THE FAMOUS ORIGINAL
We’ve been around for quite a while
The first drop of bona fide Allsopp family beeris brewed in Burton-on-Trent – the beer capital of Britain – by Benjamin Wilson Sr.
To expand operations, Wilson Sr, bought the Blue Stoops Inn Brewery, a brewery described as “so old, no one ever heard of its having a beginning.”
Our beer was really catching on, but not just at home. Our strong Burton beer was big in Imperial Russia too, braving the 2000 mile trip to St. Petersburg to become a firm favourite of the Tsar’s court.
James Allsopp marries Anne Wilson, Benjamin’s daughter. Two years later, they have a son, Samuel. Now things are getting interesting.
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Samuel was invited to join the business, with high hopes for making a name for himself. He buys and renames it after himself in 1807.
Samuel’s ambitious plans are… somewhat hampered, by one Napoleon Bonaparte. Ably assisted by the largest army the world had yet seen, he blockades British exports for six years. Drat.
After years in the doldrums, Samuel’s fortunes started to turn. And then, he perfected a little beer called India Pale Ale. In a teapot. Which changed everything.
Bolstered by our refreshed taste for innovation, Allsopp’s creates the first brewery laboratory to discover more, where IPA came from.
To aid in the search for a lost Arctic expedition, Queen Victoria asks the brewers of Burton to create a scurvy-preventing, life-sustaining ale for the voyage. The lab immediately pays off, as Allsopp’s win the contract.
As business continued to boom after the great India Pale Ale experiment, Allsopp’s built Britain’s largest brewery, to meet demand from all over the world.
The Red Right Hand is registered as a trademark for Samuel Allsopp & Sons for the very first time – a symbol made to stop people in their tracks, with the promise of ale in the finest condition.
Producing an enormous 460,000 barrels of beer a year, with a workforce of 1,750, Samuel Allsopp & Son’s decides to go public. What could go wrong?
Uh… quite a lot as it happened. Poor business decisions ensure investors go from scuffles at the door to buy shares, to demanding their money back.
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Enter Percy. In an attempt to turn things around, he travels across Germany to educate himself about the art of lager – the beer of the future. He promptly invests in a state-of-the art brewery, made to brew 60,000 barrels of lager beer.
Try as he might, it turns out no one wants Percy’s lager. We’re half a century too early. Financial disaster strikes and the Allsopp family are, ahem, “invited” to leave the day-to-day management of the company.
Ind Coope & Allsopp is formed from the merger of the two breweries, most famous for its bottles of Double Diamond pale ale.
Though the company is flying high again, alas, the Allsopp’s flag, does not. Our name disappears from the beers and bars. Our assets steadily sold off. Our fabled recipes, seemingly lost to the sands of time.
Jamie Allsopp, great-great-great-great- great-grandson of Samuel, finds the only remaining ledger containing the original recipes. It’s a red letter day.
So he sets about resurrecting the original Allsopp’s yeast and – in-keeping with the Allsopp family knack for exceptional timing – begins brewing again in the middle of a global pandemic.
So he sets about resurrecting the original Allsopp’s yeast and – in-keeping with the Allsopp family knack for exceptional timing – begins brewing again in the middle of a global pandemic.
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Samuel Allsopp & Sons has a grand, colourful and exciting history, providing a bottomless resource for telling beer stories and building beer brands.
- Founded 1730 in The Blue Stoops pub in Burton on- Trent.
- Samuel Allsopp commercialised the IPA beer style in a teapot in 1822.
- Allsopp’s had the highest valuation of any firm to float on the stock market on its debut in 1878.
- Allsopp’s pioneered the brewing of lager in the UK in the 1890s, building a giant dedicated lager brewing facility, led by then boss Percy Allsopp. This proved too early, the British were not yet ready to abandon ale and led to Percy’s dismissal and subsequent bankruptcy and the decline of the company.
- An eventual merger with Ind Coupe in 1935 saw a revival in fortunes with the Double Diamond brand becoming the biggest selling beer in the UK after WWII.
classics served up like new
Contact us
Contact information
drink fresh ALLSOPP'S cask ale at our our pub
sales@allsopps.com
VAT No:
346376969