First pint poured as brewing returns to Mansfield for first time in two decades

The first ale made at Prior's Well Brewery has been sipped on December 18, as the head brewer Dave Vann took your Chad through the brewing process.

Two different beers the Priory Gold and Resurrected, made at the Brewery’s pub in the preserved Victorian Mansfield Brewery Building on Littleworth are now on tap.

Brewing stopped in Mansfield when the Mansfield Brewery Company, best known for its Mansfield Bitter, was sold in 1999 and moved to Wolverhampton.

The company had been making beer there since the 1850’s.

Dave, a former sub-contractor engineer who said he chose brewing instead of retirement said the brewing process is “tweeked” depending on what type of beer they are making.

He said: “We do small batch artisan brewing.

“After the brewing process we keep it under cast for two weeks in the cellar so it is fully conditioned.”

Dave and his friend Phil Scotney, brought the rights to Prior’s Well Brewery – previously based at Clumber Park – and moved it to Old Mill Lane Industrial Estate, Mansfield Woodhouse before relocating to Mansfield this year.

Dave and Phil spent six months learning the art with former owner Rob Neal, who runs Maypole Brewery in Eakring.

They supplied their small patch ales to pubs around the Mansfield area, including The Railway Inn on Station Street, Ye Olde White Lion Inn on Church Street, The Brown Cow on Ratcliffe Gate and Mansfield’s town centre JD Wetherspoon pubs.