Chain Reaction
Going the extra mile pays off in the business
of organic beer, writes Alastair Gilmour
The very essence of brewing is its fluidity. It shifts and changes, it merges, slips away, reappears, is subsumed, stands still, expands and contracts. Big fish eat little fish, little fish club together out of survival or sheer altruism.
It has emerged that East meets West in a move that sees Great Newsome Brewery from East Yorkshire taking over the West Yorkshire-based Little Valley Brewery brands and know-how. Both are wholly committed to producing organic beer in a commendable spirit of guts and enthusiasm.
Matthew Hodgson, director at Great Newsome, explained what the opportunity means: “We are extremely excited to be carrying on the great work that Wim van der Spek and Sue Cooper have created at Little Valley. A greater proportion of our business is in our established cask range, so we believe that the addition of the Little Valley bottled and canned brands will work very well.”
LittleValley’s Sue Cooper, right, and Wim van der Spek (overalls)
with the Hodgson family of Great Newsome Brewery.
It’s guaranteed there can’t be many more beer obsessives than Dutch brewer Wim van der Spek. At fifteen years old he started a school homebrew club then at university gained an MSc in food science – there was then no course for studying beer in the Netherlands – before graduating as a Master Brewer from the celebrated Doemens Brewing Institute in Munich.
Sow the seed of an idea in a fanatic’s brain and it becomes a compulsion, so when Wim (pronounced with a V) read about a brewery at a higher altitude than any in the world, what’s a guy like him got to do but get on his bike? And not metaphorically, either. Being Dutch, he got on his bike. To China.
It was part of a plan to cycle round the world while making sure he sampled the beer on offer in every country he pedalled through. A detour would satisfy his curiosity. Beer fanatic, see?
“After Hungary and Romania, you’re running out of beers to try,” he told me when we first met in 2006. “There’s not much in Turkey, obviously none in Iran and very little in India and Pakistan, though there’s some beer in Tibet. When I got to China I set off for the highest brewery, so high that water boils at 80ºC (rather than 100ºC) and I wanted to see how they did it.
“It was infuriating, I couldn’t get my noodles to boil properly, either. I lived on noodles (for the carbs) and couldn’t get the temperature any higher.”
As for the brewery, Wim couldn’t find it…
Back on the bike, while heading through Nepal, he met Sue Cooper from Jarrow, South Tyneside, who was already planning to cycle back home. He accompanied her for the first two months of the journey through India and Pakistan, then the pair reluctantly had to go their separate ways. They eventually met up again in the UK when Sue was working in Burnley in Lancashire as a community development officer. They subsequently bought a house together in Hebden Bridge where they wanted to settle.
Master brewer Wim van der Spek, pictured in 2006
The rugged countryside around Little Valley Brewery (Photo: Little Valley Facebook)
A couple of years as head brewer at the totally organic Black Isle brewery in Inverness-shire, alongside founder and visionary David Gladwin, where he helped develop the cask ales and bottled beer side of the business (Black Isle Yellowhammer, 4.0% abv, is among my top five beers, ever) fired Wim’s passion further.
Wim and Sue set up Little Valley in 2005 in a former pig farm, née chicken farm, which going by its address –Turkey Lodge – already had a diverse history in agronomy.
Little Valley beers are astonishing in their aromas and flavour profiles and the brewery quickly became known amongst beer aficionados for its continental slant on wheat beers and saisons, as well for creating stalwarts: Tod’s Blonde, Python IPA, Withens Pale and Stoodley Stout. Best-seller Cragg Vale Bitter (4.2% abv) bursts with spice and grapefruit flavours.
Little Valley produced beer for organic, vegan and vegetarian food retailer Suma Foods and also brewed on contract was a traditional Abbey beer based on a recipe used by Benedictine monks at Ampleforth Abbey in the 19th Century, which they had carried with them to France during the Reformation in 1608.
Wim said: “All our ingredients are traceable; we use hop pellets, organic herbs and organic heather. Spent hops go to local gardens for fertiliser and the malt goes to the farm next door as cattle feed.
Great Newsome organic beers brewed in East Yorkshire are well established
Two best-sellers from Little Valley (Photo: Little Valley Facebook)
Also available in cask in some pubs around Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
(Photo: Little Valley Facebook)
“Our water comes from the nearby Withens Reservoir; it’s very soft and another reason for choosing this place to brew. We combine the most pure, organic natural ingredients with environmentally-friendly methods.”
Little Valley sits on a hillside overlooking the ruggedly picturesque Cragg Vale in the Upper Calder Valley, at the end of a fearsome six-mile gradient (featured in the 2014 Tour De France) which he negotiates every morning – in the saddle. The return trip is undoubtedly full of ‘yee-hah’ moments.
“It’s a very good area for a brewery,” said Wim. “This part of Yorkshire is very central for delivering to Manchester, Leeds and Lancashire.”
But that was then… After almost 19 years, Wim and Sue decided it was time to pass the baton to another family owned, Yorkshire brewer. Great Newsome Brewery is based on a fourth-generation arable farm near Hull, producing the best of British beer styles with names such as Sleck Dust, Pricky Back Otchan, Cold Snap Lager and Frothingham Best.
Wim said: “What impressed us was the Great Newsome enthusiasm and commitment to ensuring that the Little Valley brand will remain organic. As one of the very few organic beer producers in the UK, it’s great to know our legacy will continue.”
These days, Wim’s home football team is Burnley and his away side is Feyenoord. At every goal scored, the Dutch supporters sing karaoke favourite I Will Survive.
Burnley fans don’t sing China In Your Hand. Perhaps it’s too high.
Sue Cooper pictured in Pakistan cycling home to Jarrow,
North Tyneside, from working in Nepal (Photo: Little Valley Facebook)