Samuel Smith

Jordanne Christie

47 Samuel Smith

Introduction

Samuel Smith Old Brewery or known more commonly as just Samuel Smith produces high quality ale, lager, stout, fruit beer and cider, they tend to have an alcohol content of 5%. The cider is produced with a few main ingredients such as water, organic apple juice, cane sugar, malic acid, yeast, and carbon dioxide. The yeast strain that the brewery uses hasn’t changed since the 1800’s. The water they have use in the brewery is from an underground limestone lake, the water has to be pumped up 85 feet from the lake to the surface before it can begin the brewing process.

Origins

Samuel Smith brewery started in Tadcaster, England. The brewery was established in the year 1758 and was founded by none other than Samuel Smith himself. Brewing in the area of Tadcaster originated in the early 14th century because of the excellent brewing water found in the limestone lake, Tadcaster would take up a nickname “The burton of the north” the name came from Burton-on-Trent(Midlands) because they were also famous for there excellent water supply for the brewing process. Samuel Smith brewery is still incorporating brewing methods used in 1758, such as they still use Yorkshire squares made from Welsh slate rather than modern day ones made from aluminum to extract and ferment the yeast in the brew.

Overcoming Modern Techniques

A milestone in the history that Samuel Smith Brewery has had to overcome is technological advancements in brewing, the Samuel Smith brewery keeps its traditional brewing techniques alive to this day by still using the same equipment or exact replicas of the equipment used in 1758. They’ve had to make some changes to the coal fires to comply with modern day environmental laws. If you live in the area of Tadcaster it is still possible to receive Samuel Smith beer by horse just like back in the 1800’s. Thus keeping the tradition they are so famous for, alive and well today.

Brewing Science and Industrialization

Throughout the history of the Samuel Smith brewery not much has changed, It’s a common practice for them to stay true to their traditional brewing methods. Even today they still use some of the original stills, their Yorkshire squares for fermenting are the exact same they would have used when the Samuel Smith Brewery first opened in 1758. Some of their equipment has been modernized or changed, a change that took place was when they had to change their coal burning method so it would comply with the local regulations about pollution. Not much has changed in the brewing science either; they found their famous yeast strain in the 1800’s and have pretty much stuck with it since because again they like to keep their traditional values that have helped them survive for years throughout multiple wars. During the industrialization period Samuel Smith never chose to go the route of canning again; they like to keep tradition alive.

Samuels Smith’s Famous Beer!

Samuel Smith brews a variety of brews, in fact they have over a dozen of different styles of beer. But they are most known for the Ultra- Traditional English Ales such as the Samuel Smith Taddy English Porter. This beer itself is very dark, it contains hints of roasted chocolate, that are accompanied by caramel notes of flavour, it is known to be an intense dry tangy flavour of roasted barley, and this beer comes in 5%a.b.v. The porter style originated in the 18th century in London, England. The porter style of beer was one of the first to be commercially brewed, it was named after the train porters who were the first ones to serve/consume the style. The style was seen to greatly decline in popularity around the 20th century when lighter beers were becoming more common in the world due to the effect the war had on the country’s. It wasn’t until 1979 when Samuel Smith reintroduced their authentic English porter back into the mainstream market. Since then it has only seen an increase in popularity in that style and I don’t think it will decline anytime soon due to the fact people love authentic traditional beer. It’s like a glass into the past.

Sam Smith Taddy Porter 4PK. Default Store View. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.haskells.com/sam-smith-taddy-porter-nr12z-4pk

The Era of WW1 and WW2

During the World Wars the United Kingdom where Samuel Smiths brewery resides was not a very good place to live in at the time. The United Kingdom had many bombs dropped on them reducing a lot of buildings to rubble, fortunately Samuel Smiths brewery was not affected by these bombing attacks. The United Kingdom had a low supply of food during this era leaving them to subsequently begin rationing food and increasing the prices of grain leaving them to explore other options such as using fruit or they would make what is called wheat beer instead of using cereal grains for their brewing process. After the Second World War had concluded England struggled to rebuild its cities in 1946 a bill was passed that would found 8 new settlements to help rebuild the economy and bring people back to England after a large portion of their population had succumbed to the war. During The Festival of Britain in 1951 their country declared that they nationally recovered.

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). The Blitz. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/event/the-Blitz

Consolidation

After the wars that had plagued the United Kingdom Samuel Started to expand greatly. During this time they have opened numerous pubs in the north of England today they still own and operate over 20 of these historic pubs you can get a drink into the past at. Not much has changed in the cooperation of the company they like to keep to their values and have been a family owned company since they opened their brewery in 1758. In 1945 George Orwell described his perfect pub in his essay “The Moon Under Water” and since then Samuel Smith Pubs have always followed his ideology.

Twitter. (n.d.). Samuel Smith. Twitter. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://mobile.twitter.com/samsmithsbeer

Marketing & Branding

Samuel Smith Seems to not spend too much on marketing and they brand themselves as an exclusive beverage company. In terms of marketing they release various posters posted around northern England and inside of their pubs. Another unique from of marketing that they contribute to their branding is that in the local are of Yorkshire you can request your beer to be delivered by a horse drawn buggy which i find to be a great form of marketing because you might see it go past and read the brewery’s name off the cart and you may think it is interesting so later that day you go check it out. I think it’s very unique and smart for a local company to do this.

Modern Era

Samuel Smith is in the decline stage unfortunately, they seemingly have lost a bit of popularity with the people of the United Kingdom. After world war 2 they were very popular even operating 200+ pubs at a time. But now in the modern era it has seemed like they have been closing more and more pubs down even after just a few weeks of being open, now this isn’t to do with sales more to which the people cannot follow the ideology of George Orwell any more and the public is not as tamed anymore. And the Samuel Smith morals do not go along with this, leaving them to close many pubs due to a lack of respect to the history they are built on. But nevertheless they as a brewery are still growing they had just exported there first kegs to the United States in October of 2017.

Sources

Alworth, J. (2017, February 19). The enigmatic Samuel Smith’s. Beervana. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2011/11/enigmatic-samuel-smith.html

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Reconstruction after World War II. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/place/London/Reconstruction-after-World-War-II

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). The Blitz. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/event/the-Blitz

The oxford companion to beer definition of Samuel Smith’s old brewery. Craft Beer & Brewing. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/pkGTOu2tfA/

Twitter. (n.d.). Samuel Smith. Twitter. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://mobile.twitter.com/samsmithsbeer

Samuel Smith Organic Cider. Heb.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.heb.com/product-detail/samuel-smith-organic-cider-bottle/1200330

Samuel Smith shire horse delivery. 8th April 2020 – YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yX65hdZQdU

Samuel Smith’s brewery, Tadcaster: Yorkshire’s oldest brewery. Samuel Smiths Brewery. (2021, March 4). Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.samuelsmithsbrewery.co.uk/

Samuel Smith – Taddy English Porter. Bishop’s Cellar. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://bishopscellar.com/product/samuel-smith-taddy-porter/