A Short History of Whitaker's Brewery
Whitaker's brewery took its name from Richard Whitaker. Richard, born in 1806, in Lancashire, moved to Yorkshire in 1848. He purchased a cottage in a part of Halifax, and in 1849 started brewing there. No doubt he provided hospitality on the premises because the cottage was eventually to be called "The Stannary Inn". I envisage this to be the equivalent of today's brew pub, but with the business existing in Richard's home. Such an arrangement, although not possible today, was allowed by the 1830 Beer Act which allowed a householder, on payment of a two guineas excise fee, to sell beer. Richard was a successful businessman and in ten years he was able purchase a nearby patch of land called the Seedlings, or Neddy Haigh's Field on which he built his new brewery. This started production in 1867 and was later to be called the "Cock 'o the North" brewery.

Richard was to die four years later but the business passed to his sons and evidently thrived because by 1889 expansion had increased the inventory to include maltings and stabling for 40 dray horses. By 1898 production exceeded 44,000 barrels per year. In 1959 Whitaker's joined the Whitbread "umbrella". This arrangement was attractive to many breweries who for some reason or other found the going difficult. Whitbread helped out on the understanding that the brewery stocked their beers. Two Whitbread directors joined the Whitaker's board with the result that Whitaker's houses immediately stocked Whitbread bottled beers, Tankard followed a few years later. This arrangement was the beginning of the end because in 1969 the Whitaker family threw in the towel with an approach to Whitbread who agreed to buy the brewery and subsequently closed it down.

The making of "Old Tom"
The recipe was supplied by David Maule, son of a former head brewer at Whitaker's brewery. A genuine source document from 1937, the recipe is an example of the brewing techniques of a bygone age. The resulting beer has similarities to Theakston's "Old Peculier" and "Marston's Owd Roger". Note the "Old" in each name. Although the recipe contains exact quantities and types of ingredients there was some difficulty in deciding how to incorporate these in our recreation. Caramel and malt extract are processed. Obviously we could not determine the original extract and colour properties of products from 1937, but had to estimate using an idea of what the beer would have been like, coupled with technical data from the time ie. specific gravities. We had also never heard of "Auscha" hops. A quick internet search revealed that this is a Czech hop growing area. As just about the only type of hop grown in this region is Saaz. That is what we used. What we have produced is a sweet, dark ruby, heavy beer, which is balanced by a generous hop bitterness. Luscious toffee notes abound in this enormously characterful winter warmer. Abv is 5.2% in the first brew.

Whitaker's XXXX
We have attempted a loose recreation of this light bitter. Information was gleaned from those who remember it. Famous in its time, this beer was very light in colour with a smooth bitterness. We have used "White Range" technology to reach the desired type, and then generously dry hopped in the cask with Goldings to increase the fresh hoppy character.

Acknowledgements to:
Philip Tordoff for first-hand tasting information.
Whitbread for permission to use Whitaker's name and graphics.