McMullen Of Herford - Change And Survival

Fergus McMullen tells his teenage children that if they take over from him at the family brewery when he retires they will "have a great life. It's a lovely business to be in. You won't get rich but you'll enjoy yourselves."

The young McMullens seem keen to pick up the torch and the future of a brewery that seemed destined to close a few years ago now seems assured. But the survival of the brewery has brought enormous changes in its wake.

The majestic redbrick Victorian building in Hertford still bears the family name but it has been mothballed. Brewing has moved from a site capable of producing 100,000 barrels a year to a new plant between the offices and the delivery bay that has a maximum capacity of 15,500 barrels.

Fergus, the production and sales director, and managing director Peter Furness-Smith can't quite work out their new status. Are they a microbrewery, a small regional or - as Fergus prefers - "a local brewery"?

Macs - as the company is known affectionately in Hertfordshire and neighbouring counties - is certainly not a micro: several small family breweries have capacities below 20,000 barrels. And there are few micros with pub estates totalling 135, with several prime sites in London as well as the Home Counties.

It's the sizeable tied estate that has helped Macs hang on and carve out a new path in brewing. As Fergus and Peter readily admit, saving the brewery has incurred some debt and it might have been difficult to raise the cash without the safety net of a large parcel of pubs.

The problems at McMullens in 2002 have a familiar ring. It happened at Batemans in the 1980s and Morrells of Oxford in the 1990s, when some members of the families wanted to cash in their shares and retire on the proceeds.

Macs survived because Fergus and his cousin David have a passion for brewing and were determined to keep their roots in Hertford. They raised the cash to buy back the shares from their relatives. The arrival of Progressive Beer Duty (PBD), which allows smaller breweries to pay less tax on beer, helped Macs to refashion its business. Contract brewing, which accounted for a substantial proportion of annual production, was phased out and from now on the company will concentrate on its two core beers, AK and Country Bitter, and a rolling programme of seasonal brews. Photo: Mike Benner (centre) tipping 'whole leaf' hops into the hopback with Fergus McMullen, Production and Sales Director (right), and Chris Evans, McMullen's Head Brewer (left) at the opening of the new, smaller brewery.

The beers feed the pub estate but Peter Furness-Smith is determined to build free trade sales as well. His background is Whitbread and its Beefeater food pubs, and he spent six years as part of the management team at Morland of Abingdon, another lost regional.

"Morland closed at the same time as Morrells and Mitchells," he laughs. "I was a bit nervous of joining another brewery whose names starts with M."

He says some members of the Independent Family Brewers of Britain are too negative about PBD. "It's essential to keep brewing. Cask beer won't get back to the levels that used to fill the old McMullen brewery. Cask is a niche and we want to be in that niche. It makes sense to brew for our pubs: it would cost far more to buy in ales from other breweries."

Fergus says once a brewery closes it's soon forgotten. Even once-mighty Bass and Whitbread mean little to people these days. "I want to maintain the culture and the image of McMullen in Hertford. It's the people's local brewery and it gives our pubs a point of interest."

Peter McMullen, a cooper of Scots/Irish descent, founded the brewery in 1827. By 1891 success forced the family to invest in the site that still dominates a large area of the town. It's now a listed building and it will take time and sensitive planning before Macs can realise the worth of the site, though land surrounding it can be sold.

The new brewery cost 1 million. Fergus is fiercely patriotic and won't consider modern systems that use Continental mash mixers and lauter tuns. Head brewer Chris Evans' brewhouse is based on mash tuns, coppers and hop backs. Macs won't use hop pellets or hop oils and takes whole cone Fuggles and Goldings as its main varieties. The only modern touch comes in the shape of five small conical fermenters. There is space in the brewery for additional fermenters if demand grows. AK no longer carries the tag "mild" but it is a rare example of an amber-coloured light mild. The 3.7% beer is gently hopped and is fruity, malty and quenching, with a dry finish. Country at 4.3% is a rich malty and fruity beer but with a solid underpinning of resinous hops.

Fergus thinks AK - a name that stems from the habit of branding casks with letters to denote style and strength in Victorian times - is one of the oldest brand names in the brewing industry. He feels the company needs a third regular beer. A spring/early summer seasonal, the golden Maypole, proved popular and could join AK and Country as a permanent addition to the range.

Right: Fergus McMullen by his new mash tun. Only two of Mac's pubs don't sell cask beer. The estate includes firmly traditional locals - such as the legendary Farriers Arms in St Albans where the first permanent branch of CAMRA was formed - to the new concept Baroosh bars, which has given the company a presence in such first-time areas as Cambridge, Chelmsford, Staines and Uxbridge.

Peter Furness-Smith is at pains to stress that Macs isn't interested in youth bars. Baroosh is aimed at the affluent 25-35 market and the bars sell cask ale as well as lagers, Guinness and Erdinger German wheat beer.

But the company is not ignoring young people. Peter believes the younger generation are promiscuous drinkers who will try cask if it's served cool and clear. The brewery has invested in python systems in pub cellars, with cold water pumped through tubes linked to the beer lines. They keep cask beer cool to the point of delivery, with even the chamber of the beer engine surrounded by cold water.

There is no resting on laurels at Macs. Peter Furness-Smith was off to London to look at two possible new pubs: the company is keen to build its estate.

Meanwhile, Fergus took me on a whirlwind tour of the town. In pubs and on pavements he was greeted with cries of "Hello, Fergus". He is something of a local hero and deserves to be, the man who helped save a much-loved family brewery.