Enthusiastic to restore the historic brewery, Copper Dragon founders Steve Taylor and Ruth Bennett undertook a two-year study to look into the state of the UK Brewing Industry. This involved many painstaking months of research with consultants and engineers.
The conclusion was the giant breweries dominated the market with their standard range of products nation wide and had a disregard for localised production. There was also a culture of takeovers, brewery closures and redundancies
As depressing as the whole scene sounded, this was seen as an opportunity to re-establish Skipton Brewery. With an excellent geographical location and a supply of high-quality soft water from Embsay Reservoir, the conclusion was to rebuild the new Skipton Brewery under the trade name of Copper Dragon for the production of high quality ales.
With all these facts in mind and a team of professional brewers it would be possible to re-create flavours from the last century using only the choicest of ingredients as well as creating some more modern ales to suit every palate.
In 2002, Copper Dragon Brewery was born and was housed in a brand new building to the south of Skipton. The new brewery had the good fortune to secure two professional brewers, Gordon Wilkinson and Ian Johnson (both from Samuel Webster (Halifax) and Bass (Burton on Trent), both of whom had been in the industry for many years. This was to prove invaluable in the creation of Copper Dragon recipes.
The First Brewhouse
The next step was to build the brewhouse. Bavarian Brewery Technologies were commissioned to build a 10BL German-style, steam-powered Brew-House with Conical Fermenters and separate Conditioning Tanks along with a process control system that would grace any concern Copper Dragon Brewery and its beers were an immediate success and plans to increase the brew length were brought forward.
The 10-barrel brewhouse
Rapid Expansion
Bavarian Brewery Technologies were once again commissioned to build a 30BL steam powered Brew-House which would operate alongside the original 10BL plant enabling us to ferment up to 160 Brewers Barrels per week. The new facility was completed in Autumn 2004, only 2-years after the brewery first opened and as a result, the new facilities enabled the company to meet the demands of the licensed trade.
Inside the new 30-barrel kettle
Estates division created
In 2005, as part of the continuing development of this dynamic company, the brewery formed 'Copper Dragon Estates Ltd' starting with the purchase of The Masons Arms in Todmorden.
Two years later in 2007, the Masons is now 1-of-10 brewery-owned inns with the portfolio ever increasing. Thanks to modern transportation methods, the brewery is not limited to servicing only its local inns and Copper Dragons fleet of 6-drays cover on average 6000 miles every week servicing its customers.
The first Copper Dragon Estates inn, The Masons Arms
Fermentation Capacity Increased
In 2006 the demand for Copper Dragon Ales has increased to a point where it was necessary once again to increase fermentation capacity, BBT were commissioned to construct a new bank of fermenters which allowed the brewery to produce 250 Brewers Barrels per week
The new fermentation vessels