Why I revisited one of Derbyshire's most remote breweries on a Whim

I took a drive down memory lane this week. It was a very long, narrow lane, bumpy and muddy in parts, but when I got to the end, it was brilliant to see that it was virtually unchanged from the last time I had driven down it, all the way back in 2013.

It is reassuring, sometimes, to find that some things are unchanged and thriving just as they are and that is what the good folk at Whim Ales are doing, 33 years after the brewery was founded just outside Hartington.

The Whim Ales logo

The long road to the brewery is called Reynards Lane and while I cannot now track down the article I wrote for the Derby Telegraph after my first visit, I can be sure of the date because, by coincidence, on the same day, I bumped into my good friends Rob and Yvonne Bower in Hartington and we had a beer and took pictures in the sunshine at Hartington Youth Hostel, which has an excellent bar.

I had encountered Whim’s beers initially while working at the newspaper offices when they were at Meadow Road in Derby. Whim’s light, hoppy Arbor Light was a popular lunchtime choice at the nearby Smithfield pub. At 3.6%, it wouldn’t knock you out, although it would not be long before lunchtime drinking ceased to be a “thing” in the newspaper industry and other occupations, notably local government.

When I made that first trip to Whim, pre sat-nav, for me at least, I thought I must have taken a wrong turn. I must have missed it, surely, as the road went on and on. And then there it was, Whim Farm, nestled between Wolfscote Dale and Biggin Dale. There was a farmhouse and then, on the face of it, a typically idiosyncratic collection of slightly ramshackle farm buildings. It looked an unlikely place for a commercial brewery but a mountain of casks was a giveaway and, inside, not an inch appeared to be wasted space around a 10-barrel brewing plant.

Giles Litchfield bought the farm and launched a microbrewery in 1993, well ahead of the explosion in numbers of such enterprises, although he later moved to Scotland. Before long, Joe Allsop was installed as head brewer and when I visited in 2013, Joe showed me round, after I had sat in the office and chatted to Ruth Baker, who handled the administration and sales.

This week, 13 years later, I didn’t want to take up anyone’s time, I was just curious to see if everything looked just the same, as I guessed it might. And it does. Joe is still head brewer. Ruth appeared from the door of the office, wondering who had made the journey down, and we had a brief chat; I emailed her later.

Arbor Light on the bar at the Lathkil Hotel, Over Haddon.

It is such a remote spot and I recall them telling me how, in winter, sometimes they have had to get deliveries moving by carting casks across the fields by tractor when the road is impassable. They are, of necessity, resourceful folk and the job gets done.

Most beer enthusiasts from Derbyshire or Staffordshire reading this will know the beers. They sell themselves, to an extent, because they are consistently excellent. Arbor Light and Hartington Bitter are still popular but the one that tends to have people talking in reverential tones is Hartington IPA, one that doesn’t need to be high strength, at 4.5%, to be packed with character. You will regularly find it at the Flower Pot in Derby, for one, currently at the Devonshire in Hartington if you’re up that way and often at the Lathkil Hotel at Over Haddon – but in many other outlets too.

Hartington IPA, not as strong as many ales with IPA in the name, is the brewery's flagship beer, packed with character.

Whim also have their own pub these days, the quirky, 17^th century, Grade II listed Wilkes Head in Leek, which they describe as having “a defiant history that shuns convention and the establishment, flies true and surely has a soul of its own.”

The brewery philosophy is simple: “To consistently make fantastic beer that is not bland or tasteless, with no compromise or short cuts on quality. Full commitment to dealing directly with our customers has earned our reputation in the business rather than clever marketing or cheap ale.”

It seems to make sense to me. Whatever they’re doing, however they’re doing it and however remote their home may be, Whim Ales have defied the ups and downs of the market while hundreds of “trendier” breweries have come and gone for 33 years now. They shouldn’t need to change a thing and they probably will not.