carlsberg-Tetley, which is now part of Carlsberg Group, with Carlsberg-Tetley, now known as Carlsberg UK. So technically, the IP for the Friary brands belongs to Carlsberg UK.

“On contacting them, Carlsberg UK were very helpful indeed and granted Little Beer Corporation a licence of the trade mark ‘Friary Meux’ for a six-month period, to brew and sell this limited edition beer.

“We formulated a recipe for a 7.0% barleywine, golden in colour, with a full-malty-sweetness.”

The new brew was launched at inn@home Guildford, an off licence in the upper High Street on Tuesday (November 22), with small number of invited people.

Jim explained how the new barleywine brew came about and David Rose said a few words about the history of the Friary Meux brewery.

Friary, Holroyd & Healy’s brewery viewed from looking down Bridge Street to Onslow Street. In 1956 it became Friary Meux. Audit Ale was so called as it was at one time usually brewed after the firm’s annual accounts had been audited. It was a very profitable concern and in its later years had many pubs throughout Surrey, neighbouring counties and in London.

David said: “Jim cracked open a few bottles of Audit Ale, with its smart label based on the original. I think we all very much enjoyed having a tipple of what is a very strong ale – even though it was lunchtime. I am sure it will sell well, it’s a perfect winter drink. I’ll be buying it to drink and to keep a couple of unopened bottles for posterity and future history!”

inn@home Guildford that hosted the launch is the concept of long time close friends and work colleagues Simon Douglas and David Marklew. They opened their first shop in Newbury last October and have recently opened the Guildford shop at 189 High Street.

inn@home is at 1879 High Street, Guildford.

It stocks a fantastic range of bottled beers, from local breweries, ones throughout the UK, and from around the world. Also stocked are fine wines and a great selection of spirits.

Lots of beers to choose from at INN@home.

Co-owner David Marklew said the aim is to offer great drinks and ones you won’t readily find in supermarkets. It also sells beers from the cask in refillable ‘growler’ bottles with a swing stopper. There is a rotation of different brewery’s products that also includes Little Beer Corporation. And of course it stocks Little beer Corporation’s bottled beers.

You can also buy Little Beer Corporation products direct from its brewery shop (open in the week, and Saturday 9am-1pm), at Building 3, 14-15 Midleton Road, Guildford GU2 8XW. Tel: 01483 497201.

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