Samuel Smith The Old Brewery | Tadcaster

Located in the North Yorkshire town of Tadcaster, Samuel Smith The Old Brewery -  popularly known as Samuel Smith's or Sam Smith's - is Yorkshire's oldest brewery founded in 1758. Samuel Smith's is still a family-owned company that produces a wide range of stouts, porters, lagers, and fruit beers. They are committed to brewing all their beers from authentic natural ingredients and many are certified organic, whilst all except two (cask Old Brewery Bitter and Yorkshire Stingo) are vegan friendly.

Samuel Smith's is one of the few remaining British breweries to employ the traditional Yorkshire Square system, a method of fermentation developed in the 19th century to cleanse beer of yeast. Most modern squares are made of stainless steel but Sam Smith’s prefers Welsh slate, which they feel helps keep natural carbonation entrained in the beer, imparting a creamier texture. 

Brewing water for the ales and stouts is still drawn from the original 85 ft (26 m) well, sunk when the site was established in 1758 and the yeast used in the fermentation process is of a strain that has been used continuously since approximately 1900; one of the oldest unchanged strains in the country. In keeping with this sense of history and tradition, the brewery keeps a small team of shire horses. Rather than being show horses, they are among the last active dray horses in the world delivering beer around the town of Tadcaster.